Mountain Photography

by Jack Brauer

Trip Reports: Winter Camping on Table Mountain, Wyoming - January 2010

With a full moon and a partly sunny weather forecast, I decided this last Thursday to do a winter camping trip up on Table Mountain, on the west side of the Teton Range.  The hike in was grueling, having to put in a skin track all by myself up 4,000 vertical feet through deep heavy powder, with a heavy backpack.  In fact, for most of the hike I was gaining only 1,000 vertical feet per 2 hours!  Exhausted after reaching the high flat ridgeline, I set up my tent shortly after sunset and quickly fell asleep.  At 2:00am I woke up again and skinned the rest of the way up Table Mountain in the bright moonlight, enjoying a moonset and sunrise from the frigid summit with a great view of the Grand Teton.  After sunrise I rode back to my tent, crawled back into my sleeping bag, and slept most of the day before packing up and riding out of there.

Snow smothered trees and a full moon.  Photo © by Jack Brauer.
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The obligatory winter camping nighttime tent shot!  Though the temperatures were very low, the night was calm and I slept soundly with my hot water bottles in my cozy winter sleeping bag... at least until 2am when I woke up to hike up Table Mountain. Photo © by Jack Brauer.

Moonlight illuminates the Grand Teton, as seen from the summit of Table Mountain, January.  Photo © by Jack Brauer.
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Sunrise and the west side of the Grand Teton, as seen from the summit of Table Mountain, January. Photo © by Jack Brauer.
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Sunrise panorama as seen from the summit of Table Mountain, January.  From left to right are Mt. Owen, Grand Teton, Middle Teton, South Teton. Photo © by Jack Brauer.
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Sunrise alpenglow lights up the rugged peak of Mt. Moran, as seen from the summit of Table Mountain, January.  Photo © by Jack Brauer.
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