 I arrived in Vail (Colorado) late on Saturday
night to stories about how bad the season start in Colorado had been. Luckily the base was
nearly up to average when I arrived. Better still was the 4inches of new powder that
greeted us the next morning. Another 3 Australians and a mate from New York joined us in
Vail and were not to be disappointed. Monday brought more powder. Tuesday we spent at
Beaver Creek skiing in boot deep powder and doing some great cruising. The week continued without much sun but Friday was to top of the week. With the President’s Day long weekend ahead, the crowds (non existent during the rest of the week) had grown and the fact that there was another 10inches of light dry fluffy stuff on the slopes wasn’t going to help lift lines. The back bowls skied out very quickly while the front faces presented themselves with some wonderful boot to knee deep skiing. Three of us spent the afternoon in Outer Mongolia, skiing the only remaining untracked powder where we found some stashes thigh deep.
And so it was (for 4 of us) onward to Jackson Hole (Wyoming) where I was to spend my last week skiing before returning home to the remains of Summer in Australia. The snow, like the weather was average. The upper, north facing slopes stayed in good condition all week. The lower slopes suffered from a mini heat wave followed by a cold snap and even the new snow falls couldn't hide the fact that there was a lot of frozen crud underneath. Luckily for us we got into the hobacks before the freeze. We skied a lot of everything - from expert chutes to long high speed dashes under the gondola. We had some powder, some bumps, some crud, hard packed and good corduroy. Having looked at the weather forecast, I made the decision on Thursday night to go to Grand Targhee on Friday (my last day skiing). Two of us were on the bus at 7:50 am while light snow was falling. When we arrived at Targhee the snow was dumping, as it had been all night, and as it continue to do so for the rest of the day (we heard later that 40inches of powder had fallen in a 36 hour period).
Out in the bowls and chutes, accessed from the main quad chair, we skied in waist to chest deep snow all day long. 6 hours of having to keep your face covered-up, otherwise you would choke on the snow flowing up and over your head. Rarely did I feel the snow base beneath my skis. No great speeds were achieved and any fear of falling hard and hurting oneself disappeared as gravity was defeated by the resistance of 4 feet of billowing powder. With any fear of crashing and burning having been eradicated by the cushioning effect of so much snow, we found ourselves floating down the steeps and gliding between the trees. Oh yeah - there were falls (if you can call them that). More like a submarine dive into the blackness (important to keep your orifices closed and even more important was to get out before trying to breathe). There were many hilarious sights of just a lone ski and leg pointing up from the snow.
With Targhee receiving over 500 inches (1270cms) of snow fall each year it shouldn't be a surprise to expect good snow. But how good is good? One local, who we met during our short lunch break, said that after 30 years of heli-skiing you just don’t get any better than what we were experiencing - and all that for a $42 lift pass and no lift lines.
After regretfully getting back on the bus at lift closing time, I considered trying to postpone my departure back to Australia for a few days and then decided that it just couldn’t get any better. Anything else was going to be a let down and thus the best thing to do was leave on this almighty high that only skiers and boarders can experience on rare occasions. How good was it? Click here and see for yourself (7 seconds of bliss for a 536kb download). Now I have the Australian ski season to look forward to. I don’t expect the snow to be like Vail or Grand Targhee but I hope it doesn’t end up like Val d’Isere or Cervinia. We live in hope. And as I was constantly reminded while overseas, "We live to ski and we ski to live". Till next year (who knows were I’ll be or what I’ll be able to afford? But as
always - in search of those special moments that fill the important parts of the memory
bank), |
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Having spent many days skiing in Vail over the last 15 years I can
honestly say it was the best snow conditions I had ever experienced. Consequently, there
were little, if any photos or video taken during the week (too busy skiing).
The
freshly ploughed piste runs were covered with boot deep snow. The scheduled school ski
races were cancelled and the school kids were able to join the rest of us in going
ballistic in the most amazing powder I have ever had the opportunity to ski in.
