Aerial Tram & Sublette open Mood: chillin' Topic: shred report
New snow: 0 conditions: Powder/packed powder
Tram line was insane this morning. I guess that's why there was no one on the gondola. no messing around for me, blasted ampitheater to Thunder, flew down Grand to Sublette. Took the first run down bird in hand - the top was floaty and perfect, but the face was crust. yikes. Decided to try the other side of cheyenne bowl and hit bivouac woods. superior. Total powder, all sizes of rock drops, spent the entire morning carving turns around the trees.
The halfpipe is opening tomorrow and I decided to check it out. Met the entire crew (you guys ROCK!) and got a good look at the pipe. Perfectly shaped and just as big as ever - this is going to be the earliest opening in the history of Jackson Hole. The setup has changed a bit, with the entrance a bit more graded so you can just dive right in instead of hiking or traversing up the shelf and dropping a quarterpipe to get to it. Plus the area where you offload from the rope tow gets you right in the pipe instead of having to unstrap and climb like last year. (Did I mention pipe and park crew ROCKS!) Helped JP measure the tube - FYI it's 375 feet long and 17 feet high and 50 feet across. approximately. I was actually holding the end of the measuring tape that said zero, so I'm going on hearsay and memory. Can't wait to hit it tomorrow. 11 hours and counting.
Thunder opened yesterday - my roommate and I decided to check it out today. After a lazy start, got to the mountain at noon-ish. Headed straight to thunder. yummy. took the little gully from the gondola and it was still fresh, then hit all the little rock jumps at the bottom of paintbrush. Since it was mostly untracked, it was still soft - not enough warmth to melt it so it froze into crust. Took a few runs through the woods off grand and cut under sublette chair to the roller coaster liftline. Had a blast, left early to go to work. c'est la vie.
who needs to see anyway Mood: lazy Topic: shred report
New Snow: 2" Surface: spring conditions / wet snow
driving to the village it was raining. kept an eye on the thermometer - it hit 34 as i pulled into the parking lot. at least it's snow up on the mountain.
visibility was nonexistent. although 2" fell overnight, it was still rain at the top of AV. Of course, that means there was NO ONE at the mountain and NO WAIT at any of the lifts, and, oh yeah, CASPER opened today! Hmmmm..... sometimes even the rain works in your favor. even if it is coating my goggles with a layer of water so I have to keep smearing them with my specially designed goggle-wiping mitten. gotta love kids gear. (yes, i have little hands... and little feet.... and i'm 5'2".... any other questions? don't go there.)
Thought about taking a run down AV but couldn't resist the lure of Casper. to my surprise (and joy) not only was the lift open, but ALL the trails were open, including moran woods, the gondi line, and gros ventre. blasted a few runs down sleeping indian woods. the snow was wet and fresh, which is second only to powder for a landing pad. hit lots of small jumps and tore through the less bumpy areas like a maniac. took another run straight down the lift line through the steep powder field above the race course that normally drops you right into a fence when NASTAR is in full swing. Luckily, the course isn't open yet, so there aren't any fences and you can rip through the woods and still get back onto the trail instead of getting stuck in the flatter part of the woods.
Decided to venture into casper restaurant to use the facilities, and discovered that since the staff was there training anyway, they had decided to serve the food they were preparing instead of throwing it away. yum. my favorite on-slope restaurant. a lot of the staff from last year returned, and those guys are a blast.
timing is everything. on my way out the door, a kindly gentleman made a comment to me about how it was a 'good thing we're here.' I inquired further, and he told me that AV was down due to mechanical failure (again.) didn't feel like doing laps on teewee again, so i made sure i didn't miss the last traverse back to casper.
spent the rest of my day doing laps in moran woods. there's an 8 foot cliff drop that i don't remember (because it's probably filled in after a couple of storms....) which I inadvertantly plummetted. I noticed what it was just in time to jump out off the lip instead of carving down its face, but it was already too late to adjust the position of my body. (perpendicular to the jump due to my trying to stop and see what I was standing on top of.) Had I intended to go over it, I probably could have navigated my way through the landing, which was totally soft, but also totally wet mush. since I didn't land gracefully it sucked me under. I made a lot of noise so no one else would decide to hit the drop while I was extracting myself from the quagmire. only one rider came down (again the rain working in my favor) and she wasn't really interested in dropping an 8 foot cliff - besides she saw me yelling and waving and figured out what was going on. I really love it when people remember to take their brains with them in the morning. Thanks chica, whoever you are.
