We have decided to take a 10 day road trip up north to Canada via Wyoming and Montana. The purpose of this trip is to film some of the activities we love doing, namely skiing, but more importantly, to film about what life on the road is like and to get in the habit of documenting as much as possible.
Our first stop is Jackson, Wyoming and we are going to do some skiing at Jackson Hole. I had been to Jackson about 10 years ago so I was eager to take some turns on a challenging mountain. At Jackson Hole, green runs are practically nonexistent , blues are fast, blacks are hard and you had better know what you are doing if you venture onto a double black run.
We arrived late on Thursday night after a 7 hour drive up from Denver. The staff at Jackson Hole was gracious enough to provide us with lift tickets in order to get up on the mountain to do some filming. The skiing was great, but I was surprised to see as many people in the lift lines as I did.
A decade ago, you could practically ski right up to the chairs or jump on the tram. The wait for the famous Jackson Hole tram (which is in its last year of operation) was over an hour and the other lift that provided access to some good terrain (the gondola), had a wait of approximately 25 minutes. I thought that getting away from the masses in Summit County, CO would thin out the lines a little, especially on a Friday in Wyoming, but no such luck. This must be one of the reasons why the tram is soon to be extinct. Essentially, the tram serves the majority of the difficult terrain at the mountain and is the only access to the summit area, but with a capacity of only 52 people each trip, it simply can’t meet the demand. The gondola gives access to some good terrain, but the area served by the tram is truly where it is at.
Once we did manage to get on the mountain, the snow was great. Jackson has a pretty big base this year, and they had been getting snow all week. We skied a couple of warm-up runs, which in Jackson are still pretty steep, and then decided to get to some better terrain. At the top of the gondola, you can hike the Headwall and from the bottom, it looked like there was a lot of untracked powder up there. I overheard a host saying that the hike to the top was 20 minutes, give or take, for those who are in relatively descent shape. It has been I while since I have done the Ironman, but I have been skiing quite a bit, so 20 minute hike it was.
The hike ended up being closer to a half an hour, but the turns were worth it. There was a ton of untracked powder, and some of the first “face shots” I have had in a while. It was fairly windy at the top and the weather was overcast, so not the best light or conditions to be filming in, so you will have to take my word for it.
The line for the tram was still over an hour when we ventured down there in the late afternoon, so it was back to the gondola. The weather in the Tetons can be a very unpredictable thing. At this point, the weather had warmed things up and the snow was getting a bit slushy. Not less than 45 minutes later, the weather become fairly cold and the slush now became icy and hard. Skiing in these conditions is tough, even for a well conditioned skier. You start to make turns through the heavy chop and after about 6 or 7 of them, your thighs fill with lactic acid and feel like they are about to explode. After a couple more runs and a few stops to film what shots we could, it was time to call it a day.
That evening, Steve, Caki (Steve’s girlfriend and our backseat buddy on this roadtrip) and myself had a great dinner (first time I have had a steak in a while) and sought out what the Jackson nightlife had to offer. For you single ladies out there, this is the place to be. At every venue, there must have been a 15-1 male to female ratio, and this was a Friday night. After having a few drinks, we called it a night, hoping for some better weather to aid us in filming the beautiful Teton Range the next day.
We headed back to Jackson Hole in the morning, but this time without our skis. We wanted to do some filming from the top of the tram. The weather was dodgy, but we felt we could get in some good shots through breaks in the clouds. The line for the tram was over an hour, as expected, but we committed ourselves to the wait. We wound our way through the maze and after about 30 or 40 minutes found ourselves in the next group of people. However, our joy was short-lived as the tram operator soon informed us that the tram was having mechanical problems.
The initial estimate was 15 minutes. We waited. The next update called for an additional 30 minute delay. We waited. Finally, they said it would be at least an hour and a half. Given that it wasn’t looking too clear at the top anyway, it was time for us to throw in the towel. “Bailers!” People shouted as we let ourselves out of the tram line. These guys must be used to standing in line a lot around here, I guess that is all they can do after getting shot down by the one girl in town at the bar the night before.
We packed up our gear and started the drive towards Montana, hoping that along the way the weather would be kind enough to clear for a bit so we could see the Tetons in all their glory. More to come – Steve B.
