Capdistski
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2020
Last fall one of my best friends moved from NYC to Jackson, WY and at the same time the Jackson Hole ski area launched a ‘This is the Year’ ad campaign - what else did I need to book a ticket and move this iconic mountain up to a higher place on my skiing bucket list?
We arrived for a long weekend on Leap Day, a few hours away from the beginning of a 50 hour storm warning in the forecast. At the last minute I had ditched my Atomics in the ski bag and decided to rent powder skis based on the forecast. I picked them up Thursday afternoon with the help of a nice salesperson from Albany who grew up at Gore and gave me a discount as a fellow Gore skier.
I headed out on my own Friday morning as my wife doesn’t ski and my friend was working. The storm forecast had moved most of the snow into overnight on Friday, but it started snowing steadily on the mountain mid-morning making for great snow all day. I had read a local online post about skiing the mountain from looker’s right to left, and that advice was great. I headed first to the Aprez-Vous lift and warmed up on some blues, Werner and St John’s, moving next to the Teton Lift and my first black, Kemmerer. The lines were long-ish, maybe 10 min, which I was told was long for a Non holiday Friday. But it’s been only a so-so winter there and the storm forecast seemed to have everyone excited. Caspar chair was next, followed by the Marmot double and runs on Sundance, Grosventre, Lupine Way, and Amphitheatre. Some time in there I went back to the base for coffee and took the Bridger Gondola back up but even the singles line was 10-15 min so it was back to the Marmot double chair. Then Thunder chair, Laramie Bowl, Sublette chair, and Rendezvous trail back down for a late lunch. After lunch I decided that Sunday would only be more crowded so it was time for the tram. It was everything it’s supposed to be: as jammed a a rush hour NYC subway car and fast to the top. By now it was snowing harder and very windy at the top - about 50 yards visibility. But a very nice mountain host pointed me on my way, saying ‘traverse that way and when you see posts with black disks on them to your left, you’re in the middle of the bowl’. That ended up being perfect guidance - the Rendezvous Bowl was wonderful - a foot plus of fresh light powder and it really didn’t matter that I couldn’t see where I was going as the snow was so soft I felt a potential fall would be an easy soft landing. It was the best run of my trip, and eventually the trees from my previous run on the Rendezvous trail came into view and I was back in familiar territory. I went all the way to the base ending up on the Tramline trail where I felt my legs begin to give out so I called it a day.
Ironically it was the best day of my trip - 2 ft plus of snow came that night (more on the mountain) and they never opened the resort on Saturday. We had planned a day of backcountry snowmobiling that day which was epic in 3 ft of new snow but this is a ski blog…
Sunday was a great day skiing with my friend and it was clear in the morning so I could see the wonderful views. Knowing it was going to be crazy crowded after the snow and the closing the day before we hit the road from Jackson at 630 and had a nice breakfast at one of the slope side hotels. Then we got two runs in off of Aprez vous when it opened at 830 before SLAM the entire resort ended up at that lift while the rest of the mountain was closed for Avalanche work: Epic lines. Eventually things smoothed out a little but it was a challenging day. The new snow, relatively heavy all along with temps having been in high 20s/low30s through the whole storm, had sat on the mountain with no skiers on Saturday so it had settled and was very heavy. Too much for this East Coast old guy. But the groomers were great and it was fun to ski with my friend again.
Overall it was a thrill to ski this mountain, spend time with good friends, and get a full blast of deep winter which has been so missing from the east coast this year.
As long as I have a good friend living there I will be back!
We arrived for a long weekend on Leap Day, a few hours away from the beginning of a 50 hour storm warning in the forecast. At the last minute I had ditched my Atomics in the ski bag and decided to rent powder skis based on the forecast. I picked them up Thursday afternoon with the help of a nice salesperson from Albany who grew up at Gore and gave me a discount as a fellow Gore skier.
I headed out on my own Friday morning as my wife doesn’t ski and my friend was working. The storm forecast had moved most of the snow into overnight on Friday, but it started snowing steadily on the mountain mid-morning making for great snow all day. I had read a local online post about skiing the mountain from looker’s right to left, and that advice was great. I headed first to the Aprez-Vous lift and warmed up on some blues, Werner and St John’s, moving next to the Teton Lift and my first black, Kemmerer. The lines were long-ish, maybe 10 min, which I was told was long for a Non holiday Friday. But it’s been only a so-so winter there and the storm forecast seemed to have everyone excited. Caspar chair was next, followed by the Marmot double and runs on Sundance, Grosventre, Lupine Way, and Amphitheatre. Some time in there I went back to the base for coffee and took the Bridger Gondola back up but even the singles line was 10-15 min so it was back to the Marmot double chair. Then Thunder chair, Laramie Bowl, Sublette chair, and Rendezvous trail back down for a late lunch. After lunch I decided that Sunday would only be more crowded so it was time for the tram. It was everything it’s supposed to be: as jammed a a rush hour NYC subway car and fast to the top. By now it was snowing harder and very windy at the top - about 50 yards visibility. But a very nice mountain host pointed me on my way, saying ‘traverse that way and when you see posts with black disks on them to your left, you’re in the middle of the bowl’. That ended up being perfect guidance - the Rendezvous Bowl was wonderful - a foot plus of fresh light powder and it really didn’t matter that I couldn’t see where I was going as the snow was so soft I felt a potential fall would be an easy soft landing. It was the best run of my trip, and eventually the trees from my previous run on the Rendezvous trail came into view and I was back in familiar territory. I went all the way to the base ending up on the Tramline trail where I felt my legs begin to give out so I called it a day.
Ironically it was the best day of my trip - 2 ft plus of snow came that night (more on the mountain) and they never opened the resort on Saturday. We had planned a day of backcountry snowmobiling that day which was epic in 3 ft of new snow but this is a ski blog…
Sunday was a great day skiing with my friend and it was clear in the morning so I could see the wonderful views. Knowing it was going to be crazy crowded after the snow and the closing the day before we hit the road from Jackson at 630 and had a nice breakfast at one of the slope side hotels. Then we got two runs in off of Aprez vous when it opened at 830 before SLAM the entire resort ended up at that lift while the rest of the mountain was closed for Avalanche work: Epic lines. Eventually things smoothed out a little but it was a challenging day. The new snow, relatively heavy all along with temps having been in high 20s/low30s through the whole storm, had sat on the mountain with no skiers on Saturday so it had settled and was very heavy. Too much for this East Coast old guy. But the groomers were great and it was fun to ski with my friend again.
Overall it was a thrill to ski this mountain, spend time with good friends, and get a full blast of deep winter which has been so missing from the east coast this year.
As long as I have a good friend living there I will be back!
