Jackson Hole 6,
Feb. 7, 2025,
Hi Everyone
I snowed all night and kept snowing until mid day today. 30cm (12 inches) must have fallen altogether. This morning the winds were unbelievable. Several lifts were close and visibility was very poor. I missed meeting up with my buddies so I started out alone at 9:30 on one of the lower gondolas. I skied 2 runs, got rather discouraged and decided to go into the Caspar, mid mountain restaurant. I sat there for a while observing the 50 mile/hour winds, sipping a coffee, eating a muffin and licking my wounds. When does this get to be fun?
After while my friends came in for some refreshments. I reactivated the Jackson Hole app and found that 2 of my buddies were skiing the trees not far from the restaurant. The app is incredible, it allows you to find your friends no matter where they are on the mountain and follow them as they ski down the mountain. I waited for them at one of the lifts.
My luck changed and it started to become fun. I skied with my 3 buddies for the next 3 hours. The wind calmed down and the visibility improved. We skied the rest of the day off 1 lift coming down the mountain among the tightly placed trees. There was easily 1 foot of unbroken powder between the trees. Once, I put my ski pole into a mogul and my pole went down to my wrist. I practiced my newly learned technique of not jumping the turns. Rather, I let the skis just float over the snow while weighting and unweighting the skis to make the turn just like on hard packed snow.
I remembered what my son, Antoine, told me years ago about skiing the trees. I was braking at each tree while I observed him just flying through the trees. He told me: ‘Your skis are 5 ft long and there are 10 ft of space between each tree. There is plenty of room to pass. Find a line between the trees and just trace.’ I did it, it’s true, it works. When parking a car if you look at the curb, you will hit the curb. As he said: ‘just don’t look at the trees.’
Love,
Brian
gobriantravel 