Shattered from getungrounded on Vimeo.

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View from below the entrance to the Black Ice Couloir, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

I climbed the Black Ice Couloir in Grand Teton National Park last week. I had a blast and it was the first moderately serious solo climb that I have done in several years. The climbing and conditions were favorable and felt moderate enough where I did not break out the rope, which I took as an added measure of safety. I could have belayed (protected myself in case of a fall…only falling 10 or 20 feet instead of 1,500…) myself with the rope or used the rope to rappel (slide down the rope off of anchors, some permanently in the rock (no bolts!) and other I could have left with the small selection of equipment I brought).

The Black Ice was gone (melted out due to lack of snow and warming of the earth) and now is back, possibly due to President Obama’s more progressive efforts to combat global warming?

The ice may hold out through the winter without sublimating out, but only time will tell. It was thin at the crux (most difficult section) but still climbable with ice axe picks in ice!

There might even be enough ice/snow next spring or summer for someone to make a snowboard or ski descent!

I shot several “Climbing Tips” videos that I will roll out over the coming days and weeks as we get fired up for ice climbing season!

Cheers,

Stephen

Once a Teton classic ice climb, the Black Ice has dwindled in recent years from a combination of rising temperatures and dwindling snow. The prolific winter of ’07/’08 coupled with fortuitous September storms had me believing an ascent would be possible.

The footage for this video was shot primarily with a VIO POV camera I mounted on my helmet. Additional footage was shot with a couple of digital cameras.

I have a long and interesting history with the Black Ice, with many ascents and the only snowboard descent that involved some belayed turns, a rappel and a whole lot of what I used to think of as “fun.”

I had attempted the Black Ice with the intent to descend it on my snowboard 2 times before finally making turns on her exceedingly steep and exposed terrain. First time was solo and the second was with the late Alex Lowe, an alpine and ice climbing mentor of mine who was truly a gifted, positive and extremely motivated alpinist. Alex died after being hit by a massive avalanche that buried him on Shishapangma while ascending the SW Face. I occasionally still tap into his positive energy.

When I climbed the Black Ice alone I knew I needed a partner for this descent. With Alex, after making the ascent of the BI with our gear, we weren’t fired up enough to attempt the descent in the current conditions – very snow covered but with a fairly gnarly crust that would have made turning in control even more difficult than turning on 50+ degree terrain with huge exposure requires.

As a consolation for our efforts we skied and snowboarded from the upper saddle to the lower saddle and decided to climb and make the second descent of the NW Ice Couloir on the Middle Teton. I had completed the premier descent earlier in the season while working at the lower saddle.

I was scared watching Alex ski the NW couloir in, if I remember correctly, his mountaineering boots. He wasn’t going to fall, but I didn’t know that for sure at the time and his slightly out of control looking turns didn’t lend confidence. I had been with people who had lost control on my first two big routes in the Tetons, the Middle and the Grand. They took falls/slides and I thought I was going to witness someone die. They didn’t and I started soloing after that. I figured I needed my mental energy to take care of myself when doing the wild mountain descents.

Went back to BI with Mark Newcomb and snowboarded much of it…that is another story all its own that I don’t have time for at the moment but look forward to sharing soon.

Black is Back! Or at least was in wild mixed scary (loose rock) alpine conditions for another moment in time. But what is our time, and the time that the Black Ice was in over the past several hundred/thousand years anyway? A moment in the scheme of time, albeit a slightly longer moment than during this scrappy ascent…

Help support StephenKoch.com with the V.I.O. POV Video Camera from Backcountry.com. This is the POV camera used to shoot most of this movie!

Cheers!