Late Jackson, Jan.19-29

[ski220]

I wanted to link some video with the TR so it's a little late but...

At Jackson Hole, if you show them your boarding pass for that day, they will give you a FREE half-day ticket. So we (myself and Bill) got up at 4A.M. to make a 6A.M. flight out of Laguardia, where we met up with our buddy Ron. It would be worth it, as we had been tracking the storm cycles for the last couple of weeks and by using frequent flyer miles we were able to book flights only 5 days out.

Day 1 - After an hours delay we landed, met up with Joe and did the team airport evacuation drill. We broke open the luggage and commenced changing into our ski gear while we drove to the mountain. The Hole had lived up to it's name when we landed, while the mountians all around were socked in. First ride - a private Gondie up, and fresh powder thru the trees of Woosly Woods down. We banged this 4 times before the lift closed.

Day 2 - Still on east coast time we were in a monstrous line at lift opening. It was a powder Sunday and every one was out. But it didn't matter as it was snowing so hard.
Every run was a powder run and it didn't really matter where you went. We kept alternating between the Thunder quad and the Sublette quad, getting separated three times. It was an all day powder feast. And we gorged ourselves. Did a North Hoback/ Cheyanne Gully trees back to the Gondy top for lunch. Ate in the deli on the bottom level. Excellent food. Can't say the same for the service.

Day 3 - Nothing gets the blood flowing like the sound of avie bombs reverberating while you are waiting for that first lift to open in the morning. Hopefully they would open up the Headwall and the Crags today. We would have to keep an eye out and be ready for when they opened up the hike at Pepi's Bench. It is a very visible route and people flock when they see others going up. The snow was really deep up here. Deepest of the trip. Legitimately waist to chest deep. Ate in the upstairs cafeteria for faster service. Booted up the Headwall right after lunch. Barf.

Day 4 - Mike was flying in today so we stayed in bounds again and skied a variety of runs and more Crags. It was still way deep and plenty to go around up there. The lodge was packed so we ate lunch in their restaurant. WOW! The food again was great and at only a couple of dollars more than the cafeteria well worth it. After lunch we all made our way over to Rock Springs for the first time. The snow pack had remained stabled through the storm cycle so the avie danger was rated Low to moderate in the backcountry. YAHOO!

 

[ski220]

Out in the Park, up on the Pass.

Day 5 & 6 - With the advent of fat skies and snowboards a place can get tracked out faster then you can say schrapledized. So it was up to the pass for some freshies. The days were cold and clear. Perfect conditions for our backcountry adventures. Our plan was to hike Glory with a route down Calverts, hang a right down through the north facing trees, then set a traverse back around the ridge to gain another shot down to the east fork of Coal Creek where we would attempt to find a snow bridge over to the run out to the west parking lot. As we had two cars now we could drop one at the bottom for the big Glory runs.
On the south side we made numerous runs hiking to anywhere between Telemark bowl and Chiveres Ridge, then heading down until you hit the run out to the old pass road parking area. As these were shorter runs we forwent the car drop routine and took turns being the shuttle bitch. We even got an official pink Shuttle Bitch truckers hat at Wilson Outdoor Sports. A cool place to hang and have a beer. If you need something even more there is a bagel shop there too! For a good lunch there is Nora's Fish Market? restaurant across the parking lot. A cool place with waitresses that know how to troll for tips and good homemade fruit cobblers for dessert.




.

 

[ski220]

Back at the Resort and Rock Springs side country.

Day 7 - I'm totally shot after 6 days of powder skiing and a lot of hiking. A lift feels good again. The Crags is closed to set up for a boarding event. We do one run up Pepi's and then straight down the Headwall. Good run, but there is far more to be had with no hiking required out in Rock Springs. The avie danger remained low to moderate. With its easy access the main runs are skied but, with just a little deviation, untouched fields of powder still lay awaiting us.

Day 8 - Are Mike and Joe going to be able to take off? We don't care. It's dumping like stink again and Bill, Ron and I have already rescheduled our flights to Tuesday. Another advantage with using frequent flyer points is that the rebooking fees are like $20 rather then the $100 - $200 the airlines otherwise will charge. The visibility in upper Rock Springs is horrendous. It is hard to keep each other in sight as we make our way down. The powder is deep, soft and plentiful though and we keep making the long trek back.

Day 9 - It's still snowing and we are still skiing, barely. Supplies are running low.

Day 10 - It's snowing very hard and there is a wind in the air. I'm anxious to ski some runs as this is supposed to be a wicked storm. Up the Gondie and over to Thunder. We are on one of the first chairs. Excitement. This is going to be good. What you hope, dream and wait for. Rising up over the ridge the wind picks up, the chair stops for a while right before the ramp and then it goes again. We're off and down through the powder back to the base of Thunder. It is snowing harder now then I've ever possibly seen. There are not many people in the corral but the line is not moving very fast. The reason becomes apparent - load one, shut down. Restart, load one, shut down. It's really pukin' now and the wind is nukin' as well. We decide to bail and head to a lower lift. The Gondie or maybe Apres Vous. Natures against us today though and by the time we get down they are in the process of shutting the entire mountain down. The winds are gale force now at the base. Eventually we make the decision to ride out the storm in our car. As we sit in the parking lot, the car is shaking violently and walls of white snow and ice buffet the car. Intense to say the least. After a couple of hours the storm abates so we went up and had lunch and waited to see if the mountain could somehow reopen. People were coming down now that had taken refuge in the Casper lodge. Some came down that were plastered in white and had a crazed demeanor like they had just came back from battle. These people told horror stories of being rescued off Thunder and digging snow caves in the slopes to hide from the storm. Others told of trees down around the mountain and other destruction. Later we learned of winds in excess of 100mph being recorded.
Miraculously the Resort got the Apre Vous chair up and running sometime after 2pm. Saratoga bowl was fun and challenging with great rock drops and wind buffed snow. Here and there were isolated pockets of soft.

All in all it was a kick *ss trip. Certainly kicked my *ss.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Nice report..I was there the exact same time as you..

 

[ski220]

Nice report..I was there the exact same time as you..

Yeah. It was a killer week and a half wasn't it. I reread your report. It was interesting to see where you spent Monday morning during the storm. While you blew out of there we hung around and had lunch and skied when they reopened Apres Vous. Met some people that had gotten stuck on the Thunder quad. Said the chair was vertical in the wind and they were hanging on. Another dude came down looking like he had been hit with a snow gun. Said he had dug a hole.

Wish we had made it over to Targhee Tuesday but had to hook up with our buddy Mike who was flying in.

Hope the videos brought back some good memories.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Yeah. It was a killer week and a half wasn't it. I reread your report. It was interesting to see where you spent Monday morning during the storm. While you blew out of there we hung around and had lunch and skied when they reopened Apres Vous. Met some people that had gotten stuck on the Thunder quad. Said the chair was vertical in the wind and they were hanging on. Another dude came down looking like he had been hit with a snow gun. Said he had dug a hole.

Wish we had made it over to Targhee Tuesday but had to hook up with our buddy Mike who was flying in.

Hope the videos brought back some good memories.

Well the day of the Blizzard...I skied two laps off AV and one off the Gondoobie..I had a beer and a bloody mary at the Mangy Moose..then went to the Alpenhaus for two more beers, soup bread cheese sausage..boarded the town bus to Snow King..skied 4 runs at Snow King including my last one right into town..a very memorable ski day fo shizzle.