The Skillet, The East Face, The Ford-Stettner Couloir — tick all three of those classic ski lines in a row, and you’ll claim a ridiculously high-value tour.
But one big mountain skier thinks you might not be able to do it for long.
Twenty-four-year-old Michael C Wirth and friends set out on a long-term but urgent project to experience as many big descents as possible out of “a fear of imminent last descents among these lines.” As our climate changes “rapidly,” he observes, snow disappears from many iconic ski locales.
Three of the Tetons’ most singular lines haven’t gone bare yet, though, and Wirth seizes the moment here. It’s the first installment of The Classic Flow, Wirth’s The FIFTY-like project that sees him tour the best powder the United States has to offer. The thrust: ski 31 of Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America in just one season.
Watch him kick off the fast-paced tour here.
Runtime: 24.5 minutes