Mood:
celebratoryTopic: shred report
New Snow: 6"
Conditions: powder
It's funny how the weather plays tricks on you sometimes. Last night, a foot of snow fell on Grand Targhee Resort. 20 miles away, on the other side of Teton Pass, not a single flake fell in the town of Jackson. Odd but true. So on Christmas morning, I packed all my gear into my car and made the trek to the other side, through Idaho and back into Wyoming, and up the steep access road to Targhee. I paused to breathe in the view as I approached the snow covered mountain.
The mountain wasn't deserted, but it certainly wasn't busy. I affixed my lift ticket and hopped onto Dreamcatcher lift. I saw a lot of tracks, but I also saw a lot of powder in between the tracks.
I've been to "The Ghee" a few times before, so I knew where I could find some less beaten paths. For starters, Sacajawea lift had just opened, so my plan was to head there. I traversed in that general direction, dropping off as soon as I saw some powdery fields. I cut down a run called Lightning Trees and floated through the deep snow. I stopped to catch my breath and sneak out my camera.
After a fantastic powder run, I found myself on a very flat traverse. On the left side of the trail I saw signs that said Sacajawea was open, but I didn't see any sort of pitch to the slope so I was wary of dropping off the traverse into a deep but flat field of powder. I stayed on the traverse until I reached the base area, where I came to a junction. I turned left and followed another traverse over to Sacajawea lift. I hopped right on the lift, since there was no line whatsoever, and headed up Peaked Mountain.
The snow wasn't quite as tracked here, and I took several runs through the trees and powder fields skiers' left of the lift. Although the cover was a little thinner than on dreamweaver, the snow was fresher. There were times when I just straightlined it, leaning back on my board to float across the snow. I'm used to skiing steep pitches (one of the hazards of being a Jackson local) and I'm also used to skiing tight trees, so the wide open trails made me feel as though I needed to retain as much speed as possible. There were definitely a few areas that were a bit sketchier, and I carefully picked my way through those, uncovering a few rocks and tree stumps without doing any serious damage to the base of my board.
I decided to take the high road (Showdancer) and hit Medicine Bowl. It looked tracked, but I could see lines between the tracks, and the snow looked nice. The trail flattened out and I maintained my speed to make it all the way up to the top of the ridge. I kept looking for a nice, steep pitch to carve down, but it all looked blue square (intermediate) to me. Finally, I selected a nice line with lots of powder that was over way too quickly. I decided it was too much groomed trail for not enough bowl, so I went back to riding the other side of the traverse.
On my way up the chairlift, I met a friendly local kid who offered to show me a sweet run. I made him promise not to get me stuck anywhere I would have to hike out of, and he assured me he knew where we were going. We cut under the lift to skiers' right and ducked down the steep face through the trees. The snow was phenomenal - knee deep and barely tracked at all. It opened up into a semi-flat field, which we followed over to the traverse.... the same traverse I had previously been too nervous to drop off of. My new friend was much bolder, and I followed him across an open sea of powder until... we got stuck. Can you say "sucker tracks"? Since the snow was so awesome, I forgave him, and we unstrapped but only had to hike a few feet up a little knoll to find a thin track through the snow. It was very obviously the bottom of a creek bed. I've been in that creek bed before, on previous trips to Targhee, so I knew it would eventually lead us back to Sacajawea. Of course, those days were later in the season, when multiple tracks and deeper snow surfaces existed. There was only one track, and in places it was too flat and we had to hop. There were also some fallen trees we had to duck under. Being short has its advantages! Eventually we wound our way out and back onto the groomed traverse to Sacajawea. My legs were burning and my goggles were fogged, but I had a whole lift ride up to recover. And take the same run one more time. It was getting late in the afternoon, and I was tired and hungry. Instead of dropping off the traverse into the creek bed, I followed it back to the base lodge and bought myself some chili. I decided to call it a day and headed home as the afternoon sun dropped closer to the horizon. (I would have headed "into the sunset" but to get home I had to drive East.) All in all, a happy, happy holiday!
