Targhee over the Christmas Holiday

My wife and I took the family to ski Grand Targhee again this year, I
have two kids ages six and ten and they love it there, the ski school
is really good to them. We arrived by the Grace of God on the day after
Christmas (Delta Airlines), and by all accounts it had been a dry year
up to that point, even so, with the wind blowing we were able to find
great snow on the Good the Bad the Ugly and the Eastwoods all week. It
was also possible to hike Marys one day and we did so - catching fresh
tracks right down the face through the trees. We got small amounts of
snow near the end of the week and felt fortunate to get that. On New
Years eve we got up at O dark thirty to ride into Jackson and catch the
plane home. The snow was coming down so hard over the pass it was hard
to see - after about six or seven hours in the airport they decided no
planes could take off and so they ordered up six busses to drive every
body to Salt Lake City - upon hearing this I called the airlines and
got a flight two days later out of Idaho Falls and rented a car and
headed back over the pass to Targhee. This is not an extreme mountain
by any measure - in fact most of you may find it rather tame, but for
me there are few places I would rather be on a fresh snow morning. For
those of you with families looking for a good place to take the family
during the holidays, this is a perfect spot. The liklihood of
significant early snow is very high, even on light years there is
enough coverage to open most of the mountain. Waiting at the lift gets
extreme at ten minutes and the ski school is great for the kids. I
recomend Bart and Courtney. - Bart was there last year and he taught my
ten year old who is more advanced and my six year old had Courtney for
some private lessons, progresseing significantly on one day in
particular. Courtney transplanted to Alta Wyoming from Alta Utah and he
has the right disposition for teaching kids. The atmosphere at Targhee
is low key - you won't see much pretension here, mostly just familys
from the surrounding area and a handful of locals. For my taste the
food is great (albeit limited in selection). The grocery store in
Driggs had great produce, by the way. Stay in the Sioux Lodge condos -
so you will have a kitchen, put the kids in ski school a couple of days
and ski off the beaten path -

Happy New Year

Dave

Glad you had a good time. Targhee gets 550 inches of snow on average each
year so it's always got powder .... Wish I could go .....
"Dave's not here" wrote in message
oups.com...
My wife and I took the family to ski Grand Targhee again this year, I
have two kids ages six and ten and they love it there, the ski school
is really good to them. We arrived by the Grace of God on the day after
Christmas (Delta Airlines), and by all accounts it had been a dry year
up to that point, even so, with the wind blowing we were able to find
great snow on the Good the Bad the Ugly and the Eastwoods all week. It
was also possible to hike Marys one day and we did so - catching fresh
tracks right down the face through the trees. We got small amounts of
snow near the end of the week and felt fortunate to get that. On New
Years eve we got up at O dark thirty to ride into Jackson and catch the
plane home. The snow was coming down so hard over the pass it was hard
to see - after about six or seven hours in the airport they decided no
planes could take off and so they ordered up six busses to drive every
body to Salt Lake City - upon hearing this I called the airlines and
got a flight two days later out of Idaho Falls and rented a car and
headed back over the pass to Targhee. This is not an extreme mountain
by any measure - in fact most of you may find it rather tame, but for
me there are few places I would rather be on a fresh snow morning. For
those of you with families looking for a good place to take the family
during the holidays, this is a perfect spot. The liklihood of
significant early snow is very high, even on light years there is
enough coverage to open most of the mountain. Waiting at the lift gets
extreme at ten minutes and the ski school is great for the kids. I
recomend Bart and Courtney. - Bart was there last year and he taught my
ten year old who is more advanced and my six year old had Courtney for
some private lessons, progresseing significantly on one day in
particular. Courtney transplanted to Alta Wyoming from Alta Utah and he
has the right disposition for teaching kids. The atmosphere at Targhee
is low key - you won't see much pretension here, mostly just familys
from the surrounding area and a handful of locals. For my taste the
food is great (albeit limited in selection). The grocery store in
Driggs had great produce, by the way. Stay in the Sioux Lodge condos -
so you will have a kitchen, put the kids in ski school a couple of days
and ski off the beaten path -

Happy New Year

Dave

In article , AstroPax says...

