The Sliver 🙂

A continuous high pressure system with a mix of warming and cooling settled our snowy snowpack and was a welcome present for my mind. For me, more sun means more time walkin’ and less time around lifts.
We began, warming ourselves by movement under the gentle -21 degree breeze. The difference between this brisk temperature and a strong cup of coffee is that coffee makes you empty last nights dinner, while this environment just makes you tense up… uncomfortable, yet true.

Garnet was as Garnet always has been- filled with beauty that filled me with happiness. We skinned up lucky Door Number 2 into Shadow Peak Cirque. Winter and summer, this place is a fairyland, teeming with deep springs and ancient, thriving white bark pine.

Despite the beetle kill, there are still some spectacular and healthy trees in this area that are older than cinnamon in my grandma’s cupboard.

By the time we got to the base of the Sliver, I was starting to feel sad that we only had 1000 feet to go up into beauty. The boot was a mix between corn, ice and wind crust.

The views were 100% heaven.


When we got to the top of the Sliver it was +21 degrees, and spectacular views of the Grand and the middle Teton caught my fancy. We ate some Pepperidge farm Chessmans (butter cookies that have chess icons). We blindly picked from the bag, and I picked the queen and Chris picked the King… Again reaffirming the fact that it was a 5 star day (*****). I wanted to take more pictures but a lil’ wind gusted me and I decided should put my snowboard on for the way down.. just incase another unexpected breeze blew me that way.
The way down was also an adventure.
FROM THE TOP

Chris and I yo –yoed zone to zone, stopping in good spots we remembered along the way such as Larry the little tree. When I got to the bottom, I saw four people that had waited for us to come down and began their ascent when we cleared the couloir. I’m not too good with conversations when I’m on a mix of powder and icey death crust, but they seemed like nice folk and smiled when I rode by. Christ talked to them and said they told him “congratulations.”
When we got back into the basin, we booted up the west face of Shadow peak for a wondrously powdery run down. On the boot up was some BEAUTIFUL pink rock. It made my life.

All in all, the journey existed in light and beauty. It was a nice variety of mellow skinning, ice ax and crampons, and relaxing in the sun.