Northern Rockies/Alberta Jackson Hole 2017/2018 Season Reports

[ella_g]

@palikona -- re hiking with a 5yo -- we just did the Taggart Lake hike with a 6yo and it's perfect for kids, with beautiful views of Grand Teton. Park @ the trailhead. With teton park rd closed the hike to Jenny Lake is much longer. Great now for grownups on snowshoes or xc skis ... but if you bring your kid Id bring a backpack! If you're here now there's a bunch of xmas stuff at the resort for kids, like meet the avalanche dogs on the 30th, skiing w/ santa etc.

@Bigtinnie it's snowing almost every day so you should have lots of snow by new years. But in terms of non ski stuff, my kids are crazy about tubing & the cowboy coaster, another kid pleaser is the rec center in town which is cheap and has 2 water slides, and an adult-only hot tub from which you can watch your kids go down the water slides .. also if you're not snowmobile averse going out to granite spring hot springs is a great. There are some elk on the preserve .. but my kids are more into stalking the baby big horn sheep. There's also a cute baby bison in grand teton which is worth looking for. If you get really bored DM me we have a skating rink in our back yard courtesy of our neighbors ...

 

[Bigtinnie]

@palikona -- re hiking with a 5yo -- we just did the Taggart Lake hike with a 6yo and it's perfect for kids, with beautiful views of Grand Teton. Park @ the trailhead. With teton park rd closed the hike to Jenny Lake is much longer. Great now for grownups on snowshoes or xc skis ... but if you bring your kid Id bring a backpack! If you're here now there's a bunch of xmas stuff at the resort for kids, like meet the avalanche dogs on the 30th, skiing w/ santa etc.

@Bigtinnie it's snowing almost every day so you should have lots of snow by new years. But in terms of non ski stuff, my kids are crazy about tubing & the cowboy coaster, another kid pleaser is the rec center in town which is cheap and has 2 water slides, and an adult-only hot tub from which you can watch your kids go down the water slides .. also if you're not snowmobile averse going out to granite spring hot springs is a great. There are some elk on the preserve .. but my kids are more into stalking the baby big horn sheep. There's also a cute baby bison in grand teton which is worth looking for. If you get really bored DM me we have a skating rink in our back yard courtesy of our neighbors ...

Great suggestions.
I link my daughter to snow and ski stuff - she links me back with the elk refuge cam.
Just told her about the baby big horn sheep and bison - Stoke is off the scale for Jackson Hole at our place.
Anyway off to a world class beach today before flying out to your neck of the woods in a few days.........we in the first world are genuinely blessed.

 

[Bob Peters]

Oh, Yeah!

14" of new snow in the 24 hours ending this 6am. I'm guessing at least another 4" or 5" fell by the time the lifts closed this afternoon. Add that to the 5" we had when the lifts opened yesterday, that's nearly two feet of snow in the last three days.

My group today consisted of three generations of a family I've known for 35 years. They're all hot skiers and will happily go anywhere I feel like skiing. It was - by a considerable margin - my best day of the year so far. There's also potentially a good storm lined up for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (see below).

Today was skiing like we EXPECT at Jackson Hole (we're very spoiled). We had great powder and chopped-powder turns all over the mountain and the snow was legitimately DEEP in a few places. It is also at least starting to pile up on the Lower Faces and Hobacks. I'd say we still need at least two good storms to make that lower part good, but the poachers have started attacking that stuff in earnest and that usually means the ski patrol will soon give in and drop the ropes. Stay tuned.

Today's best turns? Grannett Woods. (It's my own name for an area that is not named on the trail map but if you do some deductive sleuthing you could probably figure it out.)

Today's worst turns? Surprise. The snow is great but there are still too many rocks to make it really fun.

WYZ012-241130-
RENDEZVOUS MOUNTAIN-TETON WY
43.59N 110.89W ELEV. 10318 FT
220 PM MST Sat Dec 23 2017

DATE Sat 12/23/17 Sun 12/24/17 Mon 12/25/17 Tue
MST 3HRLY 14 17 20 23 02 05 08 11 14 17 20 23 02 05 08 11 14 17 20 23 02 05
UTC 3HRLY 21 00 03 06 09 12 15 18 21 00 03 06 09 12 15 18 21 00 03 06 09 12

MIN/MAX -6 11 9 17 6
TEMP 1 -1 -3 -6 -6 -4 6 11 10 9 9 9 9 10 15 17 9 8 7 6 6
DEWPT -9-11-11-11-14-16 1 2 -8 -5 -2 6 6 6 13 13 4 4 4 4 3
RH 62 61 68 78 67 55 79 66 43 52 60 87 87 83 92 84 80 83 87 91 87
WIND DIR NW NW NW W W W W W W W SW W W W W W W W W SW W
WIND SPD 28 21 16 16 18 14 12 14 17 16 17 20 21 24 24 24 20 16 16 16 16
WIND GUST 43 31 21 21 25 23 24 28 33 33 35 31 23 23
CLOUDS FW SC FW FW FW FW SC BK OV OV OV OV OV OV OV OV OV OV OV OV OV
CLOUDS(%) 25 60 16 14 25 27 60 68 92 97 99 99 98 96 95 92 92 93 91 87 83
POP 12HR 20 40 90 90 80
QPF 12HR 0 0.01 0.39 0.33 0.19
SNOW 12HR T 12-24HR 8 24-36HR 7 36-48HR 4

 

[palikona]

Thanks for the Taggart Lake hike idea and the JH updates! Psyched that CO,UT and WY are getting the goods this weekend!
We'll be headed up next weekend!

