Every skier, snowboarder, and hiker has that one mountain they have been drooling over to scratch off their checklist. For Bill Briggs, that mountain was the Grand Teton in Wyoming — and on June 16, 1971, he achieved the first ski descent of the Grand Teton, becoming the most celebrated figure in American ski mountaineering history. This peak reaches nearly 14,000 feet in elevation and is considered exposed and dangerous.
The First Ski Descent of the Grand Teton: What It Actually Took
For Briggs, his descent was not only a remarkable personal achievement, it is also considered “a groundbreaking ski-mountaineering event in the U.S.” For Briggs to ride out this line successfully he was required to climb ice on his 7,500-foot ascent, rappel down mandatory cliff faces, and ski through tight no-fall-zone areas. Briggs was 39 years old at the time, a Dartmouth dropout turned Exum Mountain Guide who had spent years studying the Grand’s route on climbs with clients, treating every guided ascent as reconnaissance. Briggs descended what is now known as the Briggs Route: down the east face, through the narrows of the Stettner Couloir, and out across the Teepe Glacier to the valley floor. The mountain offers no clean line from summit to base. It is a series of hanging snowfields and cliff bands that have to be pieced together, one committed section at a time.
He carried a pair of 210cm K2 Elite skis up the mountain; long, soft fiberglass planks that he had modified by gluing damping strips to the bases to stop them chattering on hard crust. In 1971, they were considered adaptable enough for varied conditions. What varied conditions meant on the Stettner Couloir was another matter entirely.
Nobody believed him. Back in the valley, Briggs told locals what he had done and was met with polite skepticism. “I came back and said, ‘I skied the Grand yesterday,’” he recalled years later, “and people said, ‘uh huh.’” He drove to the Jackson airport, where the upper face of the Grand is visible, and spotted his tracks through binoculars. A photographer from the Jackson Hole News was dispatched. The resulting aerial image above, his turns tracing a clean line down the east face, became proof, and eventually one of the defining photographs of American ski mountaineering.
Frequently referred to as the Father of Extreme Skiing, Briggs has been an enormous influence on the world of mountaineering and backcountry skiing communities. In addition to the Grand, Briggs was also the first to ski down other mountains in Grand Teton National Park and even led a 100-mile traverse through the mountains of Canada.
The Greatest Ski Instructor You’ve Never Heard Of
Even though Briggs is most commonly known for his bold first descents and pioneering of the sport, he has also made a name for himself on the bunny hill. Since he purchased the Snow King ski school in 1967, Briggs has dedicated his time to becoming the father of ski lessons and ensuring that anyone can learn to ride. Bill has been praised for being one of the greatest ski instructors. According to a profile in the Jackson Hole News & Guide:
- “He’s like an English professor giving a lecture, explaining theory with laser-like precision and demonstrating how to execute skills properly”
- “His lessons are peppered with references to ski pioneers from the birth of the sport, mountaineers and racers, European and American”
- “He’s always patient. No matter how much you screw up, he’ll say, ‘That part was good’”
Bill Briggs has an unparalleled list of accomplishments in skiing, yet his most celebrated will always be that he was the first skier to ride down the Grand Teton. On the fiftieth anniversary of the feat, Stagecoach Bar in Wilson, Wyoming, celebrated with a party and reminded the mountaineering and skiing communities that legends are never forgotten. Fittingly, the Stagecoach Bar has been Briggs’ second home for over five decades; he founded the Stagecoach Band, which has played country and bluegrass there every Sunday since 1969, making it the same stage where, 50 years after his descent, Jackson raised a glass to the man who started it all.
