tseeb
Well-known member
Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, WY 2/6-2/10/2014
Some numbers
1 -- 2 -- 12 -- 10 -- 1 (24 hour snowfall reported in inches at 6 am each day)
3 -- 2 --- 1 --- 2 --- 5 (Number of trams I rode each day)
32.5 - 29 - 27 - 29 - 28 (Vertical feet in thousands on my watch. First day it was almost 10% high. Other days were closer as it counted Gondola as 2,820 and it's 2,730)
After four days being shown some of the best of Utah in slightly below normal snowpack, I took Wed. off and rode to Jackson via Evanston, WY with Skiace. We made it from Costco in Murray to Jackson in 5 hours including a short stop in Evanston for Subway lunch for both and for beer and tequila for me. There was more snow on road than we expected for 2nd half of trip. I stayed at The Hostel, about 500 feet from the tram, while Skiace was sharing a condo with 5 friends arriving that evening.
On Thursday, after quickly setting up Mountain Collective to auto-charge when I went past my two free days, I was on the tram shortly after 9:30. I skied down Rendezvous Bowl to Laramie Bowl and went back up Sublette Ridge, then skied North Hoback to Union Pass chair. From there I went up Gondola, then Thunder chair, then used Gondola again and traversed over to Apres Vous. I took Apres Vous a couple of times, first going slightly skiers left of chair, then skiing down skiers right all the way to my room to have lunch, warmup, get more appropriately dressed and charge my phone. I took the tram again and found the Tensleep traverse and skied down to Marmot chair which I took to top of gondola. I continued my tour of the mountain by skiing a couple of runs on Sweetwater chair that I later learned had only recently opened. Both Beaver Tooth and Jackson Face had deep and soft snow with bushes poking up as you got lower. I finished my day with another tram, skiing down Lower Sublette and taking Union Pass to get back to base and The Hostel. I don't have many notes on snow conditions, but do remember that early morning temperature was below 0 and weather.com says high at JHMR that day was single digits. I did avoid many and hit a few rocks near bottom of Apres Vous and Lower Sublette.
On Friday Jackson reported two inches new, but by the time they opened another 4 inches had fallen. I bypassed the tram, which had a two tram wait all day, and gondola, which had a shorter, but still substantial line early, and started my day with three rides on Apres Vous. I skied untracked under the chair on first run, far skiers left towards still somewhat rocky Saratoga Bowl on 2nd run, then exited far skiers right to Casper chair where I skied Moran Trees and Sweetwater runs a couple of times before using gondola, Thunder and Sublette to get back close to top while avoiding tram line. After lunch, where I went back to room and took off boots to warm up my feet, I twice endured the wait, taking the 1:45 and 3:30 trams. My notes mention scary skiing by Paint Brush where I escaped being cliffed-out by straight-lining between some steep rocks. I also skied Central Chute below Rendezvous Bowl and found the Haas benches and BBQ on my last run on North Hoback.
Saturday was a big day with 12" new (probably half of it already skied previous day) and big crowds. I was not out early enough as I left The Hostel at about 8:50 and found big lines at tram, gondola and Apres Vous, where I again started my day with three lift rides. The snow was deep enough to ski very well, but was not anywhere near the 3% density snow the previous Saturday at Alta. The singles line at Apres Vous was frustrating as empty seats were going up the chair with the only employee working the line looking at hooded screen trying to match helmeted, masked and googled faces to pass images. I heard line did not go down because chair opened late and got backed up. I cut across Ski Patrol Only entrance on my second ride when I was still outside maze and saw an empty seat. I moved to high-speed Casper chair and found very light tracked snow by traversing to Moran Face, where I also saw somebody launch 12 foot high Head Rush Rock.
After skiing down Sweetwater, I met up with Skiace and snowboarding Chris at the top of Casper. We skied a lot of deep snow from Moran Face to Apres Vous. We took a Saratoga Bowl run there, then returned to the gondola where we went into restaurant there. The lower level has a decent slice of pepperoni pizza for less than $5 that I had with a can of New Belgium Ranger I had carried in my jacket. After lunch, Chris snowboarded down while Skiace and I skied down to Thunder. We were next going to go up Sublette Ridge, but it only ran from 12-2 on this stormy and windy day. That was the only closure, although some lifts including the tram opened a half hour or so late. Skiace quit after skiing down Coulter Ridge with me while I extended my day with a tram, then a gondola.
