POWDER!!!!

Today started with another early morning, as I woke up at 6am I was greeted with an unfortunate message, "Teton Pass is closed this morning" but also a very welcomed 12" of fresh snow! Now to you all Teton Pass means nothing, but what it means is that the road that takes people from Jackson to some nearby Idaho towns was closed, like bars that cross the road closed. This meant that none of the managers could get to work to open the shop, which meant it was me and three others left to hold down the fort until reinforcements arrived at 9am. It was a crazy morning, even once everyone arrived. In the course of the morning, I helped a couple from Austria that made me pull out at least 6 pairs of skis apiece so that they could check the edges. They insisted that we did not take good care of our skis and that I should get them sharpened right away for them, I told them that wasn't going to happen and they continued to rant about how it was icy (again there was 12" of fresh snow, so I don't know what they were smoking) and how in Europe they keep all skis perfectly tuned at all times. After getting rid of them I heard a little boy wailing while trying to put his boot on. I ended up setting up the families skis and I finally got the little kid settled by giving him orange skis and writing his name on the skis (oh the simple things). By the time I finished with the families skis the little kid was soundly asleep in his fathers arms. The little boys older sister was adorable and kept calling her skis "ski boards". Fun times.

At 2 I finally escaped the shop, an hour late, and Kerry and I headed out to the mountain. We thought all the powder would be gone, but we found a great stash. The first run I found knee to thigh deep stuff. By the third run I had found a few spots of waist deep stuff. We ran into our boss Jamal on the lift and brought him to our secret stash and he was stoked on it and said it was the run of the day for him. We skied all the way until close because the skiing was so great!

On another note, family I am sorry for the sporadic blog entries, I will try to be more consistent.

Ski count now at 15, but I might be losing count!

Day at Targhee

Kerry and I went on a big adventure today. Since we are Jackson employees we can go to Grand Targhee for free. They are 100% open and they have gotten crazy amounts of snow in the last few days. The drive over there was quite interesting. We came across a pair of elk running right in front of my car and went through some very small little towns in Wyoming and Idaho. The pass that takes you into Idaho was a bit slippery and the access road to Targhee was crazy slippery. We made it there safely thank to my sweet new snow tires.


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Roadtrip to Targhee.

The pass with huge rocks, sharp corners and 10% grade.

Elk.

Targhee access road.

Welcome to Targhee.

When we got there we ran into another guy from the retail shop that I run into all the time named Andrew in the ticket line. We jumped on the first lift and we were amazed with the wide open nature of the mountain. Once you are above the tree line it is literally a wide open snow field, you can only imagine what that is like in the wind... brrr. When we got off the lift there was a million choices of ways to go and beautiful blue skies. We headed off to the right and we were greeted with windblown powder, but after a few hundred yard the snow softened right up and we were in soft powder about shin to knee deep. Once we got near the bottom I was cruising along a traverse and I recognized our friend Jake from the rental shop. He was there with his roommate Adam. We ended up skiing with them until lunch. We all had our fair share of graceful falls, but it was a great time.

Not a bad view of the Tetons.

Perfect blue bird and snow trees.

Loving it.

Reflection.

We ran into Adam (left) and Jake (right).

Me skiing in the pow.

Action shot.

After a lunch break and warming up our toes, Kerry and I went out for a few more runs, but during lunch the clouds rolled in and the light turned totally flat. We ripped down a groomer and when we hit the bottom we both agreed we were feeling pretty tired and sloppy so we decided to head home before the snow in the pass got too bad. We stopped on the way home for a little snack and because I was feeling sleepy and needed to get out of the car. As we came over the pass on the way home a guy in a 2 ton pickup decided to pass another car, which meant he was barrelling down the hill while fishtailing heading straight at me in my lane. It was super scary, I don't know why some people have to drive like idoits in the snow. Overall a great day, I can't get over how amazing things are right now. I wake up every day and I think I must be dreaming. It is nice to be surrounded with so many nice people and to live in such a beautiful place.

Classic.

In the evening we watched a movie and then me and the boys (Kerry, Mike and Brandon) went on an adventure to Subway for dinner. Meatball subs were thoroughly enjoyed and we learned that here in Jackson they put way more meat on your sandwich than a normal Subway would, good deal.