Mount Moran // Skiing Skillet Glacier Sick and Solo

Good morning to you from the Grand Teton National Park. This mountain here is Moran and that's what I'll be skiing today. Snow is not as great as I had hoped. I thought I was timing it perfect. I thought there might be some fresh yeast, just a little bit, not enough to make it dangerous, and that it would have a refreeze. But instead there's this hard one-inch crust and then soft granular garbage underneath. To get to the Skillet Glacier and the route I'm going to ski on Moran you have to go all the way around this lake. And that's where you get the bulk of your miles, which is fine because I guess you know I do need to work on my quads. But the good news is there was snow from the parking lot so I got a bright and early start at 4 30 a.m. and I'm hoping I can do this in about 11 hours, maybe 12. Yeah, just got to get to the top of that. No big deal. When I first planned to come out here two or three days ago I had this whole 22 mile bonanza plan that was going to involve bikes, a drop bag, and all of that because according to the National Park Service the road was closed to Jenny Lake. And then as I was driving out here I hadn't thought oh you know what I should probably check the road and lo and behold it was open. I'm guessing it just barely opened. I finally made it up to the little glacier here on Moran and I believe that's the horn right there above me. This mountain has really taken a beating and the last day or two decided to flush every chute, which I think will make it safer for me. And then it did snow a little bit on top of that so that can make for nice riding. And I'm at 9,600 feet and it's just starting to refreeze. I can hear things on the southeast face kind of starting to come down and I've got just under 3,000 more feet to climb to the summit. Hoping I can safely time this but it is cooling down but it's just not cool enough. As you can tell I'm in a freaking soaked t-shirt and putting on my own wet t-shirt contest here this thing is soaked through. The summit is 2,000 feet up there. That's it right up there. Holy crap I don't know if I saw King's Peak on my legs or it was the run I did Monday. But man I'm just crawling up this hill and I have to break trail the whole way. I think that at least 3,000 feet of this descent will be awesome. The other 4,000 feet will probably be a nightmare I'll try very hard to forget. It actually looks really cool. It's the handle of the skillet. I'm close to puking for those of you who keep track of that. This is probably the most exhausted I've been in a very very very long time. I don't know if I burn myself up on the approach or if I never recover from King's Peak or this is just a really hard mountain but I am going so slow. All I have left is a thousand feet. I feel like it's going to take forever to do this last thousand feet. Well I managed to summit without puking so hooray for me. I don't think I've ever battled so hard for a summit. I can't even remember the last time I felt this crappy. Maybe the Grand Canyon. Rim to rim to rim. Well I made it up alive. Now I've got to move quickly, eat something, drink something and start skiing down because these conditions aren't getting any safer. But here we are. Mount Moran Skillet Glacier line. 12,500 feet. 6,000 feet of climbing. About eight miles overall. Oh it felt like a really big day but now I got to be careful going down because I'm all alone and there's nobody here to dig me out. I've turned my beacon on but that's just for corpse recovery. It finally happened. I puked and right now I'm in that post-vomit bliss window. I feel pretty good. It's heating up but I'm guessing that I'm overheated and a little dehydrated. Probably hard to believe but it finally happened. I just have to drop another 3,000 feet and then skin five miles back to the car but at least I'm down one of the steeper parts. I just got to keep going so I can get down to water and refill my water bottle. I just can't stop puking. I put in even a little water into my stomach. I throw it right back up. Right now I'm just puking stomach bile. I'll try and drink some water. I will be puking this up in five minutes. I guarantee it. All right I'll see you in five minutes. Well it's been a lot longer than five minutes and I've managed to keep the water down. I haven't had any more but I've also had some gummies that haven't puked so that's progress. I have this happen often enough that I know it will pass but usually I just power through until I get home and I make some top ramen and lay on the couch. I don't have a couch or top ramen right now but I'm gonna I'm gonna try and move keep going. I know where I am. This is where I reconnected with my old tracks five miles from here. Five very long miles. If I can hold down some water though I should be pretty good. Anyway a little siesta maybe helped. A little siesta on this solitary rock. I feel bad. I always record very little video when I start to feel sick. After that first puke I just went downhill fast. Probably had nine additional pukes. Luckily I kind of got a recharge when I laid on that rock. Ate some gummies and then got going. All in all 16 miles 6200 feet of vert and I made it back to the car just in time. Cooler out. Top part was awesome. Just wish I had enjoyed it more. Bottom part was mashed potatoes and what you didn't see was once I put my skins back on I was just a giant mess. Stumbling and terrain traps. Falling over. Just going about a foot you know a couple feet an hour. It was an ugly day but I got back to the car so that's good.