On Sunday, my roommate who was staying at The Hostel while attending Steep and Deep camp and I had signed up for a bus trip to Grand Targhee. The wind was strong when we woke up and we heard Teton Pass was closed due to avalanche, but when we called at 6:45, they said trip was on as they had an alternate route. At 7:20, we were outside the Hotel Terra next door for pickup. The wind was nearly strong enough to blown down ski racks. After sharing a breakfast burrito, I went inside the hotel where they told me trip was canceled as slides blocked both routes. I think we were lucky because, even though we missed a free powder ski demo day at Targhee, I later heard that alternate route is much longer and that Targhee had a white-out most of the day.
I took advantage of being ready to go early by booting up and being 8th in the singles line at Teewinot at about 8:45. It turned out to be a good call as Apres Vous opened earlier than other lifts including tram and gondola. The 10" new was much heavier and more wind-affected than previous day, but still skied well, especially on North side of ridges, and coverage had greatly improved with more than 2 feet new in past 4 days. I took an untracked warmup run on and near St. John's before meeting up with roommate who I took down skiers middle to right of Saratoga Bowl. He struggled a little in the heavy snow. We moved to Casper, but I dropped him on the highest traverse going there. I waited a couple of minutes, then found good untracked in Moran Woods and took Casper to Moran Face. I followed a 10-15 sidestep hike to above Head Rush Rock and found many untracked, deep turns.
I could not find or get response from text or call to roommate so I returned to Apres Vous to repeat traverse to make sure he was not down somewhere. The run to Apres was a blast crossing untracked, fairly steep and mostly untracked intermediate runs. I did not find roommate, and after asking where to report him missing at the gondola base, rode it to the top. When I called his voicemail from ski patrol office to get his last name which I knew was on his outgoing message, he answered. I skied Moran Face two more times, still getting untracked snow as me and they guy who set the sidestep track seemed to be the only ones skiing it.
My roommate and I set a time to meet in the tram to go to the top for a waffle for lunch. When I saw I was not going to make it at 1215 unless I skied the almost 4K vertical from top of Sublette in 5 minutes, I asked him to get in line at 1220-1225. I did make the line a couple of minutes late after bombing down the very narrowly groomed track on Gros Ventre, only to get a text he was at the top of the gondola. The line was past the store so when guys ahead of me were going to get a beer, I asked them to get me one. Instead of bringing me a 24 oz. Coors Light that most were buying for $4, the local knew to buy a 6-pack of Snake River Brewing Pako's IPA for $10. He gave me a can and would not accept anything for it. The guy skiing with him was brewer at Roadhouse Brewery, located about halfway between Teton Village and Jackson. My roommate ended up two trams behind me, missing one by a couple of people. I waited a while and when he texted he was on tram put, I in our orders. I got a peanut butter and bacon waffle which tastes even better than it sounds.
After not skiing for an hour and a half for me, we skied into very smooth, wind-packed, and almost always low visibility, Rendezvous Bowl. He wanted to try Bivouac, which he had expressed some concerns about doing alone. Snow was excellent as wind was carrying a lot of snow into bowl. We skied down Lower Sublette, then went up Union Pacific and gondola. He skied one of the main groomers while I was able to keep up finding powder stashes on the sides of runs and steeps. We did one more tram together getting on the 3:20 and nearly repeating earlier run with a little different finish and me ducking rope to get earlier entrance into Bivouac. I had some concerns with my roommate doing a second tram lap so late in the day, but he did well as maybe he was too tired to fight the steep terrain and had to let his skis go and relax a little. We got on Union Pass lift after 4 PM.