eventually, my body was telling me it was time to go home. I decided to make my last run a good one. besides, i've had enough of lower moran & lower werner for a while. I traversed over to the intersection of ampitheater and croaky point, and dropped into the trees. there were only a couple of other tracks, so it was pretty much an open field for most of the descent. that dropped me onto upper sundance, which i crossed over to hit gondi woods. the fall line sends you right back out onto sundance, but i unstrapped and hoofed it up the traverse to drop back into the woods. i followed the liftline down. it was so thick that I had to stay close to the other tracks so as to not lose momentum, and before long it dumped me down a steep face of fresh snow back onto sundance trail. by then my legs were jello anyway, and i was too tired to bemoan my exodus from the ungroomed terrain. carved my way through soft corduroy (mostly untracked) and crossed over the teton club bridge to come to a stop in front of the v.c. what a fabulous day. sleep will be good tonight.
powder to the people Mood: chillin'
got the ski report this morning via text message on my cell phone. 17". 'nuff said. i was outa there so fast i forgot to take my phone with me. i never do that. except for today. so i guesss i do that sometimes.
mechanical failure on AV started the morning off right. I took several lovely runs on teewinot, and was about to bail when I noticed that AV was finally loading people (10 AM-ish.) after an unusually long wait in line (though not unexpected) was finally en route to the top.
first run down av more than made up for the wait. so much so that i didn't even mind waiting in line again. i cut into the trees and found a lovely steep untracked area, which i proceeded to tear through. 3 runs in a row.
as i reached the top of the lift a few runs later, i noticed that ski patrol was replacing the 'closed area' signs with 'caution' signs. teewinot face was officially open and i was one of the first 20 or so people officially on it. that of course, doesn't take into account all the poachers who cut through it earlier (some of whom got chased and threatened by ski patrol. i actually know more than one person who has had their pass pulled for such behavior.) the snow was heavy, wet sludge, but it was incredibly fun, and the coverage was good except for a few twigs here and there. I went over this one rather large mogul / kicker / roller near the top of a.v. and some people on the lift started whooping at me. probably people i know. in fact, now that i remember, I think i did see some guys i know about 10 chairs behind me when i was getting on the lift.... anyway, it was still pretty kewl. I feel like I'm going bigger than last year, at least. and isn't that what it's all about? progression.
mmmmm... powwwder Mood: chillin' Topic: shred report
major snowstorm hit jackson yesterday - we already had a foot this morning and another 12 inches fell during the day. so it probably won't surprise anyone that i went to snow king after work.
took 2 runs down cougar, hitting the untracked powder on the sides of the trails, but the coverage was sketchy at best (even theough the powder was soft and light.) then i headed over to elk (or whatever that other trail is that's open) because the ski racers were done with it. Of course, they only use one little part of it, and the rest was mostly untouched (due to the racers clogging up the trail all day) so the left side was phenomenal. go figure - when it's snowing and blowing all day, the gulley is where the powder is... who woulda thought? took the rest of my runs throught that fluffiness, until finally the sun was setting, the temperature was dropping, and my not-so-waterproof snowpants were starting to soak through. headed home thoroughly satisfied. boo-ya!
day two Mood: spacey Topic: shred report
didn't ride today. not enough new snow to brave the elements, but at least it started flurrying while i was in the office....
yesterday i took a few runs with my snowboard instructor roommate, so at least I got to concentrate on my form. it was fast, and for the first few runs the corduroy was carveable. there were some fun little kickers on the sides, but the pow from yesterday was pretty much crust today. so the landings weren't as smooth as i'd prefer, but still navigable. did a mini photo shoot due to the fact that my companion wound the disposable camera, thus creating the potential for a wasted shot while the camera was in my pocket. so i hiked up and hit it again, and he wound it AGAIN. so then he took a glammour shot of me sitting on the trail. oh joy, can't wait to develop that one.
still waiting for the accumulation the weather channel seems to think we're already receiving. in the meantime, it's time to catch up on some much needed sleep.
