Blog - 2010
JANUARY
January 6, 2010:
Longtime Jackson Hole Mountain Resort ski patroller Mark (Big Wally) Wolling was caught and buried in an avalanche while doing snow control work in Cheyenne Bowl. Sadly, Wally was buried only a short time but the lack of oxygen ended up being fatal. www.jhnewsandguide.com/article.php
January 27, 2010:
Just a little excursion into Rock Springs canyon in the JH sidecountry. I'm trying out my new little toy, a Vholdr Contour HD 1080P helmet cam. It's kind of fun to play with and hopefully I'll learn to not tip my head when I'm skiing with it.
The skiing was, ummm, excellent:
January 28, 2010:
I got out for one of my favorite little tours today. Blacktail Butte is small mountain just to the east and north of the Jackson Hole airport. The butte sticks up out of the valley and offers 360-degree views of the whole JH valley.
There's nothing death-defying or super-gnar about this tour, it's just a beautiful place to visit and a fun place to ski if the conditions are good, which they were today. One other thing I like about it is that no one ever skis there, so you have this great feeling of solitude.
It was just a fun day with a few good friends under glorious sunny skies.
Pepi and Steve skinning up with the Grand Teton in the background:
Laura enjoying the sun and snow:
Laura again (cause she's such a great skier to watch):
Pepi showing he can still pour on the gas when he wants to:
Steve thinking that sunshine, soft snow, and blue skies are a fun combination:
EVERYBODY ski!
January 30, 2010:
Okay, it hasn't snowed here for about four days. All of the inbounds is pretty skied out and all the powder-hungry locals are staying home again. I sure wish those of you who say you hate groomers could have been with me this morning (on second thought, never mind). I think that skiing is just incredible.
As a demonstration of how empty our mountain gets when it hasn't snowed for a few days, check out the "lift line" in the video. That footage was taken at 9:03am on a sunny Saturday morning.
I'm still experimenting with my new Vholdr POV cam. Today I was able to go up the early gondola, so I was on the hill before anyone else was there to get in the way. The skis are 203cm Head iSG RD's, which are current World Cup Super G skis. Here's the link to the video:
Speed Skis at Jackson Hole - 1/30/2010
I still have a lot of work to do on adjusting the camera for tilt and direction and such, but it's kind of fun going through the learning process. I'll be adding more videos to this blog as they come available.
FEBRUARY
February 1, 2010:
Huge overnight snowfall of 18" of very light and fluffy powder. I was booked for a morning private ski lesson with a first-time visitor to Jackson Hole, so we were able to ride up the 8:40am aerial tram. That means we were on top of the mountain when the ski patrol opened the mountain after morning avalanche control. Our skiing was just fantastic all morning.
February 15, 2010
I'm entering a contest to win a three-day snowcat-skiing trip with the Mustang Powder cat operation in the Monashee Mountains near Chase, British Columbia. I've gone cat skiing several times in Wyoming at Jackson Hole (Togwotee Pass) and at Grand Targhee, but the trip in this contest sounds fantastic. Anyone reading this should enter the contest as well, although the entry deadline is tomorrow, Feb 16, 2010. Here's the link with the entry info: http://www.mustangpowder.com/contest.htm
Cat skiing is tremendous fun. You get all of the QUALITY of a heli-skiing trip but you don't have to worry so much about the weather. I've done a fair amount of heli skiing both in Jackson Hole with High Mountain Heli but also in Alaska at Alaska Rendezvous Lodge (here's a trip report I did on that operation). In all cases, the skiing has been spectacular, but weather can always be a problem. If it's cloudy (which it almost always is when new powder is falling), the helicopters can be grounded entirely or limited to areas of terrain that aren't as exciting as what might be available when the weather is good.
With cat skiing, you're almost never shut down because of weather. The cats can run in almost any kind of snow or poor visibility, and those are often the times when the skiing is the absolute best. So, it would be incredibly cool if I could win this trip. Here's a photo I copied from Mustang Powder's website and it just makes me drool to think of myself at the skier in that photo:
11320419.jpg)
February 16, 2010:
I spent the morning skiing with the 14-year-old son of some friends. He loves to ski off jumps of any kind and I'm trying to learn to use my Vholdr helmet video camera better. We skied all over the mountain, part of the time in some horrendous fog. It was a good time and here's some video:
hhh
February 27, 2009
Today we hiked up Four Shadows Couloir off Cody Peak, outside the ski area boundaries just to the south of the top of the Jackson Hole aerial tram. The new snow from this past Thursday is pretty much skied out, so we were looking for a little excitement by skiing the couloir.
The snow was fairly dense in the less-skied areas and nice, firm and chalky in the spots in the couloir where people had made quite a few turns in the last few days. Four Shadows is quite steep for the first several turns, generally about 48 degrees. That makes it an exhilerating destination no matter what the conditions. We hiked up the ridge toward Cody Peak and started skiing the couloir about an hour after leaving the top of the tram.
Here's what Cody Peak looks like from the top of the tram on a sunny day (which today was definitely not). Four Shadows is outlined in red:
And another shot with a bit more of a close-up. You can make out a skier midway down the left side (looking at the photo) of the couloir and another standing at the upper left corner:
In this photo, we're at the top of the entrance to the main part of the couloir poised to drop in:
And here he is lower down in the chute:
Four Shadows is one of Jackson Hole's classic out-of-bounds tours.
March 1, 2001
I got to ski a whole bunch of 2011-model Head skis today. It was a sunny and warm day at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and we skied a huge range of conditions ranging from hard, smooth groomed runs all the way through slushy moguls on the Lower Faces. I was able to ski next year's model of the Head iSL ski, which is a ski I've never had the chance to ride.
It's a very quick, precise, stable ski. It was an absolute dream in the hard moguls and on the groomers. I felt it was amazingly stable with great edge grip. The 2011 model has Head's new KERS (kinetic energy release system) that builds energy through the turn and then just slingshots you out of the tail of the turn. It was great fun.
I also skied next year's Peak 82 and Peak 88, as well as the new fat ski model, the Jerry. All of them are great skis and you should give them a try if you can find a shop that demos them.
This link: www.youtube.com/user/bobpeters91649 will take you to several videos I made that show some of the 2011-model Head skis.
March 8 2010:
No photos or movies from the last few days, but the skiing has become rather "interesting". I've skied Rock Springs canyon out of bounds the last two days and it's been pretty good. The snow is warming when the sun comes out and then freezing again when the clouds come over. Aspect and elevation are very important to how good the skiing is. Anyone visiting Jackson Hole Mountain Resort might want to consider hiring one of the backcountry ski guides to get the best possible experience.
Speaking of the guides, I stopped on my way out of Rock Springs yesterday to talk for a moment with longtime guide Dave Miller. He and his clients were gathered near the Rock Springs Yurt enjoying the day. Dave told me that in the last couple of days the guides have noticed black bear tracks in lower Rock Springs.
THAT is a first! I've never given any thought to bears while skiing out of bounds at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort during the time the ski resort has been open in the winter. Topsy-turvy weather this year.
Speaking of which, I saw several drift boats carrying anglers on the Snake River over the weekend. The reports I've heard are that the fishing is actually pretty good.
I'm sorry, but I'm just NOT willing to write off the ski season yet. It's only MARCH 8. I'm hoping for multiple big snowstorms before our area closes on April 4.