 

[ella_g]

@Bigtinnie -- you kinda can't beat this guy

Your daughter will also like this, I think the link should work, click on "young bison" -- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yVLLBKuIZP3jKnj7sI6ovj-xKOyHRaDe.
In other news ... there's enough snow now that my kids are getting stuck in it. They're asking for powder skis and claiming that their friends have them (I looked around, apparently this is true) ... Everyone is psyched, u should have a great trip

 

[Bob Peters]

@Bigtinnie -- you kinda can't beat this guy
View attachment 35838
Your daughter will also like this, I think the link should work, click on "young bison" -- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yVLLBKuIZP3jKnj7sI6ovj-xKOyHRaDe.
In other news ... there's enough snow now that my kids are getting stuck in it. They're asking for powder skis and claiming that their friends have them (I looked around, apparently this is true) ... Everyone is psyched, u should have a great trip

Hi, Ella.

I'm not sure if your photo was taken along the road on the east side of the Elk Refuge. If not, the next part doesn't apply. Later in the winter, the bighorn sheep that winter on the butte just to the west of that road will often come down and actually lick the sides of cars that are stopped along the road. The theory is that they're tasting the salt that's applied to the roadways in various places around Jackson Hole (although, my vague understanding is that the Wyoming DOT does not use salt so the salt may be coming from Idaho, but who knows?).

Anyway, it's a pretty strange sensation to have wild bighorn sheep licking the side of your car.

 

[Bob Peters]

Okay, so "Oh, yeah!" just turned into "Oh, crap!".

I'm getting out of my car this morning, slip on a patch of slick pavement, catch myself on the door but feel a very pronounced "pop" in my right calf. Since I was booked to lead a group in ski school, I just assumed that it was a minor injury - mostly related to my advanced age - and went ahead and skied with my folks. After skiing all day in all kinds of terrain all over the mountain - including a hike up the Headwall - I have now come to the conclusion that my minor injury may be more substantial than I had hoped.

My right calf is extremely swollen and stiff and it hurts to walk or even put weight on it. I'd go to the orthopedist, but this feels exactly the same (although hopefully slightly less severe) as an injury I did to the other calf previously. I'm very confident it doesn't involve the Achilles and the treatment is basically staying off it, ice, and rest for awhile. I'm super bummed because I have a group the day after tomorrow and more folks starting on Tuesday. Unless this feels way better tomorrow, I'm going to have to bag out on those folks.

All of this is a long way of saying that I probably won't have first-person reports on the skiing for a little while. I'll be hearing from friends about what's good and what's not on the mountain, but I'm probably not going to be speaking from firsthand experience.

Take it from me, it sucks to get old. Shit like this never happened to me when I was young.

Best turns of the day? Far-side Cirque. "Gun" powder on Easy Does It at 4pm was a close second.

Worst turns of the day? No question. Sundance Gully. They opened it for the first time today and it mostly consisted of frozen ice spheres the size of ping pong balls. Add in flat light at the end of the day and you had a rattly yet inconsistent surface. Which you couldn't really see! Yuck.

More to come.

 

[PisteOff]

Sorry to hear about your injury Bob. Kevin and I are headed out to JH right now. Thought I'd look here and see if there was any news. They're claiming 8" fell last night. Kevin tweaked his knee and sprained his ACL a little at Targhee on Saturday so we took yesterday off. He's got it wrapped and we're going to hit a couple runs and see how he feels.

 

[cosmoliu]

Sorry to read about your injury, Bob. Your body's foibles keep getting in the way. Good luck and heal well.

 

[mdf]

Bummer. Hope you heal quickly, Bob. Do you think it is a tear in the calf muscle?

@PisteOff , fortunately the young heal quickly, Hope it resolves itself.

Good luck to you both.

 

[PisteOff]

Got on Sweetwater for a little trial run on his knee. He dropped off the traverse into the first blue run we encountered lol. Next we went up Bridger and skied amphitheater and Gros Ventre. No visibility. I went down hard. Got air off a roller landed in heavy chunder got crossed up and tested the front of my helmet. That kind of put me on defense and that just tires you out 5x faster when you ski defensively. In the handle bar having a couple beers and a bowl of chowder now.

Update: We went back up Bridger came down the same way, then back up Sweetwater and traversed over to après Vous and did a couple laps over there on Hanna, Werner, Moran. Had a really good time once I shook off that crash and got off my heels.....

