AtomicSkier Posted January 1, 2011 Report Posted January 1, 2011 There will be a February trip report thread, so I figured we'd keep them separate. I got to ABE yesterday at 6:15am, bypassed the long check in line, went through TSA security without getting groped. We boarded about 10 minutes late, and were all ready to go around 7:15am (flight was scheduled for 7:10am). FA comes on and says that due to the low ceiling in and around ORD, we had to carry a lot of extra fuel to make it to the alternate airport quite a distance away from Chicago and thus, we were overweight w/ 52 people on board. They were asking for 3 or 4 volunteers and that "we weren't going anywhere until people volunteered". 10 minutes went by and nobody moved. I eventually said to my friend Tom, hoping other people around us would hear "she's lying to us, if nobody volunteers, they'll kick people off" All of a sudden some peoples ears perked up. I figured we'd have to be in the air by 8am to have a decent buffer at ORD to connect to Jackson. Eventually we made weight at after a quick deice, we were wheels up at 7:50am. Weather at ORD was really low ceilings causing delays for multiple days. Picked up my gate checked bag, and haul ass over to the B terminal, 10 minutes to go until first class boarded. The doors closed exactly 10 minutes prior to departure, pushed back, in the air, and smooth sailing. We even got into Jackson about 45 minutes earlier then expected, around 11:35am. Waited for our bags, grabbed a cab, and headed for the 49er. Dinner at the Snake River Brewery was awesome and some great beer (IPA and Pale Ale). Hit the sack early and up at 7am. The 49er filled the bus this morning, so we had an express shuttle to the mountain, and we got there around 8:30am. It was a bit chilly at -6 degrees, and it never really got any warmer then that. The sun was out though which made it very pleasant, except anything exposed to the air was super cold, including my boots (toes were warm, but the plastic at -5 degrees gets rock hard). The gondola opened up at 9am exactly, and first run was down some woods down into amphitheater. Nice soft snow and the wind did a nice job of redistributing some snow overnight. Amphitheater would have been heaven for NSJay...an inch dusting of sparking snow on top of perfectly groomed snow. Thunder up to Grand Woods which had copious amounts of untracked. Sublette up to Cirque which was nicely wind buffed boot deep pow (you can see a bit of it in the 2nd picture). Up Thunder again into Laramie Bowl, which had nice soft snow, not as good as Cirque and no fresh to be found. Sublette back up top to Cheyenne Bowl which was pretty good, pretty smooth with some wind buffed pow. Down Rendezvous trail to Sublette, and up to the Hobacks. It was already around 11:10am, almost time for lunch. We entered the Hobacks and traversed all the way over to the south hober. Just like last year, the few first turns were a bit rocky, and got my worried for what was in store. Well, Hobers were the ROTD. South Hober was beautiful. I traversed almost over to the edge of the boundry and made turn after turn in untracked powder. It lasted until about 2/3rds of the way down. By then I was sweating in -5 degree weather. The last 1000 vertical feet was a little crustier, but resonably smooth. Finallllyyy got to the cat track, and up the lift, up the gondola, and then lunch on the 2nd floor at the top of the gondola. Chilli in a bread bowl with bacon bits and chedder cheese, and a white chocolate and macadamia nut cookie. After lunch, we took the Casper traverse into Casper Bowl, which had some untracked all the way down to the Casper chair. We took the Casper chair up to Moran Face/Wooods and skied that down to Apres Vous. Moran wasn't bad, certainly no Hobacks. Some fresh could be had, but couldn't get a good rhythm in there. AV chair up and then into Saratoga. Saratoga Bowl is a wild ride, and once you're in there, it's huge. We just kept skiing left and eventually hit the boundary. Being lower elevation, the snow wasn't as good as the stuff up top, but still very soft. I will say that I hate the traverse out. It's the most painful thing at all of JH. AV lift back up to the top for a quick speed run down Werner down to the gondola. In the gondola with us with a girl a few years older then us and two guys. We got talking and she asked where we were from. When she heard PA, she asked if we knew where Lehigh was Her best friend went there and was a few years behind me. Then the guy next to me perked up and said his fried went to Lehigh and was a few chairs back. He asked if I was on the race team at Lehigh, and once he said the kids name, I knew who he was. We raced together freshman year, he was the leagues #1 