Exum Mountain Guides

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5-day Peak Skiing: ??
5-day Ski Mountaineering Course: June 3-7, 2008, $990
5-day Women's Ski Mountaineering Course: ??

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Course Curriculum: The 3- and 5-day courses have a similar curriculum, but the 5-day course introduces more advanced techniques and allows more time to practice in a variety of terrain. You will learn to make your own decisions about backcountry and mountain travel. You will work on steep skiing skills, skinning, and snow climbing skills, including self arrest, ice axe use, and crampon use. You will learn about snow anchors, rock anchors, avalanche awareness and avoidance, glacier travel and crevasse rescue, and a few rope tricks to help you in and out of steeper terrain. For more exposed terrain, you will learn rope handling, rappelling, and how to belay both climbers and skiers. On a more general level, you will learn about trip planning, map reading, equipment selection, and winter camping skills.

Included in cost: The cost of the course includes technical climbing equipment, transceiver rental, Jackson Hole Aerial Tram fare, ski guiding and instruction, two porters per base camp, and evening speakers and presentations. Food and accommodations also are included in the 5-day course rate, but not for the 3-day course. *If you would prefer to arrange your own food and accommodations, subtract $500 from course cost. If you choose this option, breakfasts and dinners will still be provided to you during overnight camps.

Deposit: A $450 per person deposit, refundable until 30 days prior to your course, is required to reserve your spot.

Air and ground transportation: Air and ground transportation are not included in the cost of the course, however carpools and pick-ups usually can be arranged with other participants who have vehicles. Airport shuttles will be available to and from the Murie Ranch for $10/person. Please arrange your flights to arrive no later than 5:00pm on the evening prior to your course, and to depart no earlier than the day after your course ends.

National Park entrance fee: If you plan to drive a vehicle into Grand Teton National Park, a $10 per vehicle fee is required. The standard park entrance fee is $20, so be sure to tell the fee collector that you are climbing with Exum Mountain Guides to get the reduced rate.

Dates and times: At 6:00pm on the evening prior to each course, participants will meet for orientation, snacks, and slide show. Five-day courses meet at the Homestead Cabin at the Murie Ranch in Grand Teton Park. Meeting location for the 3-day course will be determined prior to course. On day-one of each course, we will meet at 7:45am sharp in the front of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort clock tower at Teton Village ready to ski. We have special privileges to board the tram with ski equipment, even though it is post season at the ski area. On the last day of each course, we will arrive back from the mountains in the late afternoon or early evening, and meet for a final dinner and celebration later that evening. Please check our current rates and dates for these courses.

Women's Course: This course is structured to meet the needs of women with solid skiing skills (confident on black diamond runs and able to ski most snow types, at least in survivor mode) who would like to expand their repertoire to include mountain travel skills, whether going out with a guide or on your own with friends. Your fitness level should be above average (meaning that you are an avid hiker, biker, runner, and/or skier, and are generally aerobically active at least a couple days a week). By keeping the ratios low we will be able to split into groups according to ability and interest. Some of you may already know something about roped climbing from prior experience and would like to push into higher, steeper terrain. Others may wish to stick with learning the fundamentals of snow climbing and protecting yourself in steep terrain if the need arises.

Course schedules: Click here.

Course location: The first two days of each course will be held at the out-of-bounds terrain adjacent the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. This includes easy and moderate snow slopes ideal for practicing self-arrest and the basics of snow climbing. It also includes steeper couloirs ideal for practicing skills you learn on the first day. During the 3-day course, the third day will be spent climbing and skiing a Teton peak such as Albright, Rockchuck, or Mt. St. John. During the 5-day courses, the third day will be spent hiking and skiing up into the Tetons to establish a base camp either in Garnet Canyon, Paintbrush Canyon, or at the Exum hut on the Lower Saddle at the upper end of Garnet Canyon. On the fourth and fifth days, we will climb and ski peaks, couloirs, or mountains slopes according to your group's ability level, ambitions, and snow conditions.

Prerequisites: You should enjoy and be able to control your skiing with few falls on black diamond slopes at ski areas. The ability to ski variable snow, even in "survival" mode is also important. As one of our guides puts it, "We would like you to be able to do a kickturn on 35-degree slopes, side-slip backwards and forwards, hop-turn, and stay in absolute control when the situation demands it." If you are borderline on one or two of these skills, don't sweat it...we will work on them during the course. But if you lack all of them, consider spending time one-on-one with us prior to the camp for a day or two to brush up. No climbing experience is necessary. All ages over 15 are welcome. Participants should be in good physical condition.

What to expect: You should expect to spend time in an alpine environment that can include all the natural hazards of the mountains. This is not an extreme ski course. You should not be taking it if you are interested in strictly learning how to ski steep terrain or how to stick big air. This course includes some emphasis on steep skiing, but it is meant more as a course on mountain travel: getting to beautiful slopes and attractive lines that you might not have felt comfortable accessing before. As such, you may at times travel on steep snow slopes, both climbing up and skiing down. If there is a good chance that a fall will result in injury, you will be protected with a rope.

