Who says winter is over?!?!

Not in the Tetons it isn't!

(JHMR file photo)

Here are the snowfall totals for the past few days here in the area:

Grand Targhee



0" 0" 14" 13" 1"
03/12 03/13 03/14 03/15 03/16

Year to Date Snowfall Total: 486"


Jackson Hole Mountain Resort


0" 0" 18" 9" 7"
3/12 3/13 3/14 3/15 3/16

Year to Date Snowfall Total: 505"


So needless to say, I made the most of having the weekend off and excercised my inalienable right to a complimentary weekend ski pass (Thank you, employer!) on what was quite possibly the best weekend of snow conditions all season so far. (Friday was by far the primo day to be up there, but alas, I was chained to a desk. Grrrrrrrrr...) I was chomping at the chain all day until finally at 5:45pm, it broke and I was on the loose running out the back door, tongue hanging out the side of my mouth, shaking my fur in the crisp fresh air.

Saturday, I met up with some friends at Jackson Hole. Wow. It... was... so... DEEP! Ahhhhhhh... I wish I had photos, but I was too busy skiing. Besides, you wouldn't have seen anything in the photos anyway other than big puffs of snow.

Sunday, was a day at "the Ghee". Not as much snow overnight, but dame! Still light and fluffy and typical Ghee pow-dah! I met up with "Crisco" and "Thard" late in the morning and we spent the rest of the day sniffing out powder stashes. I had already hiked up to Mary's Nipple earlier in the morning (see photos below) and enjoyed an exceptionally rare occurance of deep, fresh, untracked snow and sunny blue skies over a frothing sea of clouds. I wanted to stay there all day and just let my eyes wander, but shortly after arriving at the top, the proverbial clouds rolled in and it became... fah-ghee. Of course. How could that blue sky possibly last? But for those fifteen minutes while I stood on top, captivated and mesmerized, time stopped. And then, I skied down in a billowing cloud of my own making.

Here you can see Mary's Nipple, the doink to the right of the large Teton peaks

Surprisingly, it didn't take much convincing for my two compatriots to decide to do it with me in the afternoon. Neither one had ever hiked up there before, so after explaining that it was basically a fifteen minute hike for the best snow they would ever ride on, the deal was made. Again, unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the "action", but here is a sequence of shots nearing the tip of the Nip.