Stephen Koch

Dani heading into the history books!

Congratulations to Dani DeRuyter, who, on March 11, 2010, carved her way into the history books with the first descent of the Grand Teton by a female snowboarder! Dani’s wonderful accomplishment comes 39 years after Bill Briggs made his visionary first descent on skis and 21 years after my first snowboard descent in 1989. I got to know Dani last year when she was helping me with sales and marketing for my speaking presentations. And I knew right away, or at least once the snow flew and she was nowhere to be found (in the office at least), that Dani was a stoked and committed rider!

Grand Teton, showing descent lines. Yellow is Dani's line of descent (Ford to Chevy), Red is Brigg's original, East Ridge to Stettner, Green is the Otterbody Route and Pink is the Owen-Spalding.

I don’t think anyone has descended the Grand on a mono-ski! There are plenty of firsts to do out there…you just have to search a little farther these days, but they are surely still out there!

Really though, it is the individual enjoyment of ANY adventure that is worthy. One just needs to step slightly beyond their level of comfort to feel and to learn a thing or two about themselves. If that happens to be learning a new knitting “move,” trying meditation for the first time, swimming in a recently thawed lake or venturing to an unknown area to you, you are experiencing the same emotions that accompany one completing a first descent down a steep mountain face! We are all the same!

Great first person account of Dani’s adventure here.

And here for the photos!

One cool thing to note is that Dani made her snowboard descent on a splitboard (snowboard that “split’s” apart to become skis for going up and fastened together to shred on descent), a tool that is the future of backcountry snowboarding, especially when coupled with Spark R and D bindings!

Spark R&D – Splitboard Transitions from Will Ritter on Vimeo.

Demo Video of how a Splitboard and bindings work!

I am recommitting to riding hard snowboard boots this spring and am looking to make/find the ideal binding. If anyone has it dialed or has ideas, please contact me through comments below or better yet, directly at stephen (at) stephenkoch (dot) com.

I look forward to seeing you out on a tour in the Park sometime soon.

Stephen