racer. Small world. Some woods down into Amphitheater again (which was getting chunky/bumpy by now), and then Thunder up to Laramie bowl, which still had nice snow down the right hand side to the right of the rock out cropping. We took sublette up to the top for the last run (it was around 2:25pm). All of a sudden, my feet felt like they went into a freezer..WTF. I looked down under my pants and saw my heaters had run out of juice in the sub-zero temps after a full day of use. Tensleep to the Cirque to south pass traverse to GV, to the Bridger center so my friend could pickup some new gloves (his self destructed). Managed the catch the 3pm bus at 2:55pm. Back in the room, about to go pickup some beer and then figure out our plans for tonight. Didn't get a chance to take any action shots. It was pretty cold, and we just kept skiing. Action shots will come when my other friend shows up on Monday, maybe this weekend, we'll see. No fresh snow, but beautiful sun, and some wind buffed pow made for just another day in paradise at Jackson Hole. Quote
sibhusky Posted January 1, 2011 Report Posted January 1, 2011 Nice report, even food info thrown in for Doug. Like pic 2. What time of day was pic 1? Quote
AtomicSkier Posted January 1, 2011 Author Report Posted January 1, 2011 Nice report, even food info thrown in for Doug. Like pic 2. What time of day was pic 1? Pic 1 was 8:40am...Pic 2 was around 9:45am. There was a snow haze in the cirque which caused a few rainbows. Pretty nice views today Quote
sibhusky Posted January 1, 2011 Report Posted January 1, 2011 What time do the lifts open? And where exactly is the lift (never been there)? I'm sure on a holiday week we'd have people at the lowest lift at that time, even if it was -7. Quote
NazarethSkier Posted January 1, 2011 Report Posted January 1, 2011 Great in depth Trip Report. Look forward to more pictures. Quote
Shadows Posted January 1, 2011 Report Posted January 1, 2011 not going to read anymore of your reports if the word:pic ratio is this off. Quote
AtomicSkier Posted January 1, 2011 Author Report Posted January 1, 2011 Happy new years everyone...We had dinner last night at the Wort/Silver Dollar Bar. Dinner was awesome, had some nachos and the Wort Blue Burger (medium, bacon, blue cheese), and a few Snake River brews. I couldn't fall asleep earlier so I was beat by 10pm, so I went back to the room and pass out. I woke up around 1:30am, and my friend wasn't back. Woke up at 4am, no friend. He eventually texted me at 6:45am saying he'd be back for breakfast. Turns out he bagged some cougar American Airlines flight attendant. LTD. 2nd gondola up this morning to a pretty chilly top of the gondola at -11 degrees. Took the same woods down to Amphitheater as yesterday, and another 1" of fresh coating on top made for some beautiful turns down to the Thunder Chair. Up thunder to Grand woods for some action shots. Up Sublette to the Cirque for some more action shots. Snow conditions in both Grand and Cirque were a little crustier then yesterday from the sun baking the mountain all day yesterday. Thunder up to Laramie Bowl, back up Sublette for more cirque. The top of Sublette was freakin freezing. 15+ mph winds and -10 degree temps made for some cold exposed skin. Another thunder with the plan to ski Paint Brush, but thin cover (and it was obvious from the top) signs turned us away. So that turned into a speed run down Amphitheater We then took Thunder up and skied the right side of Laramie, and then down to Rowlins Bowl (one of the lower faces) and cut far enough right to lower tramline so we didn't have to take union pass lift. Up the Gondola for lunch (same as yesterday, chili in a bread bowl, white chocolate chip and macadamia nut cookie). After lunch I can't really remember as it all blurred together. We pretty much stuck to what was good (Cirque, Laramie, Grand Woods). We did a Bivouc in there somewhere, and stopped in Bivouc woods to see the legendary GSS safety stop location. We quit around 2pm, a speed run down GV to the Mangy Moose, and enjoyed some really hoppy Snake River IPA. Caught the 3pm bus as it was pulling away, and now it's nap time. JADIP in Jackson Hole. Quote
AtomicSkier Posted January 1, 2011 Author Report Posted January 1, 2011 looking good...so baller of Tom to get with a chick double his age..no Tram??? You might have to do Alpenhof for lunch tomorrow and then Tram to Rendevous bowl..if you have beers with lunch by the time you get to the safety meeting spot you can relieve yourself.. We were already talking about Alpenhof for lunch tomorrow...that's the plan Quote
Shadows Posted January 2, 2011 Report Posted January 2, 2011 1:30am... friend wasn't back. 4am... no friend. 6:45am... he'd be back for breakfast. Turns out he bagged some cougar American Airlines flight attendant. LTD. oh jeff... Quote
