MT WOODRING SOUTH FACE 6/11/11

Mt Woodring from Rockchuck peak, south face on the left

Mt Woodring is a great 11,560 ft  underrated peak tucked away in Paintbrush Canyon. There are great lines on most aspects, as well as it’s eastern satellite peaks. Jon Lewis was in town from Bozeman for a few days and we were eager to ski a Teton peak together. After skiing the day before off the JHMR Tram, the alarm went off a 1:30 am, and we were hiking at 3 am in tennis shoes from the string lake trailhead.

Early morning transition to skinning

The snow-pack is so deep this spring/summer, we only had to  walk a mile before stashing the shoes in a tree and began skinning.

Jon in the woods

The skinning into Paintbrush is pretty mellow for the 6.5 miles to Holly Lake, at the base of the Mt Woodring.

Sunrise from Paintbrush Canyon

Approaching the South Face of Mt Woodring

We were worried about the variable weather forecast for the day, and were greeted with a 45 min snow squall at the base of the south face. We hunkered down in some trees contemplated the conditions. The snow ended and we started up the face in softening conditions.

Jon skins at the base of the south face Mt Woodring

We climbed through snow squalls and sun as the snow softened to perfect corn.

Mike Calla booting up the south face

I had skied the south face with Jim Larue 4 years ago, but not from the summit. This year there is so much snow I figured a summit descent would go.

Mike Calla on the summit of Mt Woodring

We arrived at the summit and the clouds, wind, and snow moved in again. We waited it out and began the descent in a nice window of sun.

Jon skis off the summit of Mt Woodring

There was a traverse west off the summit to a little sneak route that linked up to the south face. The skiing was pretty much perfect corn for 2700 vertical to Holly Lake.

Mike Calla skis out of the sneak route

Jon skiing the south face of Mt Woodring

Jon opens it up on the south face Mt Woodring

Jon loves the June corn on Mt Woodring

After skiing the silky smooth corn to Holly Lake we started the “out”. It took way longer to go the 5 miles “downhill” to our shoes than expected, and the trail was difficult to follow with so much snow, and no evidence of humans. We used our keen senses and finally found our shoes and started the walk out.

The walk out

Here’s  a little video that Jon shot of me on the south face. Check it out  Mt Woodring South Face