JHMR is open! Mood: celebratory Topic: shred report
another season begins, and it begins with an inversion. temperatures dropped consistently at the base while rising up at the summit, and by 9am it was about 6 degrees at the base. I went shopping. that's not entirely true - I actually got a macchiato, then i HAD to shop so i would have time to finish it before hitting Teewinot.
two shots of espresso later, I was on my way up the hill. the bottom of AV was engulfed in a freezing cloud of death, but about halfway up the lift we emerged into a bright, clear, warm, bluebird day. I took a sharp left down the steeper side of Moran, and discovered 6 inches of fresh powder just waiting by the side of the trail. There were a few tracks through it, but all in all, a super-freshie fiesta. Of course there was also a semi-covered rock with one track leading over it, so I had to jump. what a perfect little shred grrl kicker. anyway, i mostly stuck to that area (since only 2 trails are open anyway) but after a while I headed over to the other edge of moran and dipped a little ways into moran woods - as far as I could without crossing the boundaries. for those of you who would call me a goody-goody, i'll have you know that i learned the hard way - if JHMR has a closed sign, there's a reason it's closed. The don't just hoard the powder or save it for the tourists on the weekends. i have a huge glop of p-tex on the bottom of my board to prove it.
after a few hours, i decided i couldn't hang with my 12 dollar goggles that i bought in colorado anymore. my face was pretty much frozen and while they don't fog, they also don't keep the wind out so my eyes were watery. went to 2 shops and tried on dozens of pairs of goggles (not counting the dozens i've already tried on) and finally found a pair that fit with my helmet. Spy Soldier. headed back to the hill and had a much happier day.
by 12:30 or so, the surface was starting to solidify. Hours of ski racers tearing up the corduroy took their toll on the groomed runs. still found plenty of soft stuff off the beaten path. I could tell you exactly where, but then i'd have to kill you.
hijacked! Mood: celebratory Topic: shred report
yesterday, my roommate showed up at my work just as my shift ended, kidnapped me, and made me go to snow king. gee whiz, what a horrible way to get off work. hehehe.
surprisingly, the conditions were not what I would call icy. definitely hard packed, but carvable, with enough sluff from the ski racers to find an edge. by the time the lifts closed, it was getting a bit less cooperative, but that's why they close the lifts, then, isn't it. the real treat was the fact that there were a couple of mini kickers on the side of the traverse on the way to lower elk (skier's right off cougar lift.) that was fun - I even managed to grab the board once.... during the half a second I was actually in the air.
this morning it wasn't even snowing in town, but halfway out to the village I had to dim my headlights just to see through the spiraling flakes. Don't you just love it when Mother Nature decides to cooperate? tomorrow JHMR opens its lifts (at least 2 of them.... Teewinot & A.V.) and from what I hear, the halfpipe should be ready before xmas. tune in tomorrow for a full recap of the festivities.
anticipation is making me wait Mood: caffeinated Topic: snowboarding
JHMR held it's annual pep rally (aka orientation) yesterday, so everyone's excited about the lifts opening on saturday. not that we weren't already, but around here all you have to do is show some TGR clips of deep powder and people tend to forget that we don't have enough snow to open the gondola (let alone the tram....) add our impatience to the instability of the snowpack and you've got a recipe for disaster waiting to happen. it's not that i'm cynical, i've just been suffering from a cumulative lack of sleep this week. i'm actually very excited that i'll finally be able to come out of hibernation and be sociable again (although skating definitely alleviated some of that cocooning behavior this past summer.)
