Jackson, Wyoming local Lynsey Dryer has traveled far from her roots in the Sun Valley race program to become one of skiing’s most respected and inspiring female athletes. With bold, beautiful lines captured on film and in print she has earned widespread respect and recognition that culminated with Powder Magazine’s Female Skier of the Year award in 2010. Off the hill, Lynsey has also exhibited a creative side using her artistic talents to design graphic artwork for First Ascent and land one of her photographs in National Geographic Magazine. Tetongravity.com caught up with Lynsey to talk about her recent trips, current segments and geopolitical stories in between international flights to thrilling locations.
What was that Experience Like Skiing in the Gulmarg Region?
We got a couple of runs at 5,000 meters and they were first descents, which was really run. We named a run Uncle Eddie (after Eddie Bauer), which was a treat. It is just completely untouched there. Any run in the past they have had to hike to it and this was the first year they have allowed helicopters out there so the possibilities were just endless.
Do They Have Anything Like the Concept of Heli Tenure in India?
Well, you’re not supposed to go into Pakistan but the border is so foggy that we definitely ventured over. We actually peed in Pakistan and that was a highlight.
I mean, what a crazy opportunity, right? To go on a trip where you have five days to try and get good ski footage is difficult, right? And we had one sunny day with safe conditions and it was an epic day, a day that none of us will forget.
And then ending up skiing at 5,000 meters… the only way we would know how high we were getting was the pilot would put on oxygen mask and that we how we knew it was high. We asked, “where is ours?” and he replied, “get out.”
Rainier Mountaineering, Inc. guide, former Crystal Mountain patroller and serious ski moutaineer Seth Waterfall spends his workdays guiding clients up massive alpine peaks in the world’s highest ranges. But on his days off, Waterfall sets his sights on deep overhead days or big vertical lines such as the first and unrepeatable ski descent of Nisqually Ice Cliff on 14,411-foot Mount Rainier. Tetongravity.com caught up with Waterfall between guiding seasons for his recap on no-fall conditions, serious rockfall and skiing some of the world’s biggest lines.
Teton Gravity Research: Describe the Ice Cliff Line You Skied on Mt Rainier Last Spring?
Seth Waterfall: There is a feature on the mountain called Nisqually Ice Cliff and it’s part of where the Nisqually Glacier comes off the summit and runs south and actually runs around this rock ridge. As you are descending the left side drops off a huge rock cliff so with the ice and the rock it’s probably a good 1,000-foot tall cliff. But last year with all the snow from La Nina, it’s the first time I’ve ever seen it, but there was a strip of snow that ran continuous between the rock ridge and the ice cliff.
If you skied down above the ice cliff, you could get over into this snow strip and ski down that. So two friends of mine, Tyler Jones and Andy Bond who both work at RMI with me, on April 21 we decided to go up to Camp Muir. We actually had another route in mind but this was our back-up plan.
TGR: Why Did You Pick That Line?
SW: There are just a few routes on Rainier that haven’t been skied down. A lot of them are what people used to think of as really steep ice climbs, but now people are kiing dwon them-which is one of the coolest things about living in the Northwest, that you can ski down people’s favorite ice climbs.
So we went up to Muir in a storm, but we had a good forecast so we went to Camp Muir woke up in the morning and had blue skies. We headed out from Camp Muir, which is at least 10,000 feet elevation and went up to the summit in about 3 1/2 hours and investigated our line on the west side of the mountain that we wanted to ski. But we found lots of rim ice and water ice and not good snow. So we came back and decided to give the Ice Cliff a try, since no one had ever skied that, we believed.
It went pretty straightforward, we were able to locate the entrance, ski down and the skiing was really exposed but not terribly steep-maybe 45 degrees and one small pitch of 50 degrees. But it was really firm so it was definitely heads-up skiing, no hip checking or anything like that. We skied it in about 10 small pitches then just a little jump over the bergshrund. Actually, the trickiest part was weaving through the crevasses below the route and trying to get out of the Nisqually Glacier and onto the Muir snowfield.
