2024-01 Jackson Hole

Jackson Hole 2,

Jan. 29, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

I am sitting in the Snake River Lodge bar-restaurant, having finished my dinner and reflecting upon the last 2 days. As I mentioned in my previous entry, my door to door travel time was 21 hours. The poney express must have been faster. This evening I had my 1st real meal. I had a pain au chocolates and capuchino for breakfast at 5:00 am before boarding the plane yesterday. This was followed by a sandwich and cap for lunch and a scone and cap for supper. I arrived too late for dinner and had a late night beer. For breakfast today I had a cap and muffin, a yogurt and cap for lunch and finally a real dinner this evening. Maybe I lost some weight.

Today was an epic day as usual. The snow conditions were great but the visibility was impossible. It was cloudy with a thick fog that covered most of the mountain. I have 2 pairs of skis. My Rossignols are eastern skiing carving skis, 74 mm underfoot. They are good for carving hard packed, somewhat icy eastern trails. I also have a pair of Salomon semi powder skis, 92 mm underfoot that are good out west where there is softer, powder snow. I started the day with the Rossys but they were too heavy for the conditions. It was 0 C with soft heavy snow and I was having trouble turning in the deep snow. I switched to my Salomon skis which were more appropriate for the conditions. I left my Leki carbon poles (expensive) and went back to the hotel to exchange my skis. On my return I found out the someone had ‘borrowed’ my poles obliging me to purchase a new pair. This was disappointing as nobody locks their skis and theft is almost non existent.

I met 3 fellows on the gondola and they invited me to ski with them. Danny, Carston and Jordon are from Utah-North Carolina. 2 of the fellows were in their twenties and 1 was the father. 1 is a family practice resident. They ski like my kids and actually complimented me on my skiing abilities. Wow! While going up the chair, I managed to drop my brand new pole. It was on a very steep part of the mountain. I was willing to let it go but they showed me a reasonable way to ski around the cliff and recuperate my pole. There is nothing more difficult than skiing on steep moguls, in the fog, with only 1 pole to balance oneself.

At the end of the day we took the gondola up. The upper part of the mountain was above the clouds.

Love,

Brian