GUIDED TO THE GOODS MAKING THE MOST FROM YOUR JACKSON HOLE ADVENTURE WORDS AND PHOTOS: TONY HARRINGTON
It’s 6pm, mid-February and I’m sitting in a café bar in Chamonix, poring over weather charts and snow forecasts desperate to see a glimmer of hope and the slightest sign of some storm activity for the Alps. Aside from a big snow fall in early January there hasn’t been a snowflake since. I refresh my forecasts for the umpteenth time that day hoping for a change in the storm update. There is nothing on the horizon for the Alps, but on the other side of the globe a stack of storms and the jet-stream are lining up, stretching all the way across the Pacific from Japan with a torrent of moisture and cold air that’s set to slam into the entire stretch of western mountains of the USA. I can’t help myself. I make a split decision to pack, catch a shuttle down to Geneva and 12 hours later I check in on a flight back to Jackson Hole. It wasn’t days of powder skiing that unfolded – it was weeks. 10cm, 20cm, 30cm, sometimes 40cm of snow fell on a daily basis. When the last lift rolled at Easter marking the close of the season Jackson Hole confirmed the most in-season snow ever reported at 594” in Rendevous Bowl. This place is so big and has so many nooks and crannies that depending on the direction of the storm you really need to know your stuff to hone in on the sweet spots. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, and when there’s surreal top-shelf storm skiing on offer this vast playground can be too much to take in. If you go it alone, for sure, you’ll stumble across plenty of decent stashes, but you can also easily get lured to follow the herd along the main runs and waste precious time at the
bottom of Thunder when you could have been wallowing in untracked powder in one of the many special lesser known zones. There’s 2,500 acres to play in at Jackson – and that’s just inbounds. So, the maths isn’t hard to work out. There are plenty of ‘choose your own adventure’ options to explore. Once you add in the side and back country on the edges of this monster mountain your skiing is only limited by how much your legs and courage can handle. This is where a mountain guide is a super smart idea and pays off in spades. You’ve invested your hard-earned money and time flying to the US. You’re frothing on getting up to the mountain and skiing its legendary cowboy powder. You’ve heard the stories and you’re ready to add a notch to your ski belt. It’s an easy mistake to make – thinking it’s a matter of simply turning up and jumping on the infamous “Big Red” tram and then assuming the best runs of your life will unfold before you. The tram will indeed deliver you to the top of the legendary Rendevous mountain and you’ll be shoulder to shoulder with locals, legends and pro athletes as you listen to the ‘don’t know, don’t go’ safety speech as you pull in up top next to Corbett’s Cabin. If you click in and point it down you’re going to get a helluva run. You could do tram laps and follow the trail map all day and you’d be grinning and tired at the end. But I invite you to take your experience to a whole other level and discover parts of this place it would otherwise take you a lifetime to work out. Left: I bet you wouldn’t find this place without a guide. Shroder Baker in his backyard. 103
