We delayed our drive north from Utah by a day as some of the Diamond Dogs had reported unfavorably upon their Jan. 20-27 week in Jackson. We knew that Jackson had only 5 inches snow in the second half of January. I wasn’t overly concerned as I had skied Mineral Basin over the weekend and its east facing sectors like Silver Dipper retained winter snow.
We were pleased to find overall snow surfaces at Jackson this week better than at Alta/Snowbird over the prior weekend:
Liz and I did not get going until 10:30 so we started with the tram, which was essentially walk-on. This is partially due to Jackson retaining the ticket reservation system it instituted last year for COVID. Only season passholders are not required to reserve in advance.
We started with where we expected snow to be best on the upper half of Rendezvous Peak. Liz in Rendezvous Bowl:
It was 0F up there but sunny. I had new Gordini gloves and once I added liners they were fine all day without changing to mittens. Lower mountain temps ranged from 2F when we arrived to 10F in the afternoon. With the sun and no wind this was as comfortable as I’ve skied in this temperature range.
We skied a couple of laps on Sublette. We saw these guys near the top of Laramie Bowl.
I’ve only seen this attire before for July 4 skiing at Mammoth.
I next skied Cheyenne Bowl while Liz skied Bivouac. We left Sublette via Tensleep Bowl and Cirque to Thunder. All of these runs except the direct south facing part of Cirque had soft winter snow.
We thus thought it was worth testing the Lower Faces. Liz skied North Colter while I skied Lower Sublette Ridge. Views from there:
The Lower Faces are thoroughly mogulled but they are well spaced, usually not very deep and with soft chalky snow. There’s lots of room out there so not everyone is skiing the same line and scraping the snow down. When Liz and I met at Union Pass, it was an easy call to stay and ski a third day.
We took a short break and skied the Casper, Teton and Apres Vous areas the rest of the day. View of Rendezvous from top of the Bridger gondola:
Corbett’s is in upper right corner and Tower 3 Chute is at far left. Paintbrush and Upper Amphitheater are also in view.
Much of this side takes more direct sun than the Rendezvous side. Casper and Teton groomers were similar in snow conditions to AltaBird groomers, though most of them are wider so perhaps less scraped off in the afternoon. We skied Easy Does it and Sleeping Indian on Casper, then Kemmerer, Crag’s Run and Wide Open on Teton. Liz on Crag’s Run:
We skied Werner and St. John’s on Apres Vous. St. John’s:
The chair is direct south facing, so as expected this was the firmest snow of the day, though still not at the level we saw in Deer Valley. These runs have snowmaking, but it has not been used since the 4 foot dump during Christmas Week.
End of the day view from the base of Lower Faces at left and some new construction at far right:
We skied 25,900 vertical Wednesday.
We were pleased to find overall snow surfaces at Jackson this week better than at Alta/Snowbird over the prior weekend:
- Jackson got 1-3 inches Monday though only a trace at the base.
- Jackson was mostly dry the last two weeks of January while Utah’s dry spell has been 3 weeks so far.
- The colder temperatures at Jackson have probably preserved softer snow than in Utah. The sunnier exposure is not so relevant in January.
Liz and I did not get going until 10:30 so we started with the tram, which was essentially walk-on. This is partially due to Jackson retaining the ticket reservation system it instituted last year for COVID. Only season passholders are not required to reserve in advance.
We started with where we expected snow to be best on the upper half of Rendezvous Peak. Liz in Rendezvous Bowl:
It was 0F up there but sunny. I had new Gordini gloves and once I added liners they were fine all day without changing to mittens. Lower mountain temps ranged from 2F when we arrived to 10F in the afternoon. With the sun and no wind this was as comfortable as I’ve skied in this temperature range.
We skied a couple of laps on Sublette. We saw these guys near the top of Laramie Bowl.
I’ve only seen this attire before for July 4 skiing at Mammoth.
I next skied Cheyenne Bowl while Liz skied Bivouac. We left Sublette via Tensleep Bowl and Cirque to Thunder. All of these runs except the direct south facing part of Cirque had soft winter snow.
We thus thought it was worth testing the Lower Faces. Liz skied North Colter while I skied Lower Sublette Ridge. Views from there:
The Lower Faces are thoroughly mogulled but they are well spaced, usually not very deep and with soft chalky snow. There’s lots of room out there so not everyone is skiing the same line and scraping the snow down. When Liz and I met at Union Pass, it was an easy call to stay and ski a third day.
We took a short break and skied the Casper, Teton and Apres Vous areas the rest of the day. View of Rendezvous from top of the Bridger gondola:
Corbett’s is in upper right corner and Tower 3 Chute is at far left. Paintbrush and Upper Amphitheater are also in view.
Much of this side takes more direct sun than the Rendezvous side. Casper and Teton groomers were similar in snow conditions to AltaBird groomers, though most of them are wider so perhaps less scraped off in the afternoon. We skied Easy Does it and Sleeping Indian on Casper, then Kemmerer, Crag’s Run and Wide Open on Teton. Liz on Crag’s Run:
We skied Werner and St. John’s on Apres Vous. St. John’s:
The chair is direct south facing, so as expected this was the firmest snow of the day, though still not at the level we saw in Deer Valley. These runs have snowmaking, but it has not been used since the 4 foot dump during Christmas Week.
End of the day view from the base of Lower Faces at left and some new construction at far right:
We skied 25,900 vertical Wednesday.
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