Zand
Well-known member
After yesterday's epic day at Alta I started driving around 5 and after a quick dinner stop in Evanston, I arrived in Jackson a little before 10. The ride up route 89 is so boring that it was actually interesting. Went a lot faster than I expected. Speed limits of 70 on 2 lane roads speed up the process (and speed limit 80 on I-80 was nice too). A little snow squall on that mountain pass after you cross back into Wyoming from Idaho slowed things down for a few minutes but otherwise a nice dry ride.
Knowing Jackson missed out on the snow extravaganza that Utah got, I had a hard time wanting to get up and ski this morning. Got to the mountain around 9:15 and got on the Tram first knowing lines would build through the day. First run down Rendezvous Bowl was...bad. 3" of light powder over totally iced over bumps. Quickly figured out that it would be groomers only for a little while.
From then till 11:30 I pretty much rode every upper mountain lift, just checking out the different areas and flying around on the cruisers. Stuff over at Apres-Vous had already started to soften so I dipped into some woods but those still weren't really skiable yet. Cruised back to Casper Restaurant for an early lunch...food was terrific.
Headed back little from lunch shortly after noon...the sun was fully out at this point and all of a sudden the corn harvest was on. Spent the next 4 hours skiing pretty much everything that was skiable. Spent most of the time on Thunder and Sublette Quads. North facing stuff never really got soft, but the little bit of powder got sticky and once skied in it made everything doable. Tower 3 Chute was decent. Thunder was a bit slick. Tensleep Bowl was soft in the shadows. South facing stuff was incredibly soft and corned up. Tons of fun bump lines started popping up everywhere.
Around 3 I took probably the longest run I've ever taken. Dogface from the top of Sublette which was soft and bumpy, then jumped on a cruiser for a few hundred feet before heading down into the lower mountain bowls (not Hobacks, but can't remember the name of the ones closer to the resort). Those weren't as soft as I'd hoped they'd be, but found a few good lines and made it down. But what a run...a few feet short of 4,000 vertical and other than a quick minute on a cruiser, all bumps.
Had time for a couple more runs so hit Teewinot Face and Moran Face. I was definitely skiing horribly by the end, but it was so nice that I couldn't stop before closing.
Just an absolutely phenomenal spring day. Might have actually been a better day than 22" at Alta yesterday. Jackson is absolutely incredible. I hope to come back sometime in the next couple years midwinter to ski it with everything open but these spring days are just as terrific. The whole area is just absolutely gorgeous. Heading to Gunbarrel in a few for dinner then probably going to pass out as soon as I get back. Ready to do it all over again tomorrow. And then going to will myself through what will probably be insanity at Snowbird and Alta Monday and Tuesday. I was kind of worried I picked a bad week for a west trip based on forecasts last week but now I can't imagine a week better than this.
Knowing Jackson missed out on the snow extravaganza that Utah got, I had a hard time wanting to get up and ski this morning. Got to the mountain around 9:15 and got on the Tram first knowing lines would build through the day. First run down Rendezvous Bowl was...bad. 3" of light powder over totally iced over bumps. Quickly figured out that it would be groomers only for a little while.
From then till 11:30 I pretty much rode every upper mountain lift, just checking out the different areas and flying around on the cruisers. Stuff over at Apres-Vous had already started to soften so I dipped into some woods but those still weren't really skiable yet. Cruised back to Casper Restaurant for an early lunch...food was terrific.
Headed back little from lunch shortly after noon...the sun was fully out at this point and all of a sudden the corn harvest was on. Spent the next 4 hours skiing pretty much everything that was skiable. Spent most of the time on Thunder and Sublette Quads. North facing stuff never really got soft, but the little bit of powder got sticky and once skied in it made everything doable. Tower 3 Chute was decent. Thunder was a bit slick. Tensleep Bowl was soft in the shadows. South facing stuff was incredibly soft and corned up. Tons of fun bump lines started popping up everywhere.
Around 3 I took probably the longest run I've ever taken. Dogface from the top of Sublette which was soft and bumpy, then jumped on a cruiser for a few hundred feet before heading down into the lower mountain bowls (not Hobacks, but can't remember the name of the ones closer to the resort). Those weren't as soft as I'd hoped they'd be, but found a few good lines and made it down. But what a run...a few feet short of 4,000 vertical and other than a quick minute on a cruiser, all bumps.
Had time for a couple more runs so hit Teewinot Face and Moran Face. I was definitely skiing horribly by the end, but it was so nice that I couldn't stop before closing.
Just an absolutely phenomenal spring day. Might have actually been a better day than 22" at Alta yesterday. Jackson is absolutely incredible. I hope to come back sometime in the next couple years midwinter to ski it with everything open but these spring days are just as terrific. The whole area is just absolutely gorgeous. Heading to Gunbarrel in a few for dinner then probably going to pass out as soon as I get back. Ready to do it all over again tomorrow. And then going to will myself through what will probably be insanity at Snowbird and Alta Monday and Tuesday. I was kind of worried I picked a bad week for a west trip based on forecasts last week but now I can't imagine a week better than this.