Sunday evening we made it to the Stagecoach in Wilson, WY at the base of Teton Pass. We took a free bus to the remote lot, which is almost to the highway and after, asking a few locals on the bus found one going to Wilson who was willing to give us a ride. Many people at the Stagecoach look and dress like cowboys and some of them may be authentic. The same band has played for 45 years and includes Bill Briggs, 1st to ski the Grand Teton, on banjo, autoharp and guitar. Some of the locals call attending the 6-10 pm show going to church. We found a ride back with some Australians who where in Jackson for a few weeks. (to be continued)
Some numbers
1 -- 2 -- 12 -- 10 -- 1 (24 hour snowfall reported in inches at 6 am each day)
3 -- 2 --- 1 --- 2 --- 5 (Number of trams I rode each day)
32.5 - 29 - 27 - 29 - 28 (Vertical feet in thousands on my watch. First day it was almost 10% high. Other days were closer as it counted Gondola as 2,820 and it's 2,730)
After four days being shown some of the best of Utah in slightly below normal snowpack, I took Wed. off and rode to Jackson via Evanston, WY with Skiace. We made it from Costco in Murray to Jackson in 5 hours including a short stop in Evanston for Subway lunch for both and for beer and tequila for me. There was more snow on road than we expected for 2nd half of trip. I stayed at The Hostel, about 500 feet from the tram, while Skiace was sharing a condo with 5 friends arriving that evening.
On Thursday, after quickly setting up Mountain Collective to auto-charge when I went past my two free days, I was on the tram shortly after 9:30. I skied down Rendezvous Bowl to Laramie Bowl and went back up Sublette Ridge, then skied North Hoback to Union Pass chair. From there I went up Gondola, then Thunder chair, then used Gondola again and traversed over to Apres Vous. I took Apres Vous a couple of times, first going slightly skiers left of chair, then skiing down skiers right all the way to my room to have lunch, warmup, get more appropriately dressed and charge my phone. I took the tram again and found the Tensleep traverse and skied down to Marmot chair which I took to top of gondola. I continued my tour of the mountain by skiing a couple of runs on Sweetwater chair that I later learned had only recently opened. Both Beaver Tooth and Jackson Face had deep and soft snow with bushes poking up as you got lower. I finished my day with another tram, skiing down Lower Sublette and taking Union Pass to get back to base and The Hostel. I don't have many notes on snow conditions, but do remember that early morning temperature was below 0 and weather.com says high at JHMR that day was single digits. I did avoid many and hit a few rocks near bottom of Apres Vous and Lower Sublette.
On Friday Jackson reported two inches new, but by the time they opened another 4 inches had fallen. I bypassed the tram, which had a two tram wait all day, and gondola, which had a shorter, but still substantial line early, and started my day with three rides on Apres Vous. I skied untracked under the chair on first run, far skiers left towards still somewhat rocky Saratoga Bowl on 2nd run, then exited far skiers right to Casper chair where I skied Moran Trees and Sweetwater runs a couple of times before using gondola, Thunder and Sublette to get back close to top while avoiding tram line. After lunch, where I went back to room and took off boots to warm up my feet, I twice endured the wait, taking the 1:45 and 3:30 trams. My notes mention scary skiing by Paint Brush where I escaped being cliffed-out by straight-lining between some steep rocks. I also skied Central Chute below Rendezvous Bowl and found the Haas benches and BBQ on my last run on North Hoback.
Saturday was a big day with 12" new (probably half of it already skied previous day) and big crowds. I was not out early enough as I left The Hostel at about 8:50 and found big lines at tram, gondola and Apres Vous, where I again started my day with three lift rides. The snow was deep enough to ski very well, but was not anywhere near the 3% density snow the previous Saturday at Alta. The singles line at Apres Vous was frustrating as empty seats were going up the chair with the only employee working the line looking at hooded screen trying to match helmeted, masked and googled faces to pass images. I heard line did not go down because chair opened late and got backed up. I cut across Ski Patrol Only entrance on my second ride when I was still outside maze and saw an empty seat. I moved to high-speed Casper chair and found very light tracked snow by traversing to Moran Face, where I also saw somebody launch 12 foot high Head Rush Rock.
After skiing down Sweetwater, I met up with Skiace and snowboarding Chris at the top of Casper. We skied a lot of deep snow from Moran Face to Apres Vous. We took a Saratoga Bowl run there, then returned to the gondola where we went into restaurant there. The lower level has a decent slice of pepperoni pizza for less than $5 that I had with a can of New Belgium Ranger I had carried in my jacket. After lunch, Chris snowboarded down while Skiace and I skied down to Thunder. We were next going to go up Sublette Ridge, but it only ran from 12-2 on this stormy and windy day. That was the only closure, although some lifts including the tram opened a half hour or so late. Skiace quit after skiing down Coulter Ridge with me while I extended my day with a tram, then a gondola.
