Live Simply

Life in Jackson Hole in a word is simple. Get up, go to the mountain, ski, drink beer, go to bed. It was so nice to be back.

We stayed at Chris’s CEO’s house in Driggs, which is just over the Pass from Wyoming. Equivalent being Carbondale to Aspen, except in Jackson there is a huge Pass in between the resort and the house which can be gnarly on a winter dump day. Luckily for us, the drive was easy. It was warm when we arrived and progressively got warmer as the week went on.

We arrived late Saturday night, or actually early in the morning. So on Sunday we lounged around the huge mountain home retreat all day long. It was so relaxing.

Monday and Tuesday we skied Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. It was super fun to show Chris the mountain, and luckily I remembered it very well so it was easy to find the powder stashes. We followed this by a day in the backountry, a day at Targhee, and a snow-shoe adventure in the park. Here are the details:

JH, First Day Runs – Tram to Rendezvous Bowl & down the Hobacks; Gondola to Thunder Lift, from there down the Grand, skiers right through the trees. Gondala to skiers left cut through the woods to mid Casper Bowl. Up Casper lift, skiers right traverse over to Moran Woods, quick side step up around a special rock which once you’re over it opens up to totally untracked goodies. From there down to Apres Vous, and up to Saratoga Bowl.

JH, Second Day Runs – Gondola to the Headwall, we bootpacked up the stairway with Julie. This was pretty tough since we were shouldering our skies, and the steepness on the way up was a bit nerve-wracking. From there we skied down the Crags, which was absolutely beautiful and filled with deep untouched snow. Tram to Rendezvous Bowl, cut left to go down North facing side of Laramie Bowl. We did this a couple of times. Also, we skied the Thunder lift and hit the mogul fields lookers right.
At the end of the day we headed to the shop Julie works in to check out the boots. When the guy went to take my liner out, my whole boot cracked in half! So, I bought a nice new pair of Atomic, a well overdue purchase.

Teton Pass, Third Day – We hiked the South side of the Pass over to Edelweiss Bowl. It was pretty easy to get there and the snow was absolutely awesome once we arrived. See pic below, our tracks are the obvious large ones lookers right of middle (not down the nose). This was probably our best backcountry day yet. The run continues down another slope making it well worth the skin in.



JH, Fourth Day – We celebrated with Nate for his 25th birthday on the slopes. Also, I got to pick up my new setup (new boots adjusted to the binding and skis). When I arrived, Weldon says… Abby, Abby, Abby… we gotta talk about these skis… then he showed me that the core of my ski is basically splitting away from the metal, which means a new ski purchase in my future.
Highlights were skiing lookers right of Expert Shutes, hiking up Pepi’s Bench to hit the top of Casper Bowl, and skiing Alta Shute #1, just to prove that we could.

Targhee, Fifth Day – Wholly crap I was tired. We didn’t even start skiing until 1pm. The temps were high and we were skiing in just a tee shirt. We did climb up the Peaked Mountain where the Cat skiing is, but once we got to the top we found out that there was a big mountain competition for teens, which prevented us from dropping into the nice North facing slope. Chris continued to hike up though and caught some nice turns down the face. I was so tired that I just sat in the snow and took a video of him coming down. After that, I was cooked. I was so tired that I had to stop while on the Cat Track to take a break!

Teton National Park, Taggert Lake, Sixth Day – We were tempted to climb up to Edelweiss again, but considering that our quads were near explosion quality the day before, we decided to head into the park to catch some views of the Tetons. We definitely lucked out on weather and views. With just a short show-shoe journey into the Taggert Lake area we got awesome views of the Grand, the Middle, Owen, and South. On the way out we drove into the Elk Refuge and saw thousands of Elk, pretty neat.

The trip was totally awesome. Every day we had great turns, lots of beers, too much red meat, and huge tired grins on our faces. I ran into lots of old ski buddy friends, which was really neat. I can’t believe they’re all still there, 5 years later for me, and 7 to 8 for most of them. It does make me wonder if I should have left at all.

Until next year Jackson Hole, I do love you.

Signing out from my white and fluffy Westin Hotel bed in San Fran - awaiting the start of another Game Developers Conference week.