THE GRAND SCALE
Adam Fabrikant and Dan Corn are often heading into the Tetons long before most are out of their beds.
Swirling gray clouds obscure the peaks as we slide our skis across the frozen surface of Phelps Lake in Grand Teton National Park. Buried beneath several feet of snow and ice, Phelps is one of six morainal lakes that sit at the base of the Tetons, a small range with big vertical along the western edge of Wyoming. Halfway across Phelps, snow blows horizontally into my left ear, and we all instinctively reach for our hoods without breaking stride. Though the weather is ominous, our spirits are high, and we keep a steady, rhythmic pace to reach the mountains hidden above the clouds.
In the summer, it takes 45 minutes to hike around the lake on a dirt trail. On the first Wednesday in March, we skin across the ice in 20. Such shortcuts during winter are one reason why this mountain range—a quintessential symbol of American wilderness—has just in the last 20 years become known as a “skier’s range.” Though climbers unlocked its mysteries in the late 1800s and continue to flock here by the thousands in the summer, skiers have learned a secret: When fresh snow covers rock and ice, you don’t walk—you fly.
Our goal is a 2,400-vertical-foot couloir that falls through a granite tube on the north face of 11,241-foot Prospectors Mountain. The zone holds two popular ski tours: the Apocalypse and Son of Apocalypse. Because it’s our group’s first time skiing together, we’re going to ski the Son. Though this line would be the run of a lifetime for most skiers, it’s considered moderate in relation to the Apocalypse, which, first skied in 1994, usually starts with two 60-meter rappels through a narrow rock chimney.
It was only in the last decade that such big lines have risen from obscurity. As backcountry skiing exploded in popularity and resorts grew prohibitively expensive, Grand Teton National Park became a powder sanctuary. Its high peaks—dominated by the 13,776-foot Grand Teton—inspire the use of ropes and climbing equipment, but on most days all you need is a healthy set of lungs and solid avalanche awareness.
My ski partners are well acquainted with all the range has to offer. And despite the fresh snow obliterating any sign of
