Birthday Boy off to Ski Gannett Peak Routes

Excessive frosting is a good thing!

How I’m spending my birthday today.

• Wake up at 3:30 am.
• Put finishing touches on backpack and make quad, Cafe Rando.
• 4:30, drive 2.5 hours to Crowheart, WY.
• Hook up with Jeramie Prine (and friends) from Lander.
• Pay an exorberant amount of money to access a trailhead on reservation land.
• Get driven to the Cold Springs Trailhead at about 9500′.
• Hike/Ski 12 miles over Scenic Pass and into the Dinwoody Creek drainage.
• Set up camp for 4 days of skiing on and around Gannett Peak.
• Pray for good weather.

Gannett Peak from the southeast.

To tell you the truth…I wish the weather looked better for this adventure. The lure of skiing Gannett Peak and more Wind River exploration is too strong for me to resist though and I’m hoping for the best. I haven’t skied Gannett yet, so it’s high on my tick list. I tried once…and got sidetracked. Mike Calla did a guest post here last year about a successful descent of the North Face via Titcomb Basin.

Gannett Peak from the north.

There’s a few ski routes off the summit of Gannett and I’d be happy to just score one fo them on this trip. If the weather is good…maybe we can get more that one. The easiest descent is the Gooseneck Couloir Route which heads south off the summit and then cuts left down a couloir and then on to the Gooseneck Glacier. The North Face is a bit steeper and cuts through a cliff band on it’s way to Gannett Glacier. It’s about a three miles and nearly 4000′ up both of these routes from camp at the far western end of Wilson Meadows.

Gannett Peak from the west.

A couple more spicy lines lie on the West Face of Gannett and were both descended in 1992. John Griber rode the West Couloir and Stephen Koch hit the more nasty line on the south end of the West Face. Obviously, the area we will be in has many opportunities for skiing and it would be fun to tag some other lines as well.

Well…gotta go. See you next week! Ciao…Steve