 

[blah]

Planes, trains, and automobiles into Jackson sun night. And then this happened overnight


Ok, today is definitely NOT going to suck. Santa delivered on Christmas. Spent the morning getting my legs back, and then @TPJ had an afternoon free, so I booked a lesson with him. We always get after it when I'm in town and I ski with @TPJ. Lots of off-trail, trees, and bumps, lapping the thunder and sublette chairs. I'll be sleeping well tonight. Apart from a sketchy 100 yards on Bond traverse, the conditions were so fluffy, so good all day long!


Some views within the vicinity of the cirque:



Not the best shot of Jackson hole I've ever taken, but it sure is good to be back

 

[Bob Peters]

NICE!

Glad you had fun - which would be guaranteed when you're skiing with TPJ.

I love that shot from the Cirque.

Have a great time. It looks like you'll have another pretty good shot of snow on Wednesday night and Thursday.

 

[blah]

NICE!

Glad you had fun - which would be guaranteed when you're skiing with TPJ.

I love that shot from the Cirque.

Have a great time. It looks like you'll have another pretty good shot of snow on Wednesday night and Thursday.

Hope you heal up soon, @Bob Peters! On a similar note, I wish all the time I had young legs still. 19 was a good era for me. Ha!
Going on a road trip Thurs out to Big Sky. ("Twice as steep, half as deep as Jackson", as a local there told me recently). If forecasts are accurate, looking forward to some pow days in Montana, too.

 

[Alexzn]

Okay, so "Oh, yeah!" just turned into "Oh, crap!".

Heal well and heal fast, Bob!

 

[TPJ]

Bob may not be posting for a while, so I will try to jump in and keep it going a bit. I skied for the first half of the day with a pretty good skier. We were exploring off-piste and working on mogul/ tree skiing tactics doing laps off the Thunder lift. The snow was very good almost everywhere. I believe that 4" of fresh was reported. It was not as deep or as soft as it was yesterday, but the skier packed and wind buffed powder was outstanding in a very smooth consistent way. We did encounter a very few scraped off places mostly on east facing tree shots where a lot of skiers were getting funneled through the same slots. Everything north facing was soft and silent if not particarlly deep. We had really great runs on the Elephant Tree, Toilet Bowl, and Surveyors. The "worst" thing I skied was lower GV which was still very good by eastern standards. I taught an FDB lesson in the afternoon.... Conditions on Teewinot were outstanding packed powder. It was a good day to learn to ski for the first time.

 

[ella_g]

@Bob Peters hope ur starting to feel better!
The photogenic sheep is one of the ones right near the east side of the elk preserve. Were near the east entrance so walk or drive to hang w/ them pretty much every day. I thought they were being friendly but they probably just want to lick my car.
Love the mountain reports , hope you're back out there soon .....

 

[Bob Peters]

.......... I taught an FDB lesson in the afternoon.... Conditions on Teewinot were outstanding packed powder. It was a good day to learn to ski for the first time.

I absolutely love that part of your report. Teaching someone to ski for the first time - and seeing the light turn on about what an incredible sport this is - that's the tremendous reward that can be had by a ski instructor. I'm glad you (and your student) had such good conditions. Perhaps decades from now that FDB will think back on this afternoon and say to his/her friends/kids/grandkids... "and THAT was the day I learned to SKI!".

TPJ, you reminded me that today is the 50th anniversary (Whoa!) of the first day I ever skied. The memories just came flooding back.

December 26, 1967. College freshman. Ted's Ski Hill, Grimes, Iowa. 80 (as in eight-zero) vertical feel. Rental 210cm wood skis, cable bindings, leather lace-up boots, blue jeans, hunting coat, work gloves, rope tows ("expert" and beginner). I'll never forget it. It changed my life in ways that are still unfolding. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I'm bummed that I couldn't ski today on that anniversary, but I've skied so many days in the last 50 years that missing a few isn't going to hurt me.

I got pretty good news from the orthopedic doc this afternoon. My injury is a relatively serious calf muscle tear but doesn't involve any significant ligaments or tendons. The swelling is already subsiding a bit and the pain and tenderness have backed off a little also. I start PT on Thursday morning and after a week or two of that it's up to me on when I feel like getting back on the hill. Considering the alternatives, that's a great prognosis and I'm psyched.

Thanks to all of your well-wishes!

According to my wife and her friend:

Today's best turns: Cirque, Broken Branch, Riverton Bowl, Bivouac Woods.

Today's worst turns: Sundance Gully hasn't improved a great deal.

More snow in the forecast!

 

[Bob Peters]

I just remembered: they were WHITE Levis. The coolest thing possible in 1967:



That's me, of course.

 

[Bob Peters]

Not much new snow today. Rumors are that it was windy with flat light and minimal softness but since I wasn't there myself I just have to go with the flow.

LOTS of snow in the forecast. Let's hope it shows up.