On Sunday, my roommate who was staying at The Hostel while attending Steep and Deep camp and I had signed up for a bus trip to Grand Targhee. The wind was strong when we woke up and we heard Teton Pass was closed due to avalanche, but when we called at 6:45, they said trip was on as they had an alternate route. At 7:20, we were outside the Hotel Terra next door for pickup. The wind was nearly strong enough to blown down ski racks. After sharing a breakfast burrito, I went inside the hotel where they told me trip was canceled as slides blocked both routes. I think we were lucky because, even though we missed a free powder ski demo day at Targhee, I later heard that alternate route is much longer and that Targhee had a white-out most of the day.
I took advantage of being ready to go early by booting up and being 8th in the singles line at Teewinot at about 8:45. It turned out to be a good call as Apres Vous opened earlier than other lifts including tram and gondola. The 10" new was much heavier and more wind-affected than previous day, but still skied well, especially on North side of ridges, and coverage had greatly improved with more than 2 feet new in past 4 days. I took an untracked warmup run on and near St. John's before meeting up with roommate who I took down skiers middle to right of Saratoga Bowl. He struggled a little in the heavy snow. We moved to Casper, but I dropped him on the highest traverse going there. I waited a couple of minutes, then found good untracked in Moran Woods and took Casper to Moran Face. I followed a 10-15 sidestep hike to above Head Rush Rock and found many untracked, deep turns.
I could not find or get response from text or call to roommate so I returned to Apres Vous to repeat traverse to make sure he was not down somewhere. The run to Apres was a blast crossing untracked, fairly steep and mostly untracked intermediate runs. I did not find roommate, and after asking where to report him missing at the gondola base, rode it to the top. When I called his voicemail from ski patrol office to get his last name which I knew was on his outgoing message, he answered. I skied Moran Face two more times, still getting untracked snow as me and they guy who set the sidestep track seemed to be the only ones skiing it.
My roommate and I set a time to meet in the tram to go to the top for a waffle for lunch. When I saw I was not going to make it at 1215 unless I skied the almost 4K vertical from top of Sublette in 5 minutes, I asked him to get in line at 1220-1225. I did make the line a couple of minutes late after bombing down the very narrowly groomed track on Gros Ventre, only to get a text he was at the top of the gondola. The line was past the store so when guys ahead of me were going to get a beer, I asked them to get me one. Instead of bringing me a 24 oz. Coors Light that most were buying for $4, the local knew to buy a 6-pack of Snake River Brewing Pako's IPA for $10. He gave me a can and would not accept anything for it. The guy skiing with him was brewer at Roadhouse Brewery, located about halfway between Teton Village and Jackson. My roommate ended up two trams behind me, missing one by a couple of people. I waited a while and when he texted he was on tram put, I in our orders. I got a peanut butter and bacon waffle which tastes even better than it sounds.
After not skiing for an hour and a half for me, we skied into very smooth, wind-packed, and almost always low visibility, Rendezvous Bowl. He wanted to try Bivouac, which he had expressed some concerns about doing alone. Snow was excellent as wind was carrying a lot of snow into bowl. We skied down Lower Sublette, then went up Union Pacific and gondola. He skied one of the main groomers while I was able to keep up finding powder stashes on the sides of runs and steeps. We did one more tram together getting on the 3:20 and nearly repeating earlier run with a little different finish and me ducking rope to get earlier entrance into Bivouac. I had some concerns with my roommate doing a second tram lap so late in the day, but he did well as maybe he was too tired to fight the steep terrain and had to let his skis go and relax a little. We got on Union Pass lift after 4 PM.
Sunday evening we made it to the Stagecoach in Wilson, WY at the base of Teton Pass. We took a free bus to the remote lot, which is almost to the highway and after, asking a few locals on the bus found one going to Wilson who was willing to give us a ride. Many people at the Stagecoach look and dress like cowboys and some of them may be authentic. The same band has played for 45 years and includes Bill Briggs, 1st to ski the Grand Teton, on banjo, autoharp and guitar. Some of the locals call attending the 6-10 pm show going to church. We found a ride back with some Australians who where in Jackson for a few weeks. (to be continued)
