Trip Report: Jackson Hole/SLC

Flew into SLC, and drove to Jackson Hole in the middle of a storm. That
was my first mistake. Utah was getting pounded by snow, but Wyoming was
nice and sunny. Of course, we didn't know that at the time.

It's a long drive... I was hoping to get some riding done that day, but we
didn't get up until 6am so didn't get to JH until early afternoon, and it
just wasn't worth getting a 1/2 day ticket. So did some recon instead.

Now: none of the car parks in Teton Village are free any more. It's $5
for the first car park you hit (free for a car of 3 or more), or $10 for
anywhere else. However, after midday, it's free in all car parks.

Using information previously posted on this group we started out small (on
the Apres Vous chair) and hit perfect groomers. Good for getting some
carving sorted out in the lack of new snow. And working our way (gunners)
left, we checked out Thunder and Sublette. I kept thinking about these two
being the "bread and butter" of the place, but we couldn't find any
untracked.

The terrain is pretty good, but if you discount the cliff areas, there's
not much that's steep... plus there are a lot of skiers at JH - it seems
to be *the* spot for skiers to go to - and that's fine, but it does leave
a lot of mogul areas.

For most of the week, the town of Jackson was getting sunshine, but the
Teton range was clouded in, depositing an inch of snow for each 24 hour
period. However, last 3 days there was 6", then 5", then 13". Well as
the Americans say, we "lucked out" on the 6" day as the queue for the tram
was relatively empty when we got there, so we queued for it. Note that
despite previous reports, the tram is included in the lift ticket for JH.
I believe that we were in the 3rd or 4th tram up, and the top section was
pretty nice, although the moguls underneath were coming through, with the
old "dust on crust" scenario. Still, it was a good day.

The next day was OK, but I just don't know where the 5" disappeared to.
However, that night, everyone knew the storm was coming. It was snowing
hard in Jackson town in the evening, and we got an early night. Up at
6am, and the car park in town was covered in about 4" of snow. The
ploughs were out doing their job.

We got to the carpark about 7.30am and it was already filling up fast. The
tram though had a massive queue, with the line up extending down the
stairs... well we ditched that idea, and went to the gondola instead.
That was also a huge queue, but we had to queue somewhere. At 9am, the
public were allowed on, and I was probably in the 100th car up the hill.
Still, I strapped in at the top and decided to go where the tracks didn't.
I don't know what runs I actually hit, but I hadn't gone far when the
tracks disappeared, and I had untracked all to myself. The snow seemed
light, but not super light, and I was not hitting the bottom. It was an
excellent descent, big swooping carves on the open section, big airs off
the cat track lips, huge rooster tails on the tight turns... well, you
know how it is :-) A memorable ride that one. The rest of the day was
spent hunting for untracked, which got difficult very quick. It was a
good day to finish on, and we moved back down to SLC.

Powder Mountain - there was none of the famous Utah powder to play on as
it had been warm and sunny for a few days, but we had fun none the less. A
good variety of terrain with lots of open trees to go play in, and even
some powder to be found. The snowcat wasn't running, so it was lift served
terrain or hiking only. Quite a weird layout for the chairs, and you have
to criss-cross chairs to get to say the car-park, or over to the far left.
I had a blast though and got some great runs.

Brighton - a bigger resort with lots of terrain, spent 2 days here. Huge
potential for backcountry riding, but when it snows there should be plenty
to share inbounds, if the crowds don't beat you to it. Finding powder was
virtually impossible due to the sunny and warm conditions, but spring
slush was in order making some of the runs a lot of fun. Brighton has 3
parks and at least one pipe. The parks were pretty well maintained, but
the emphasis does seem to be on jibbing these days. Plenty of rails and
boxes to slide over. I just kept to the table jumps which were a
reasonable size. Funniest moment was 2 naked dudes speeding through the
park hitting each jump and finishing with synchronised back-flips over the
last table. Everyone watching was laughing their arse off.

Snowbird - even warmer and even less powder... but by 10am things were
softening up very nicely, especially in the south (?) facing back bowl.
You can ride up and look into Alta, and sneer at the skiers, but you're
not missing out on much terrain. The runs into the bowl were pretty good
and would be a great blast (albeit short-lived) in untracked pow. On the
frontside, there are a lot of moguls on the left hand "expert" side. The
park was a pain to find and get to, and it too had a lot of rails and
boxes for sliding over - maybe I'm missing something. It did have the
biggest table around - kind of caught me out as well, as I jumped the
first table, lined up for this, the second and as I was getting there I
realised that the take off ramp was bigger than normal. It looked like
30ft, but was probably only 20ft. Quite a kick as well, but thankfully
there's a huge landing tranny and lots of run off area. Got some great
airs of that one.

That's all I had time for on this trip, and I only really wanted to check
out the Canyons as my remaining destination... but at something like $65,
I wasn't going to pay that much to ride in the spring ice/slush. I'll be
saving that place for next time, as I certainly will be back.

SLC's an interesting place. I don't think I've seen so many Honda Civic's
being driven around... I guess The Fast and The Furious was a big hit over
there! Pretty easy to get around and find things to do... and got some
first class pasta at the Macaroni Grill on 300 South.