AtomicSkier Posted January 3, 2011 Author Report Posted January 3, 2011 Today was meh. -10 degrees to start the day with a so called inversion. It felt colder up top, despite an advertised 10 degree difference. Visibility was shitty, and only got worse. We had avoided some of the more popular trees the past 2 days, but much to my surprise, the famous GSS woods aka Wally's World, were awesome. I really got into a great rhythm threading the needle between the trees. With snow falling, the humidity was really high, and was pretty freakin cold in comparison to the previous two sub zero days. We mostly stuck to the Thunder lift because Sublette had some serious wind hitting you once you got above laramie bowl (they instituted the no singles rule). It was getting a bid harder to find nice soft snow, as a lot of stuff was getting crusty, but Grand Woods still had some goods, as well as Wally's World. Laramie Bowl skied really well this morning despite the super flat light. No pictures today, it was too cold. Tomorrow is looking warmer and sunny, so expect pictures then. Lunch was @ the Alpenhof. Thanks to NSJay last year for discovering their awesome soft pretzel. Oh, here is a lunch picture I sent to NSJay... Quote
NazarethSkier Posted January 3, 2011 Report Posted January 3, 2011 Yikes -10 degrees would keep me inside. I admit I am a fair weather skier Was the Pretzel the HOTD(highlight of the day)? 1 Quote
toast21602 Posted January 3, 2011 Report Posted January 3, 2011 At least there is a picture of a pretzel... Quote
AtomicSkier Posted January 3, 2011 Author Report Posted January 3, 2011 Yikes -10 degrees would keep me inside. I admit I am a fair weather skier Was the Pretzel the HOTD(highlight of the day)? -10 wasn't the problem, because the previous days were around -6, but no humidity. Humidity was very high today, making that -10 feel like we were on the east coast Pretzel was pretty good, for sure, but the highlight of the day was the layer of fresh snow on my last run down Bivouc Woods/Wally's World/Sherwood Forest/GSS's Forest. Quote
moe ghoul Posted January 3, 2011 Report Posted January 3, 2011 Good on ya for sitting up all night waiting for him to come home, dad. I didn't know older male flight attendants were called cougars, too. Not that there's anything wrong with that. 2 Quote
NazarethSkier Posted January 3, 2011 Report Posted January 3, 2011 At least there is a picture of a pretzel... Can the Pretzel pic be included in the photo contest? 1 Quote
AtomicSkier Posted January 3, 2011 Author Report Posted January 3, 2011 LOL Moe Ghoul...AJeff, did u have the double decker grilled steeze sangwich as well? Pretzel and caesar salad. I needed some greens...too much chili recently Quote
Shadows Posted January 3, 2011 Report Posted January 3, 2011 (edited) glad to see youre eating something warm and salty. sounds like an awesome executive weekend on the slopes. I'LL SEE YA OUT THERE! Edited January 3, 2011 by Over_It Quote
sibhusky Posted January 3, 2011 Report Posted January 3, 2011 Hey, Jeff! Bad visibility and flat light? Welcome to my world. Quote
Glenn Posted January 3, 2011 Report Posted January 3, 2011 I'll take bad visibility and bad light everyday of the week if it means snow. Fortunately for Bridger it did mean snow. 8" of snow with heavy wind loading in zones. Super surfy. Hope you're getting some Jeff lets see the steeps. 3 Quote
AtomicSkier Posted January 4, 2011 Author Report Posted January 4, 2011 It was much better today then yesterday...Jeff was happy. Quote
toast21602 Posted January 4, 2011 Report Posted January 4, 2011 Looks like a decent day with a couple of inches. How much did you get? Significantly better than your other days. Quote
sibhusky Posted January 4, 2011 Report Posted January 4, 2011 today was a bluebird powder day at JH..take the good with the bad...Sibhusky any chance you're gonna make it down to JH in early-mid Feb when me, AngryHugo and Atomic are there? You must think I have a job to pay for that! I can barely afford to pay for the lift ticket and locker here. Maybe when Social Security starts.... 1 Quote
AtomicSkier Posted January 4, 2011 Author Report Posted January 4, 2011 Looks like a decent day with a couple of inches. How much did you get? Significantly better than your other days. 6"....yes...I was a bit down after yesterday's conditions. Today made me happy again Quote
Glenn Posted January 4, 2011 Report Posted January 4, 2011 (edited) ... seriously? Ok let's try again. Those cliffs have lines with big wide open untracked landings. Why isn't anyone hitting them? Edited January 4, 2011 by Glenn 1 Quote
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