2023-01 Jackson Hole 5

Jackson Hole 5,
Feb. 3 2023,
Hi Everyone,

More of the same except that the temperature ranged from -5C to +5C with a bluebird sky and sunny all day. I went to the conference which went until 10:00 and then headed off to the ski hill. I have a 5 minute walk back to my Hostel and then a 5 minute walk up to the base area with all the lifts. There was a small line up at the aerial tram so I elected to take one of the 8 person gondolas that go almost up to the summit. I tried my Rossi carving skis and was really impressed with their performance. I could go faster with good control and could easily carve my turns. The ski has some titanium underfoot for stability but carbon in the tip which allows for flexibility in the bumps. They are also good in the well spaced trees but I didn’t venture into the steep tight tree areas as the snow was getting hard due to the freezing and unfreezing caused by the sun and changing temperatures.

I met Sebastian at the base of the aerial tram at 11:45 as planned and we took the tram to the very top of the mountain. They cram 100 people into the tram and I found myself in the middle, squished in between a couple of 6 footers. Thank goodness the ride is only 12 minutes long. We arrived at the top and took some great pictures. There was a 50k wind at the top which was wind swepted so we skied into the bowl and then into a bump run.

We skied mostly on the western part of the mountain as we had done most of the eastern part yesterday. The place is so big that you can not do the whole mountain in a single day. At some point we arrived at a place called ‘expert chute’. I forgot that when they say ‘expert chute’ that it really means expert chute. We arrived at the top and there was no way out except down. I was not going to climb 100 feet to get out of there. The chute was 75 meters long, 3 meters wide and had a pitch of 40-45 degrees. The snow was hard packed but not icy. Sebastian had no trouble going through but I must say that I did. I jumped my first turn, caught an edge and lost a ski. I didn’t really fall but the ski was 10 feet above me on the slope. A nice young expert skier, skied down, picked up my ski, jump turned around me, placed the ski on my downhill side (which is the more difficult side to put a ski on, and supported the ski while I jumped into it. I hope that he was not wondering what I was doing here. Anyway there was no way that I was going to attempt a jump turn again, so I safely side slipped the last 20 feet. I think that I had reached the summit of my abilities on this mountain and will read the signs more carefully in the future.

I had a quick capuchino and chocolate bar for lunch while my friend devoured a slice of pizza. We then worked our way back to an area just below and took the Howbacks out. The moguls have grown bigger, SUV’s rather than Volkswagens, but the sun beats down on the hill and the snow was soft with no ice what so ever. Again my skis performed really well.

I had a lasagna at an Italian restaurant and will have Swiss food tonight. The food is delicious but the prices are outrageous!

Love,
Brian