On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 15:03:24 -0500, "Hank Sniadoch"
wrote:

Targhee gets 550 inches of snow on average each year

I call "bull****" !

-Astro


He is actually not far off.

- 467 inches:
http://members.aol.com/crockeraf/nrocnet.htm

- "near" 500 inches:
http://waterplan.state.wy.us/plan/sn...os/recuse.html

nearest snow stake to Targhee (tops out at 37 inches of water):
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/cgibin/...-GRASSY%20LAKE


nearest snow stake to Alta (tops out at 42 inches):
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/cgibin/... 42s-SNOWBIRD

Pretty darn close, if you ask me.

BoftheW

"BoftheW" wrote in message
...
In article , AstroPax says...

On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 15:03:24 -0500, "Hank Sniadoch"
wrote:

Targhee gets 550 inches of snow on average each year

I call "bull****" !

-Astro


He is actually not far off.

- 467 inches:

Something in the 20% range ok for you? You must do govt. work.

Hank Sniadoch wrote:
Glad you had a good time. Targhee gets 550 inches of snow on average each
year so it's always got powder ....

Weeeell now - Targhee claims 500in; It does have powder which I can
attest to, but number of inches doesn't translate to consistent powder;
We get 495in ave and it's it's only powder if you can dance in Sierra
Cement with aplomb.

We now have two mountains for you to explore with over 2,000 acres of lift
served terrain and an additional 1,000 acres of terrain reserved for Snowcat
Adventures, with every inch covered by our legendary Wyoming snow (averaging
over 500 inches a year)!

"AstroPax" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 15:03:24 -0500, "Hank Sniadoch"
wrote:

Targhee gets 550 inches of snow on average each year

I call "bull****" !

-Astro

That's from their site. 500+ is close enough to 550 for me. Maybe not for
you. Too bad.
"AstroPax" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 15:03:24 -0500, "Hank Sniadoch"
wrote:

Targhee gets 550 inches of snow on average each year

I call "bull****" !

-Astro

"AstroPax" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 10:52:46 -0500, "Hank Sniadoch"
wrote:

500+ is close enough to 550 for me. Maybe not for
you. Too bad.

"Meteorologist Jim Woodmencey has lived in nearby Jackson since 1982.
He notes that while Grand Targhee will receive 500 inches in an
average winter, only 330 inches of that comes during ski season-Dec. 1
to April 1."

Now do you get it?

Good call.
I believe that may be true with Mt. Baker as well.

Astro wants us to change our winter season to Nov 1st to April 1st .... so
that Ootah resorts can look even better .... sorry Astro .... Targhee gets
500+ inches of snow regardless of your friend weather forecaster and you
..... end of discussion for me (you know what killfile is?) that's where you
are now ..... in my crap file ....
"Hank Sniadoch" wrote in message
...
That's from their site. 500+ is close enough to 550 for me. Maybe not
for you. Too bad.
"AstroPax" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 15:03:24 -0500, "Hank Sniadoch"
wrote:

Targhee gets 550 inches of snow on average each year

I call "bull****" !

-Astro

AstroPax wrote:

On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 15:03:24 -0500, "Hank Sniadoch"
wrote:


Targhee gets 550 inches of snow on average each year


I call "bull****" !

-Astro

Agreed. The average has been more on the par of 460 inches the past 8
years - the beginning of the present drought cycle. Previous to that it
was over 500 inches. The good news is that 460 inches is still pretty
killer, especially if you consider that it stays chilly enough to
preserve most of it. Alta has more snow with nearly the same quality.
The only real downside is the thaw that turns the snow bulletproof.
Happens every year. Not at th Tetons.