My Saturday experience at Montana Snowbowl portended possibly variable conditions at Jackson but that was not the case. As I had been advised by Bob Peters, when the clear high pressure began on Friday it was accompanied by a persistent temperature inversion. In Teton Village it was close to zero F in the morning and barely got out of single digits midday. The upper mountain was more comfortable at 15-20F. At any rate this setup was ideal for snow preservation and the lower faces that Patrick and I skied in powder in 2006 were generally smooth chalk this time. There was some crunch on lower faces that faced due south, but if you traversed a bit and changed the aspect even 15-20 degrees east of south the snow surface returned to packed powder.
On Monday we took warmup runs from the Bridger gondola to Casper to Apres Vous. Warmup is perhaps a misnomer because skiing fast groomers could produce a brain freeze upon reaching the low inversion layer. Apres Vous was also an opportunity to test the south exposure on short or groomed pitches. We started easy as Liz had just a couple of days skiing restricted terrain in Vermont at New Year’s. In my case it was perhaps too much skiing as my back was still stiff from the spring bumps at Montana Snowbowl.
First tram we skied Rendezvous Bowl and Bivouac to Sublette.
Next was Bernie’s Bowl, softened some in early afternoon.
Then our first lower face, Buffalo Bowl. This is when we learned firsthand that the lower faces were in great shape with smooth chalk similar to Mammoth’s upper bowls. Moguls were moderate in size and widely spaced as there are so many skiable lines on most of these runs.
After a late lunch our final run was up the tram to the Hobacks. The Hobacks are famous and thus attract more traffic than the other lower faces. When they open up the moguls are no big deal, but the entry is tricky with deep moguls and a few exposed rocks with the below average snowpack.
18,700 vertical for our first day. This was my 5th season at Jackson and Liz’ 3rd and we both think it’s the lowest snowpack we’ve seen. This affects only some of the more technical runs which have more choke points and obstacles and a few of them aren’t open. We did the usual inspection of Corbet’s Couloir:
But I never saw anyone ski it this trip. Liz was fortunate on her first trip in 2004 to have a sideslip entry available to ski Corbet’s instead of the usual 15 feet of air.
On Monday we took warmup runs from the Bridger gondola to Casper to Apres Vous. Warmup is perhaps a misnomer because skiing fast groomers could produce a brain freeze upon reaching the low inversion layer. Apres Vous was also an opportunity to test the south exposure on short or groomed pitches. We started easy as Liz had just a couple of days skiing restricted terrain in Vermont at New Year’s. In my case it was perhaps too much skiing as my back was still stiff from the spring bumps at Montana Snowbowl.
First tram we skied Rendezvous Bowl and Bivouac to Sublette.
Next was Bernie’s Bowl, softened some in early afternoon.
Then our first lower face, Buffalo Bowl. This is when we learned firsthand that the lower faces were in great shape with smooth chalk similar to Mammoth’s upper bowls. Moguls were moderate in size and widely spaced as there are so many skiable lines on most of these runs.
After a late lunch our final run was up the tram to the Hobacks. The Hobacks are famous and thus attract more traffic than the other lower faces. When they open up the moguls are no big deal, but the entry is tricky with deep moguls and a few exposed rocks with the below average snowpack.
18,700 vertical for our first day. This was my 5th season at Jackson and Liz’ 3rd and we both think it’s the lowest snowpack we’ve seen. This affects only some of the more technical runs which have more choke points and obstacles and a few of them aren’t open. We did the usual inspection of Corbet’s Couloir:
But I never saw anyone ski it this trip. Liz was fortunate on her first trip in 2004 to have a sideslip entry available to ski Corbet’s instead of the usual 15 feet of air.