Jackson Hole Trip - Day 3 - 1/9/09
Submitted by www.snowboard-women.com
read the Day 1-2 Recap here)
Mikey and George arrived late on Thursday evening and had actually met us out the night before at the Town Square Tavern. The next day, the two of them and I took the shuttle over to Jackson Hole again and enjoyed the most amazing day! As noted, it was a little snowy the night before and the temperatures kept the snow at the perfect consistency, so we tracked some amazing powder! There was about 6 fresh inches from the previous night.
Jackson Hole apparently doesn’t really get crowded, so even though we didn’t get on the mountain till around 10:30, we still got some fresh tracks in areas. This day’s weather turned out even better than the day before - there was no wind and the sun peeked out for most of the day. Absolutely perfect conditions.
We started the day going up the gondola and doing a few runs over to Thunder chair again. From there we branched out and hit a lot more of the mountain today. Lots of great snow under the tram, and hit some tree runs around the edges of Lander Bowl. After 2 hours of exhausting powder riding, stopped for a quick lunch at “Cowboy Cafe” at the base of the mountain then we boarded the tram.
The tram is a brand new feature - it opened on Dec. 20, 2008. It holds 100 people and takes you all the way up to the summit at 10,450′. And believe me, they really pack you in and fill that car to capacity. I couldn’t move my arms to put my camera away after taking this pic!
From the summit, you can hit the insane well-known run called Corbet’s Couloir - a 55-degree drop with rocks on either side! I think I will pass! We opted for the easier route down, via Rendezvous Bowl. It was a little bit icy up here due to the colder temps and blowing wind, so it wasn’t as enjoyable as the rest of the mountain. But Rendezvous starts off black and ends up blue, so it’s not bad. From here we dumped back into Lander Bowl then cruised over to the gondola again. Best choice of the day - dipping into the run directly under the gondola.
We found the best, deepest powder back here. You can pop into tree runs all along the edge of the trail. It’s wide and just steep enough to give you some decent speed to push through the deep powder. At one point I did fall into powder that was probably up up to my mid-thigh, so I had to dig a bit and unstrap the board to get out.
We managed to head over to the Apres Vous side of the mountain today also, but the conditions weren’t as good as the whole gondola area was. A little bit crunchy and icy, and not quite as deep of powder as we had earlier in the day. All in all though, a great day, and some of the best riding in powder I have ever had! We called it a day to get back on the shuttle about 3:45pm and luckily beat some of the crowds.
After a nap to refresh, we went to dinner at the Snake River Brewery. Great local brew house with large food portions. We all tried pretty much all the beers they brew since we each shared Leila’s beer sampler. The shock of the night was the “Ned Flanders” brew, which we though tasted like crap - this weird, sour, vinegary taste - but once we read the description it made sense because it was called a SOUR ale and was made with 50 lbs. of cherries!
Jess and I shared a yummy heart-attack-maker of a sandwich called The Roper, which was a half-pound of brisket topped with some applewood bacon and cheddar cheese and horseradish cream sauce. MMMMM it was good though!
Being exhausted from our days (I forgot to mention, Jess, Leila, and Leland did a sled-dog tour all day long - we need a write up of that!) we called it a night and were pretty much all sleeping by 11pm.
