Coombs guides Grand
Salt Lake City resident Romero completes
first commercial ski descent of 13,770-foot peak.
This article by Michael Pearlman
was printed in the June 9, 2004 Jackson Hole News & Guide.
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Thirty-three years after Bill Briggs succeeded in his quest to be the first to ski the Grand Teton, Exum Mountain Guide Doug Coombs has led the first commercially guided ski tour of the 13,770-foot peak. On Friday, Coombs, 44, and client Cameron Romero, 37, of Salt Lake City, successfully climbed and skied the Teton Range's highest peak.

Along with fellow Exum guide Mark Newcomb, 37, who filmed the descent, Coombs and Romero spent Thursday night at the Lower Saddle, reaching the summit at 6:30 a.m. Good snow coverage allowed the trio to ski off the true summit, though conditions were so firm during the descent that the group didn't leave any ski tracks.

"Cameron was really strong and very fit," Coombs said. "We did the climb in 3 hours, 20 minutes from the Lower Saddle, which was quick. He'd been checked out by me and he'd skied in Valdez with me. He knew how to use an ice axe well and knew how to use ropes." The team descended the south- and east-facing Ford and Chevy couloirs to the Stettner Couloir, making several rappels along the route.

As the first client to pay $1,300 for the two-day guided descent, Romero arrived in Jackson with a solid ski mountaineering and climbing resume. In addition to skiing with Coombs in Alaska, Romero had previously made descents of the Skillet Glacier on Mount Moran and the east face of Teewinot Mountain. Taking every precaution to ensure a safe descent, Romero skied a 400-foot section of the lower part of the Ford Couloir on belay, a decision Coombs made without hesitation. Exum co-owner Al Read said the practice will be standard for clients on at least some portions of the route.

"Exum belays people climbing up, and we'd certainly belay them going down," Read said. "If a person wasn't belayed and protected there wouldn't be a need for the guide. A person who does this would be belayed most of the time, in accordance with standard practices of guided mountaineering."

The descent marked the ninth time Coombs has skied the Grand Teton. The founder of Valdez Heli-ski Guides and Steep Skiing Camps worldwide, Coombs has made numerous first descents in the Chugach range of Alaska and is considered one of the most skilled ski mountaineers in the world. During the winter, he guides skiers on technically challenging routes in La Grave, France, and Verbier, Switzerland. To demonstrate to the National Park Service and his employer that the Grand could be ski guided with reasonable safety, Coombs assembled a six-page internal document of the route, complete with topographic maps, photographs and diagrams. Coombs said guiding technical ski mountaineering routes is a natural evolution of an improving clients' desire for additional challenges.

"Years ago, people just wanted to be guided up 5.6 or 5.7 routes and now they want to be guided on a 5.10. This is an extension of that," he said.

Read said Exum's guiding permit allows the company to ski guide throughout the Tetons, and guides have previously led descents of the Middle and South Tetons as well as Buck Mountain. In January, Exum informed the National Park Service they intended to guide clients on the Grand if conditions were right this spring and received no objections.

"This is going to be a rare event; We don't intend to make this something we do all the time," Read emphasized. "Conditions have to be perfect, and that in itself is something that may not happen every spring."

Romero, a ski instructor at Deer Valley who has summitted the Grand 20 times, had tried to ski the peak in an unguided attempt two years ago. He abandoned his first attempt after running into routefinding difficulties that left him atop the Petzoldt Ridge at 11 a.m.

"It's kind of difficult to find partners for something like this, so when I learned of this opportunity I wanted to continue my education," Romero said. "You have to hit the timing just right, down to the hour. Living in Park City I can't judge that. It's like harvesting French wine grapes ­ you have to pick them at just the right time." Coombs reiterated Romero's assertion that timing of the descent is the most critical element to safely skiing the route, saying that clients who choose to be guided are paying for an extensive knowledge of the route, snow conditions and the time it takes to ascend and descend exposed sections.

"I think that initial scouting is critical," Coombs said. "I went up there two days early and checked out the couloir to make sure it was in condition. He hired me for the local knowledge of date and timing and what time to be on the top. That's the most critical thing about the whole descent ­ you can't be up there at noon because of avalanche danger."

Jackson resident David Gonzales skied the east-facing Briggs route on the Grand with Coombs and Exum guide Bill Dyer on May 22, 2003, and photographed Friday's descent from the Middle Teton. He pointed out that Coombs familiarity with the Tetons and his experience guiding in Europe make him perfectly suited to guide the technically challenging descent, while the Grand is the perfect venue for pushing the envelope of guided North American ski mountaineering.

"The Grand Teton is the most historic mountain in the country in terms of climbing history and guiding history," Gonzalez said. "The Tetons are the mecca of ski mountaineering in the United States, so it's appropriate that this was done here."

Exum has a long history of pioneering ski descents of the Grand. Briggs was an Exum guide when he made the first descent on June 16, 1971, and former guide Rick Wyatt made the first free-heel descent in 1982. When Exum guide Tom Turiano, author of Teton Skiing: A History and Guide, skied the Grand in 1989 with Stephen Koch (also an Exum guide whose descent was the first on a snowboard), they were the 14th party to succeed. Since then, Turiano estimates that as many as 200 parties have successfully linked turns on the snowfields and couloirs of the crown jewel of the Tetons.

"In the last six years or so there's probably been a major upswing in attempts," Turiano said. "It concerns me a little bit that so many people are doing it, because the wet slide danger up there is really serious. I'm afraid that someone's going to go up there and there's going to be two feet of wet and heavy snow at the summit that's going to come down. I'm worried that a lot of people don't know when to turn around. If you're going to do it, use a guide."

Though Coombs anticipates guiding a second client later this week, ski descents of the Grand will never be as common as summertime ascents. With the array of skills required to ski the peak, scheduling complexities, rapidly changing snow conditions and cost as obstacles, the number of attempts that can be made in a given season are expected to be limited. For Romero, who had dreamed of skiing the Grand for 18 years, the experience evoked feelings of both euphoria and gratitude.

"I'm thankful to Exum, Al Read, Mark and Doug for allowing me the opportunity to do this and keep Exum at the cutting edge of North American mountaineering," Romero said.