Hmmm.... did I have a point? never. I have no points - I only have curves.
dust on crust Mood: chillin' Topic: skateboarding
decided not to bother getting all geared up for a couple runs down the slightly covered slope of ice and went to the colosseum instead. took me a few tries but i finally remembered how to skate. sunday afternoon so the usual crowd of kids was there, which is always much more interesting than rolling around an empty park, at least for me. didn't realize how long it had been since i'd visited the park until i noticed that what used to be a quarter is now a slant, and the other little launch was totally gone. where have i been? oh yeah, right.... denver. loveland. hehehe. how come they're getting all the snow anyway? we need some of that here.
opening day at the king Mood: hungry Topic: shred report
well, it's official. snow king is finally open, and conditions are exactly what we've come to know and love. there's a reason it's called the 'ice queen.' i guess it figures that if you're going to have a race all morning, the slope is going to be mostly skied off all along the course. Luckily, there's plenty of east coast powdere (aka the sluff piled up on the sides of the trail) which allows for some control as you're coming down cougar, which is of course the only trail open. when they say experts only, they mean it.
snow continued to fall all afternoon, but it was a strange almost-hail type of snow, so it didn't really make the turns any softer and there wasn't enough of it to make much difference. the one surprise was the temperature - it was warm enough for the bottom third of the slope to be soft and slushy, almost spring-like.
guess what - I DON'T CARE! I got to go snowboarding today. WOO HOO! maybe later in the season i'll get picky and turn into a snow-snob, but not today.
where is the snow? Mood: lazy Topic: personal
can't believe it's been over a week since my last comment. especially since i failed to mention my experience with the snow skate on the p-tex rail the guys from never summer had set up at the base of loveland.... which ROCKED. but now i'm home, slowly sinking further into the depression caused by continuous sunshine....
until today. today it is snowing. very light snow flurries, but still snow nonetheless. already got my pass for the king, and filled out all the paperwork for the village. oh yeah... they said anytime after tuesday i could get my pass... things are looking up. maybe i'll do that this afternoon. anything to postpone doing laundry!
first day of my season Mood: celebratory Topic: shred report
wow. i'm in denver. apparently the delivery service bringing the snow to wyoming got stuck here. they must've sent it airborne express or something. anyway...
went to loveland ski area today and had a total BLAST! first days are always exhilerating and this one was no exception. only took one run by myself before i started meeting cool people on the lifts. i was blathering on about how i wanted to demo a never summer infinity board, and one of my lift-mates informed me that there was a demo tent at the bottom of the hill. FATE. i guess i really was destined to be here today.
on to the conditions report - a few inches of new snow had fallen over a sufficient but hard-packed base. coverage was surprisingly adequate, and the snow was very carveable for most of the morning. by noon there were a few icy patches, but still enough sluff had been skied off into little piles to allow for some controlled turns. what really blew my mind, though, was the fact that the park was OPEN. 3 rails had been installed, and there were little mini-kickers off the sides of them where all the wusses (for example, yours truly) chose to go for the grab instead of the grind. i did do a nice little mute grab on the never summer demo board (side note to self - BUY THAT BOARD.) there were also numerous little kickers off the sides of the traverses and between the tree islands in the middle of trails. lifts at loveland don't have names, they have numbers - lift 2 was rather packed with beginners and a little less steep than what i'm used to (go figure...) so i pretty much stuck to lift 1. besides, that's where the park is.
all in all, a great day and a great start to another great season!
driving distracted Mood: bright Topic: snowboarding
early morning frost on the windshield easily dissipates with the aid of wiper fluid. side windows are not so conveniently cleared, but that's a good thing. driving down broadway i couldn't help but notice all the snow that's being blown at snow king, and it's hard to concentrate on the road with that in plain view. maybe this afternoon i'll join the sledders and shredders who are hiking the 10 vertical feet of man made snow at the foot of the hill.
election day Mood: energetic Topic: couch potato commentary
so i currently have 3 different news websites up as well as election coverage on CNN playing on tv. polls aren't even closed on the east coast, let alone here, but i voted on friday anyway so it seems like the election is over and should be tallied by now. really don't see why all the states don't do it the way we do here - go into the county clerk's office and vote whenever it's convenient with a deadline of nov 2.... seems crazy that there are these ridiculous lines everywhere and the places where it's really close are the places where it's hardest to vote. sheesh. not like i even care who wins anyway.
