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WAITING ON WINTER
WAITING ON WINTER
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If you’re reading this on Elevenate’s blog, chances are you already understand the desire to continually challenge yourself in the mountains. For me, it is always so fun to push myself on those perfect powder days, seeking larger and larger cliffs to jump off of. However, I realized it was time to seek out learning opportunities in a slightly different discipline of freeride skiing: ski mountaineering.
When you step out of your comfort zone, you can find a whole new version of yourself that you didn’t know was there. This is what my new YouTube series is all about, and our newest episode featuring Madison Rose Ostergren showcases one of the biggest days I had this season of taking that step out of my comfort zone and learning what I am capable of in the mountains.
As most winter objectives do, it started with a casual conversation over coffee and croissants in the middle of summer. Madison has always been an athlete I admired, and though we are good friends, we had never really skied together. Even though we both have the same job title — professional big mountain skier — it feels as though we are in wildly different disciplines. In my career, I’ve focused on big airs, fast and fluid skiing, and learning new tricks, doing my best at perfecting the downhill performance of freeride skiing. While Madison has made a name for herself by showcasing her incredible endurance capabilities and getting herself on top of spicy technical mountaineering summits. Not to mention, skiing down these summits with the speed and edge control that only an ex-D1 NCAA racer could manage.
I wanted a taste of that. I wanted to dip my toe into her world of mountaineering and find out if I was capable of holding my own there. I wanted to make sure I could be a savvy all-around mountain athlete, rather than just a freeride hucker with an expiration date of when my knees and back couldn’t take the big hits anymore.
We settled on a Grand Teton National Park classic: Apocalypse couloir. A 5 mile and 4,500’ vertical approach brings you to this intimidating line where local athletes cut their mountaineering teeth every year. To enter, you pay the toll of two 60 meter rappels off an always-windy mountain summit.
Your snow assessment better be spot on, and you better feel 100% confident in your steep skiing abilities because once you’re in, there’s no turning back. Here, the mountain cliché is true: You’re going to the bottom one way or another.
The 3,000’ couloir with multiple cruxes welcomes you in a cozy, protected cave with plenty of room to put your ropes away, whack the snow off your boots, and take a few deep breaths before your descent.
The first crux is leaving the safety of the cave and starting to ski. The very first section is the steepest of the couloir. It feels like you’re on a wide open fin, hanging onto the side of the mountain by your edges and it doesn’t help to know that you have 3,000 more feet to go. During this section I had to tell the voices in my head to shut it so I could focus: breath, hop turn, hop turn, breath, hop turn, hop turn, repeat until you make it down to Madison’s encouraging smiling face.
Next comes “the elevator shaft,” a section that lives up to its name. Step into this elevator and sheer vertical rock walls burst up on either side of you, hit the lobby button and start descending fast. You have a perfect lane down the middle, just wide enough to link some turns — as long as your skis aren’t over 185 cm. This was probably my favorite part of the couloir, Elevenate blog readers know there’s just something about skiing on a thin strip of snow in between two rock walls that’s so satisfying.
Exit the elevator shaft and you’ll find the couloir makes a 90 degree turn. The snow you just got used to completely changes consistency as you make it onto a brand new slope aspect.
Finally we enter “the ice bulge.” A glaciar blue waterfall frozen in motion pours over the north facing wall on your right. And of course, the couloir rolls over into one of its steepest sections yet, just as you thought you were almost done.
Luckily, the gripping steepness and the ultra tight turns are overshadowed by the beauty of the waterfall and the fact that you are almost free. It’s the perfect thing to distract you from that voice in your head that is asking why you insist on putting yourself in these terrifying situations.
After the ice waterfall it’s finally time for celebrations. Madison is still fresh with energy, I am catching my breath and looking like I just got chewed up and spat out, but I am beaming with the pride of my new descent, and Madison is giggling because she recognizes the spark of getting hooked on mountaineering.
Mountaineering is a whole different ballgame than traditional freeride skiing. In freeride, once I start moving, I can turn my brain off and trust my body to react. In mountaineering I have to keep my utmost focus on every single turn and movement I make.
There’s no feeling in the world that compares to being proud of yourself for breaking through another obstacle. I wasn’t sure how I would react in that couloir. Would I be able to stay calm and link turns? Or would I crumble and vow to never touch ropes again? Skiing down Apocalypse with confidence was not only a highlight of my season but a new beacon of where I could take my career. This one run I took with Madison Ostergren has opened up so many new objectives in the Tetons that I can now tackle with confidence.
Producing my YouTube series over the last two years has offered me opportunities to learn from my peers and create some incredible new experiences in the mountains. This year I was able to land my first double backflip with young hucker Josh Gold, go winter camping for the first time with mountain maestro Griffin Post, and get hooked on mountaineering with the most impressive ball of energy Madison Ostergren.
I hope you watch the series and enjoy learning alongside me. From producing these episodes, it feels like I found a cheat code to tricking these legends into teaching me all their secrets. I hope it encourages you to take the opportunity to learn from your peers as well.
I can’t wait for more. P.S. please subscribe.
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