Although I had climbed 6 peaks in the prior summer here in the Tetons, These two were the official first step toward my Teton 11ers project.
There are many obscure/ unnamed peaks along this list which are seldom travelled. Peak 11094 is one such peak, with only 7 recorded ascents on Peakbagger. Static Peak, on the opposite hand, is one of the most visited in the park thanks to the maintained trail leading all the way to the top (fun fact: only 2 Teton eleveners have a trail to the top). For this sunny day on the first of June, the snow was in sidewalk-conditions and made for a very clean slate to free-roam, at least for most of the day.
I started at the White Grass Ranch TH around 730am, and made good time jogging along the mostly snow-free Death Canyon Trail up to the cabin crossroads. Here I took the trail North toward Static Divide. From the last switchback on this trail, right before the trail cuts due east toward Albright peak, I bushwhacked a short ways to the base of a semi-steep snow-filled gulch. I took a minute here to eat a dried mango slice and strap on my crampons. The snow was firm, but the crampons were definitely overkill. My microspikes, which exploded on a recent climb, would have been a lot nicer to have.
The gulch steepened and narrowed for about 700 feet before rounding out to the top of a beautiful basin, which I have not been able to find a name for surprisingly. It must be quite popular in the summer with the Static Peak Divide Trail running right along the eastern edge, but today I was home alone.
This basin is crowned by a cirque containing three 11ers; Peak 11094 to the east, Buck Mountain to the North, and Static Peak to the west. The plan was to link them up in one go; up Death Canyon to 11094, cross the basin to Static, descend to Timberline Lake and up to Buck, and then down Stuart’s Draw to link back at the TH. A clean loop to start the season off right. I wanted to call it the Death Canyon Trifecta, however it did not play out as intended.
Peak 11094 is likely at its best with snow cover. The mountain happens to sit on the rotten limestone side of the Tetons, juxtaposed with the stable granite cathedrals immediately across the basin. From the Southeast edge of the basin it is a moderate hike up snowfields on the southern aspect. The highpoint of the ridge is on the North end, a flat walk of about 1/2 a mile from the false summit. The ridge had impressive cornices above the steep east face, but were no problem by keeping west on the wide summit plateau. The summit itself provides a unique view of the southern Cathedral Group. The Grand, South, Wister & Veiled, Nez, and Buck are all in view.
As I mentioned earlier, this was the first of 3 peaks I was hoping to link-up. One of my greatest pleasures in peakbagging is “designing” clever/ efficient linkups of multiple peaks in “clean” loops; that meaning, they do not backtrack. In keeping with that theme, I played around on the north-end summit looking for a proper descent. My first and best option was a glissade down a funnel-bowl leading into a narrow couloir directly off the peak. The increasing amount of roller-balls and the overhanging cornices had me cautious enough to explore other possibilities, but after about 20 minutes of poking around I decided to send it into sketch. I spent no more than a minute and a half in the path of the cornice, glissading the couloir top to bottom. Not sure what I was worried about.
The snow in the basin was still firm enough that I could afford a light jog across to the base of Static Peak. The ascent of Static was uneventful, but beautiful, with Buck right in your face and Timberline Lake below (frozen right now). The descent was also a relatively uneventful glissade to the lake, however signs of a warming snowpack losing stability were becoming hard to ignore. I watched the East Face snowbowl of Buck release several unprompted sluffs as I neared the beginning of the East Ridge route. I looked to the top of the route, where a bootpack trail rose to the summit, and noticed a crown just to the left of them. I figured it was not my day.
This spring in particular has kept me on my toes more than usual. As much as I love spring snow days like these, I am not a skier, and not super well-informed about wet slides and such. The snow is usually trusty and consolidated by June, but here it seems the slip & slide party is peaking. So that leaves Buck as a standalone some other day.
bruh 