yellowstone-grand canyon

My friends Beau and KT live in Cooke City MT, just outside of Yellowstone N.P. They ski a lot and they enjoy the adventure side as much as the actual slide.

They’re always ski-ming and dreaming up new outings, like the idea to ski into the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Ski to it, and then ski INTO it they said. I said yes. I said yes because it sounded very unique and interesting. I like the discovery of new things, especially when those new things are chutes to ski down.

(I shot video of the trip and most of the following images are low quality screen-grabs)

Big plans require big packs!

After every trip to Yellowstone I return with great reverence for The Park and lots of images of Bison, somehow the two are interconnected.

We found these beasts hanging out eating the grass that had been blown free of snow by the 40mph wind gusts. As sturdy and wise as they look.

We carried in heavy loads with 4 days and 3 nights of food and camping gear.

The approach from Tower Junction was long, but mellow. We followed some roads that led up to Mount Washburn. As we got close we noticed a lookout tower and joked that maybe it would be open and we could sleep inside instead of pitching our tent. The winds were cranking and as we climbed higher and closer, the idea of the man-made shelter sounded better and better.

Mount Washburn is one of the tallest peaks inside the park and it’s strategic location allows you one to see ALL OF Yellowstone Park as well as the Teton Mountains to the south and well into the Beartooth and Absaroka Ranges to the north and west!

Straight out of a bad Sci-Fi movie. And, yes…..it was open!

Apparently it was dumping in the Women’s bathroom and somebody forgot to flush.

After 13 miles and 4K feet of climbing we decided to call it a day and crash in the lookout. This was one of the coolest places I’ve ever spent the night. We were protected from the very strong wind, but it blew hard all night and our sleep was restless.

Nothing a beautiful sunrise and mate can’t cure.

We skied off of Washburn then skated, skinned and schussed over 8 miles of road to reach our destination. I won’t lie, anticipation was high. This was the big reveal!

We peeled off onto the rim for our first view. It was clear right away that there was no shortage of interesting terrain. All along the rim are intricate rock lined chutes, crazy spires, walls of yellow flakes and gullies! Some cliffed out, some dead-ended and some continued all the way to the river 1,000 feet below. The issue however, was snow. Many of the lines we inspected just didn’t have enough snow.

We visited the standard viewpoints and vistas taking it all in.

The falls.

The scenery was enough to satisfy and justify the journey, but we had hoped to ski down and touch the river. Our mood shifted a little to the bleak side, so did the weather. We slowly set up camp and adjusted our minds and attitudes to the fact that this was probably just going to be a recon mission and that we wouldn’t get much skiing in by the look of things.

There was a certain area that Beau had reconnoitered in the summer. He thought this would have the best skiable terrain, so we went to check it out. So many of the lines twisted and turned into the unknown. The only way to see if they went anywhere was to drop in and see. So we did!

KT seeing just how far we could take this chute.

The snow was really good evening corn that was refreezing. It was quite thin in places, but supportable and we were skiing into the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The thrill and absurdity of it took over and we started laughing and smiling.

Beau following after.

KT kept calling it Sci-Fi skiing and that seemed fitting.

The many teaser chutes we crossed all dead-ended, or ended in dirt. We skied down and climbed back out. After pushing further down the ridge Beau spotted a long rib that looked like it almost met the water! It was getting late, but we dropped in anyway. We skied perfect corn at dusk to within one hundred feet of the river and then booted back up.

From the YNP website-

Charles Cook explored the area in 1869, and is credited with discovering the canyon. According to Lee Whittlesey’s Yellowstone Place Names, Cook was said to have commented: “I sat there in amazement, while my companions came up, and after that, it seemed to me that it was five minutes before anyone spoke.”

Our camp was nestled in the pines just off the rim. Temps were friendly and we slept much better in the tent than we had the night before.

Bluebird was in the forecast and bluebird came through the next morning.

We found some more chutes to explore and some of them even held really good powder. However, none of them took us all the way to the water.

At first this was disappointing, but then we got over it and just had a great time skiing and exploring what we could.

Beau booting back out.

KT diving in.

C’mon in the water is fine!

The temps were rising quickly and we finished off the morning with a return to the long ridge we had skied the night before. KT edging sharply into soft corn.

The couple that slays together, stays together.

The snow was cooked by mid-day and we had explored all the potential lines. This left us with a decision to make. Should we camp again on the rim and save the 22 mile slog out for a single day? That sounded really rough, so we broke down camp and skinned back 8 miles and 2K feet to the lookout tower and crashed there for another night.

This left us with a 13 mile ski out over very moderate terrain the next morning. KT skiing along to say goodbye to old friends.

Great potential in the Grand Canyon area, but it would take a big year to fill in and perfect timing to hit it right. Awesome vision and huge thanks to Beau and KT for the invite. It’s fun to get out with highly capable and committed folks that aren’t afraid to dream big and put the work in to make dreams reality.