Wild West Skiing
In the about me section of this website, I describe mountains as my thing. I love looking at them, reading about them, climbing up them, studying maps of them, walking through and around them, photographing them, pretty much anything to do with them. Above all, I love finding a fresh snow field and skiing down them. To put it another way, if mountains are my thing, then skiing is my thing of things.
Thankfully Julie shares this passion. In fact, the story we always tell, and it’s almost true, is that we met on a ski lift! So, our annual ski trip is always a yearly highlight.
On our radar for some time as not just a place to go, but the place to go has been Jackson Hole in Wyoming. The promise is of a more adventurous style of skiing. Steep and technical terrain, ungroomed tree-lined runs, and fresh snow on a regular basis. Maybe even the chance to lay down some fresh tracks every day. Perhaps it’s all hype we thought, but if it is we’ve bought into it big time.
So off we headed in February this year. Our mood a mix of trepidation and anticipation. But, we thought, if we’re ever to know what all the fuss is about and whether we’re up to the challenge, then we have no choice but to give it a go.
Our first impressions were of a compact ski area without the huge number of lifts of the big European resorts. This shouldn’t have been a surprise to us as we’d studied the piste map, but it was still slightly counter-intuitive. What we came to appreciate is that the lifts serve various summits and subsidiary high points and the skier is then left with an open field to pick a line down from there. Clearly there were some well-travelled options and some clearly off-limits areas, but for all intents and purposes the whole mountain is accessible terrain and the variations endless. If you’re skiing is good enough that is!
This was new for us. The trail signs were clear enough, but they were really just serving suggestions. From each junction the lack of piste boundary markers really did encourage you to look ahead, understand the terrain, and then pick your line. We found ourselves stopped and discussing the way ahead quite often. Especially when picking our way down tree covered slopes. There was certainly no just blindly following trail markers or other skiers and expecting it all to work out.
And the ‘if you’re skiing is good enough’ point was the second thing we noticed. Nearly everybody we saw was clearly an accomplished skier. And Jackson was where they’d come for their ski fix. That made us feel almost under an obligation to make the most of it. We couldn’t go back home having somehow missed the point and missed the boat.
And finally, the snow. Our experience was that it’s the real deal. It had already been a record-breaking year for Jackson with over 450 inches of snow in the season prior to our arrival. And it snowed every night we were there and quite often during the day also. We had cloudy skies and 6 – 8 inches of fresh snow every day.
Our occasional protestation that it would have been nice to see the odd blue-sky day was met with howls of derision by the locals. ‘What’s wrong with you guys? Too much sun ruins the snow’. Cold and snowing was clearly the local preference.
Follow the purple line - Tracking our progress
Overall it was great fun. A great test of our skiing technique and our general mountain sense. More than a gentle nudge out of our comfort zone and a real feeling of adventure associated with some of the more off the beaten track trails. The couple of times we went high early and caught the open expanse of the Rendez-Vous Bowl in pristine untracked conditions were truly memorable. I will stick to my view, however, that it would have been nice to have at least one day with a bit of sunshine. Just for a change!
Skiing the deep stuff was tiring. There was no first lift to last lift days, we were usually all skied out by about 3:30pm. But that was not a problem as the Mangy Moose bar was on hand for a post-piste craft beer. And we soon learnt that it was packed from mid-afternoon onwards, so we certainly weren’t alone in finishing a bit early. It seems skiing Jackson Hole is all about quality not quantity.
And now we’re back all limbs still intact, what are our reflections? Most definitely a great place to ski. It lived up to all its promises for us, that’s for sure. But I’d say a different ethic to European skiing, but not necessarily a better one. After all, cruising the groomed pistes of Cortina under a flawless blue sky with frequent stops at on-slope espresso bars is not a bad way to spend a day. I think we can find room for both, however, and we will head back to Jackson for some adventurous wild-west skiing (when the bank balance allows!).
