Memorial day weekend snuck up on me this year and as of Friday, I still dint know what I was going to do. My friends Lucas and Bailey were going to spend the weekend in the Tetons and their first objective was to ski Mt.St John. Backcountry skiing sounded like a ton of fun so after work I made the long haul down to Antelope Flats for a quick sleep. We didnt get up very early, 5am, which is a late start for skiing in the Tetons. Luckily for us, Holly Canyon must have the shortest approach of any ski route that I am aware of in the Tetons. We hiked up to Laurel Lake(?) in no time where I put my boots on and began skinning. Lucas and Bailey both had snowboards, neither of which were splitboards. Shortly after skinning, a super thick white out fog overtook us and I had to stop next to a boulder so I wouldnt lose my mind and go in to complete vertigo (the dark rock gave my eyes some depth and something not white to look at. After a few minutes the fog began to lift so we chased it up and off the mountain. We didnt reach the East summit, but we could have. We got to a point maybe an hour from the summit where the snow began to go to deep mashed potatoes which is not much fun to ski down. We could either get a summit, or a ski descent, but not both. We opted for the ski descent. We were able to safely trigger small wet slides the entire way down. We got to ski about 1600' from our high point to Laurel Lake. We were deemed 'crazy' by all the tourists down at the trailhead.
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| Foggy morn before the sun came up. |
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| Here comes the sun |
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| The Cathedral Group |
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| Mt.St John has the serrated ridge top with many summits. We skied on the backside that can not be seen. |
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| The hanging valley/canyon was our line. |
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| Walking up in to the soup. |
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| Our high point. The top is not far off. |
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| Forget the name or the label, this beer is delicious! |
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