Instruction in all elements of glisse mountaineering, plus detailed intelligence on some of the world's classic routes. In the decades since, the Tetons have become the core of American ski mountaineering, but it's not because they're easy. Jagged and toothy, the Tetons' vertical walls are broken by discontinuous couloirs that in winter are best described as avalanche paths, forcing glisse mountaineers to wait for the warm days and cold nights of spring, when avalanches are more predictable and easier to avoid.
Snow conditions range from black ice to perfect corn snow to thigh-deep slush.
What's more, all descents of the Grand to date, except one, have involved treacherous rappels over rocks. Sign up for Exum Mountain Guides' five-day ski and snowboard mountaineering camp in the Tetons. The camp holds its first two days at Jackson Hole Ski Resort, where your guides ostensibly teach you steep-skiing technique. In reality, they're screening you. The goal of ski mountaineering, after all, is to not fall, a skill mastered by Exum guides like former World Extreme Skiing champion Doug Coombs and Tom Turiano, who has free-heeled more than 50 Teton peaks.