Monday, December 31, 2012

Happy New Year!


Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas

... From Jackson Hole, WY. To all our friends and family we wish nothing but happiness.


Ski Day #4 - Grand Targhee

Like I said before, this day was going to be a day for me to focus on my ski skills an so it was.

We arrived in Grand Targhee at 9am, got our lift tickets and we were on the chair lift before 9:30. The man-friend and I parted ways at the top of the mountain since I had zero desire to spend the day chasing him and instead I wanted to slowly warm up to become the skier I once was.

My first run was supposed to be an easy green, but instead, due to visibility issues, I ended up dropping in a very powdery blue run. I did ok, although was not what I was aiming for. I later managed to stay on a few green groomers while I got my confidence on skis back. I slowly worked my way up to blues, which wasn't too hard since the snow was perfect. I was finally feeling like a skier again... Something that hadn't happened in a couple of years.

Chuck and I had agreed on meeting at the bar at noon, but he texted at 11:15 saying he was already there. I met him at 11:40 and he had a Bloody Mary already waiting for me. We shared some wings and had a couple other drinks while watching football before heading back out. I had forgotten how much of a luxury skiing is! Amazing.

We skied together the rest of the afternoon and I'm proud to report that I held my ground. I was able to keep up with him pretty well.

Our last and 14th run of the day was my favorite one (which I had discovered earlier in the day). We then went back to the bar and had a few more drinks while watching the Broncos beat the Browns.

Unfortunately I couldn't ski today and had to stay behind since I woke up sick. Chuck did a couple of runs in Teton Pas. I'm a little bummed because that has been my favorite backcountry experience yet. This was back in February when we skied Teton and I was unable to ski Togwotee pass the day after. Unbelievable that this time around I got Togwotee taken care of but not Teton. Ugh. One day I'll get both in the same weekend!

Hoping to feel better tomorrow and ski some more. In the meantime, Merry Christmas to all from Jackson Hole.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Ski Day #3 - Togwotee Pass, WY

What a day. I woke up sick at almost 1am. My stomach decided it did not want to accept the burger I had eaten earlier that night in Lander, WY as we were driving from Boulder to Jackson. My man decided to drive down from the top of Togwotee Pass (where we were sleeping in the car) back to Dubois for us to get a hotel and yours truly could do her thing in the bathroom. It was not pretty. I will not elaborate.

Woke up today at almost 8 feeling a little better even though I didn't sleep much. I had a super light breakfast and we got out stuff and drove back up to Togwotee Pas.

Beacons are on, skins are on skis... Off we go. We attempted to go to this little mountain and do a few laps. First, the approach... Not too hard. We skinned up the mountain (not quite to the summit) and dug a pit... Tested snow. It all looked pretty good.

Testing, Testing... 1, 2, 3... 
We went down that slope and had some really good turns. It was a short run. We went back up. This time, to the summit.

Once on the ridge, I realized it wasn't quite the summit but that was the spot to ski from. We still decided to skin on the ridge an attempt a summit. We shortly discovered that it was a little too technical. We decided to stick to today's plan: ski. We skied all the way down (almost to the car!!). It was AMAZING powder.

We couldn't summit, but we stopped HERE to grab a snack and then ski. 
I realized that my ski skills have gone down the drain!! That's what happens when you don't ski for four years. Ugh. But I guess now that I'm doing it again, I'll get better in no time.

We decided to go back up to the ridge. That sounded like a lot of work for me, but I pulled through. I definitely slowed down on the way up but managed to get up there in just over 45 minutes from the bottom. Skins off, back down again.

This time around, I had some pretty sweet turns although when it's steep I tend to freak out a bit. Not sure why! I used to be so darn good at skiing. Oh well.

By now, it was almost 3pm. We had been on our feet for 6 hours either skinning or skiing. Those damn lift chairs do sound quite luxurious to me now. But all the work is definitely worth the views and the untouched powder.

After a great ski day, off to Jackson! 
For ski day #4 this season, we will be headed to Grand Targhee in the morning. This place has well over 60" of base (far from what any resort in Colorado can report) and amazing terrain with all their 75 runs open.

I plan on skiing hard all day. I will be skiing alone and have Chuck do whatever he wants. I have to start from scratch and start getting used to my skis again. By the end of the day, I'm sure I'll be skiing some powdery (yep, more snow expected tonight) black runs.

Happy skiing!!!