August, 2022: It's all about the Wildflowers

Dawn on Teton Pass

The snowpack in the Tetons is a bit thin by August. But these summer skis have become some of my favorite trips of the year, as long as I temper my expectations and concentrate more on having a fun adventure rather than a good ski. And if the skiing is good for some reason, it's icing on the cake.

The skiing on this day truly truly sucked. But the cake was still one of the best I've had in years.

I've grown accustomed to making these summer excursions alone, so I was pleasantly surprised when friend and local celebrity Jim Stanford agreed to join me. For my 262nd month I opted to ski north facing snowfields in the South Fork of Avalanche Canyon, but accessed via the long but well-maintained trail up Teton Canyon. After several miles of canyon-bottom hiking, we reached Alaska Basin and were treated to perhaps the best display of wildflowers I've ever seen.

We took a small detour to Sunset Lake where I donned a wetsuit and went for a quick alpine swim. Although the lake was very shallow (I could touch the bottom in most places), the water was frigid and my extremities were quickly numbed. I cut the swim short as it was fairly uncomfortable, even with the wetsuit. After this detour, Jim and I made our way to the head of Alaska Basin.

Six and a half hours and 12 miles after leaving the trailhead, I reached the divide between Alaska Basin and Avalanche Canyon. Jim, along for the hiking and wildflowers but not the skiing, had wisely opted to linger in Alaska Basin. I had been up here in August before and found close to 1,000 vertical feet of smooth skiing spilling into Avalanche Canyon. I was surprised this trip to find dirt and rock-strewn sun cupped snow on two 400-foot snowfields, separated by about 200 feet of rocks and mud. With the exception of two fun, steep and clean turns at the top, the skiing was just plain awful.

As I neared the bottom of the second snowfield, several rocks peeled off the North Face of Buck Mountain and bounced across the snowfield. (The day before had been very rainy which perhaps exacerbated the rockfall.)

My plan was to climb back up the snowfields so I could exit via Alaska Basin, but I quickly decided I wouldn't be comfortable spending an hour ascending the snowfields directly under the cliffs and in the path of potential rock fall.

Instead, I linked a few small snowfields down to the floor of the canyon, where I could ascend an alternate route far from any shedding cliffs.

The detour made me about 40 minutes late for the planned rendezvous with Jim at Mirror Lake, but of course I still had to stop and take more pictures of the wildflowers.

Following Jim's recommendation, I took a quick swim in Mirror Lake, which was surprisingly significantly warmer (or less cold) than Sunset Lake despite a similar elevation and deeper waters.

While I ate a late lunch Jim started down the trail, as we still had about eight miles to hike. Minutes below the lake I came to a field and saw Jim on the far end, looking down-valley. A good-sized black bear was running in Jim's general direction, though not directly at him. I yelled to warn him but succeeded only in spooking the bear. The bear adjusted his path away from me so that now he was running straight for Jim. Jim turned around to see the bear fast approaching and yelled, "BEAT IT!!!" The bear spun around and ran back in the direction from where he had come. Despite my shaking hands, I was able to shoot a blurry shot of the bear running away.

We descended the remainder of the trail without further incident, although I received a much-needed boost from a friendly Teton Valley couple on horseback who offered us fruit and alcohol. I opted for a combination of both, taking a hard mango kombucha and nursing it most of the remaining three miles to the trailhead.

We arrived at the trailhead 13.5 hours and just under 24 miles after setting out. It was a wonderful day, and I am grateful for the company, the wildflowers, and the fact that I was able to make August turns, no matter how crappy they were.