on to more interesting topics - like the weather. it's been cold here, cold enough for the king to blow snow. the hardcore are hiking the pass, i hear it's pretty tracked out at this point. then again, that's not exactly unusual for jackson terrain. i had 3 different people offer to hike with me on sunday, but apparently halloween took too much out of them because nobody called me. i happen to know that's because they slept in. so did i. i guess that makes it all even.
snow is in the air Mood: mischievious Topic: skateboarding
slowly the snow line is creeping further down the mountain. just a few more vertical feet before it hits the valley floor. today there are flurries in town, and a haunting hazy fog blocks out any view of the sunshine.
big halloween party tonight and as usual i've procrastinated the entire planning of my costume. i'm sure i can dig something appropriate out of the back of my closet.
speaking of cold..... went skating last night and for once didn't even take off my sweatshirt. it was very cold, or maybe i just wasn't trying hard enough. the long exhausting week took its toll on me. there were a bunch of friendly kids there, though, so it was all good. it always boosts your enthusiasm when there are youngsters to remind you how much fun life can really be. your focus shifts to play instead of wandering from one stressful obligation to the next. very soon i'll be able to release all my frustration and aggravation on the mountain. keep coming, little snowflakes. keep coming.
white morning Mood: caffeinated Topic: snowboarding
fell asleep on the couch last night because that's where the tv is. woke early this morning before the sun and thought i saw the reflection of snow through the window on the railing of the deck. wondered if it was just the siding of the building across the way and wishful thinking on my part, but wasn't curious enough to get off the couch. got up around 6 and discovered that it was NOT a hallucination and there was, in fact, a blanket of white covering the surface of the deck, as well as the surface of the ground and the surface of my car.
yesterday's paper (which i didn't see until this morning) had a picture of backcountry hikers in a foot of fresh on teton pass. i'm not quite that ambitious due to lack of bc equipment. ok, that's a lie. i'm too lazy. i haven't bothered to buy equipment because i never go out of bounds anyway. acknowledgement is the first step. i guess that makes the second step.... shopping? mmmmm, shopping. wait, what was i talking about?
clear snow Mood: caffeinated Topic: snowboarding
miserable day here in town - 40 degrees and rained all day - but it's snowing now and YNP had to close the south entrance and my friend is snowed in up in West Yellowstone, MT. given all these variables, i optimistically checked the webplots. 10 inches today at mid-mountain, and the NOAA weather forecast said the rain will turn to snow and we can expect 6 to 10 inches overnight. looking forward to a white blanket over the valley when i wake up tomorrow.
if i still lived in vermont, this would be enough coverage to open for business. of course, if i still lived in vermont all this snow would be artificial. i knew there was a reason i moved to wyoming.
weather anomalies Mood: cool Topic: snowboarding
summer sometimes induces hallucinations, generally while i'm driving. headlights reflect off raindrops and all i see is snow. imagine my surprise when this evening, after listening to a friend whine about how it was too warm to snow in town, i began to experience this while driving out to the village. imagine my shock upon exiting the car and realizing it acutally WAS snowing! of course, you have to get halfway out village road to see it, but as long as it's falling on the mountaintops i'm a happy camper. keep it coming.
hello snow Mood: celebratory Topic: snowboarding
snow began to fall yesterday but quickly faded to rain. told my roommate it would be snowing by the time he woke up today. still raining when I awoke, but about 20 minutes after I got to work the temperature dropped and snow returned. It's been snowing for almost 3 hours now and IT'S STICKING TO THE ROAD. I don't know if my roommate is awake yet, but I definitely won this one.
it appears that the raymer webplot is not current - i imagine it's a bit early for that but I had to check. the temperature at the top of JHMR hasn't risen above freezing, though, so it's a good bet that all the rain in the valley overnight was snow up there. Apparently someone is clearing mid-mountain because at 8:30 this morning the interval snowfall changed from 8 inches to zero.... and now it's back up to 1. So it looks like 9 new inches today at MID, which means possibly a foot or more at the top. Got snowshoes? I won't be surprised to see people hiking the king this afternoon.
in other news, i ordered a new snowboard helmet and it arrived yesterday. woo hoo! already you know way more than you need to about my life.
chillin'
happy
lazy
spacey
celebratory
caffeinated
hungry
bright
energetic
mischievious
cool