Accommodations: Accommodations are not provided during the 3-day course. For those of you coming from out of town for the 5-day course, we are excited to offer a new package that includes food and lodging at the Murie Ranch in Grand Teton National Park. The Murie Ranch is located just outside of Moose, Wyoming in a stunning setting near the base of the Tetons. Lodging is cozy rustic. The cost for lodging, including food prepared by a professional chef, is $1,400. If you prefer to room alone, please add $150 to the total charge. Please visit www.muriecenter.org to learn more about this spectacular location. If you would prefer to arrange your own accommodations, the cost of the 5-day camp will be reduced to $900. May we suggest staying at the Alpine House Bed and Breakfast (800.753.1421) in Jackson, or the Grand Teton Climbers' Ranch, which may be open for rustic accommodations during courses in mid-to-late June. Also, check into Jackson Hole Resort Lodging at 800.443.8613 or 307.733.3990. Please call us to help you make other arrangements if needed.

Directions to the Murie Center: From Jackson and points south: Follow Highway 89/26 (Cache St.) north. Turn left at Moose Junction. From Moran and points north: Follow Hwy. 89/26 south. Turn right at Moose Junction. From Moose Junction: Proceed over the Snake River bridge and turn left on Moose-Wilson Road just past the U.S. Post Office. Take the second left onto a dirt road behind the post office. Continue straight to The Murie Center. From Teton Village: Go north on Teton Village Road (open May 1 - November 1) into Grand Teton National Park. Follow the road to a right turn immediately before the Moose Post Office. Follow to The Murie Center.

Food: Working hard in the thin mountain air burns heaps of calories, so we encourage diets higher in complex carbohydrates than you normally might eat. Food is not provided during the 3-day course. At the $1,400 rate, breakfast, lunch, and dinner are provided during the 5-day courses...including dinner during the evenings prior to and immediately after the course. Meals will be prepared by a professional chef at the Murie Center. We recommend bringing some extra snacks for quick energy between meals. In the mountains, Exum guides will prepare meals. Please let us know in advance if you have any special dietary needs. If you would prefer to arrange your own food, Exum will still provide you breakfasts and dinners during the overnight camping portions of the courses. However, you will need to arrange your meals while in civilization, as well as lunches and snacks while we are on the overnight camps. For lunches we recommend energy bars, gorp, dried fruit, candies, bagels, lunch meat, cheese, etc.

Equipment: Please click here to review equipment lists. In general, Exum supplies cooking and technical equipment and you supply your ski and camping gear. We would like you to come equipped with transceiver, shovel, ice axe, crampons, simple harness plus two locking carabiners, one double-length shoulder sling, and a belay/rappel device. We can provide you with this equipment if you prefer not to purchase it. You will need pack with a volume of at least 45 litres (3,000 cubic inches) that can carry skis and an ice axe. We encourage all participants to bring as much of their own gear as possible, both because you are more familiar with it, and you will need practice with it (ie., avalanche transceivers). Be sure to have all your equipment organized well ahead of time.

Group Size: We do our best to limit groups to three participants per guide. Occasionally there will be a four-to-one ratio. We expect to split into three to five groups designated by ability, experience, and ambition.

Weather conditions: At night expect freezing temperatures (around 20 to 30 degrees) and during the day expect temps in the 30s, 40s, or even 50s. We hope that it will be sunny, but it could also be snowing or raining. In June the weather can either feel like summer or winter, depending on its mood. Please come prepared for both. The course will proceed in almost any condition.

Aprés-ski massage: Professional massage therapists will be available at the Murie Center for additional charge. Please let us know in advance if you would like to arrange this service.

Post-course guiding: Whether you would like private instruction before or after the camp, guides are always available. Participants often stay up one extra night to ski a bigger objective one-on-one with a guide. Just call our office to make arrangements.

Instructors/guides: World Champion steep ski mountaineer and Chugach heli-ski guide Doug Coombs; renowned snowboard mountaineer and mountain guide Stephen Koch; long time Teton mountain and heli-ski guide Ron Matous; Teton ski pioneers and mountain guides Hans Johnstone, Nat Patridge, John Griber, Kevin Pusey, Wesley Bunch, Rick Wyatt, and Mark Newcomb; and Thomas Turiano, author of Teton Skiing: A History and Guide. For the women's course, the lead guide, Anna Keeling, is a Kiwi with years of guiding experience in New Zealand, Canada, Europe, and ranges throughout the Lower 48. She is a UIAGM Certified Guide, which means that along with all her years of practical experience she passed rigorous examinations in three guiding disciplines, rock, alpine, and ski. She will be working with guides Sue Muncaster-who grew up skiing in Colorado and has worked as a backcountry ski guide, ski patroller and instructor for Vail and Jackson Hole ski resorts. She has skied many Rocky Mountain peaks and 22,000-foot Mera Peak in Nepal. Other guides will include A.J. Cargill, an experienced instructor, free skier, and the first woman to tele-ski the Grand; and Naheed Hendersen, an experienced ski mountaineer and instructor who has skied in mountains as far-flung as the Altai in Central Asia. All of the instructors are eminently qualified ski mountaineers, but first and foremost they are instructors and guides. They have a unique ability to teach and convey information as well as manage risk, assess hazards, and lead you through alpine terrain.

Additional questions: For further information, please email us at exum@wyoming.com or call Exum Headquarters at 307.733.2297. Be sure to print your course schedule. Send all correspondence to: Ski and Snowboard Mountaineering Adventures, Exum Mountain Guides, PO Box 56, Moose, WY 83012.

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To get a perspective on the course from an alumnus, please click and read this article by Jim Stanford. Also, please review this article from the June 2000 issue of Outside Magazine (110K)

Can't make it to the Tetons? Salt Lake City is often an easier destination, and you can participate in our Salt Lake affiliate's three-day programs. Please click for a program offered through Exum Utah and The Alta Lodge.