Northern Rockies/Alberta TR - Grand Targhee, Mar 13-16

[Gerry Rhoades]

Easy drive from Billings yesterday, kinda windy but no big deal. Woke up this morning to Targhee's report of 11" overnight and more forecast throughout the day. I brought three skis with me, just in case, Head Strong Instinct Ti, Nordica Soul Rider and ON3P Billy Goats. I started the day on the Soul Riders and made the mistake of going up the Dreamcatcher lift. It was virtually a white-out at the top and for quite some distance down from the top. At one point I thought I was going forward only to suddenly realize I was going backward downhill. You had to stick close to the trees to maintain sanity. Once I got down to around the top of the Blackfoot lift the visabiltiy improved enough I actually felt safe linking several turns. I skied off the Blackfoot lift only today because of the poor visability. After a few runs I swapped the Soul Riders for the Billy Goats. Where I had been getting bounced around some on the Soul Riders, the Billy Goats just plowed through everything, rock solid. The sun actually came out on the lower half or so of the mountain at least twice but more clouds always moved in. There was snow on and off, sometimes pretty heavy and more than once I got a coating of ice on my goggles, They don't call it Grand Fogee for nothing. But the snow was great. After I quit today I went into Driggs and bought an Oakley google with a Prism Rose lens, it was even on sale, so I hope I'll be able to see better tomorrow. Snow started again around 4pm and snowed on and off for several hours. There will be more fresh snow for tomorrow

 

[AmyPJ]

You scored on the storm! Report back on the Prizm Rose, as I also have it for storm days and prefer it to even the Hi Yellow.

 

[Gerry Rhoades]

Day 2: Another 8" after the lifts closed yesterday. Visability was about the same, horrid. I used the new Oakley goggles all day and I do believe they helped. I felt a lot more confident at the top of the Blackfoot lift than I did yesterday. I guess a real test would have been to go out with both goggles an switch back and forth, but I wasn't very interested in doing that. I skied most of the morning off the Sacajawea lift, where the best tree skiing is at GT. It was amazing. The snow is just about perfect. I even found a large untracked area as I popped out of the trees off Shaman. Put down the first, second and third set of tracks through there. Again the Billy Goats were amazing. After lunch I swapped out the Billy Goats for the Heads to see what they, driven by me, can do in powder and trees. Getting off the Shoshone lift with two beginners, one of them caught my ski and I went down backwards, tweeked my knee. I was still able to spend about an hour skiing the trees and powder off the Shoshone lift and the skis were great, even in about 10" of powder. The clouds really came down low this afternoon and it was snowing when I left and still snowing according to the webcams. Tomorrow will be another great day.

 

[VickieH]

Sounds like you're getting paid back for having to miss part of the season. Congrats - and welcome back!

 

[Gerry Rhoades]

Day 3: Another 6" overnight. GT reports a total of 25" from the storm and a base of 107 inches. Great conditions but I may miss it entirely. The back outside of my knee hurts, right now anyway.

 

[AmyPJ]

Day 3: Another 6" overnight. GT reports a total of 25" from the storm and a base of 107 inches. Great conditions but I may miss it entirely. The back outside of my knee hurts, right now anyway.

Stretch! Stretch! See if that releases some of the tightness. I actually came off the hill after two runs today because my knee was just not having it. Some days the body just sucks! Hope it feels better for you.