My Retirement Year: An Ongoing Skiing TR

[kokomas]

Beer sighting in WY. Thanks MNIAW

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[Peruvian]

Glad you made it safely!

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Day 52: Jackson Hole (Ikon Pass)

After the slog to get here, I was pretty sure today would not be a full day. First day at altitude, still a little wrung out from the drive, etc.

'twas -4* when we got up this morning so Goniff and I waited for Kokomas to get to his get out of work early time and headed over at around 10. It was cold but somehow a much moister atmosphere than you would expect. This made it seem colder for sure. However, little white crystals were falling from the sky so that made it feel warmer for sure.

We linked up with Djongo Unchained and GBB (visiting from Tahoe) in the Casper Lodge and went in search of soft snow off Thunder. It was a mixed bag and it was still cold. After a couple of runs off Thunder we all agreed that the Bridger gondi was a better option. We skied numerous runs off Bridger and spent most of the time in the trees where soft snow was found. On one of those runs we ran into EastOrBust. Goniff and I had both met him before at the first EC Ullr-fest held at Magic. He was just a kid back then.

Overall a good first day. JHMR definitely needs more snow (you could say this about every resort in the lower 48 I think) but we had fun

Kokomas has set up a maggot gathering at his casa starting in about 15 minutes. I'm psyched that I will finally get to meet my homie BabyBear.

[ticketchecker]

A fine welcome to the hole, good on ya


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[jackstraw]

Nice. I'll be there in a couple weeks so hopefully we can hook up for some turns.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Nice. I'll be there in a couple weeks so hopefully we can hook up for some turns.

I'll PM you my digits.

Maggot attendance update at Kokomas' shindig...
StevieD
muted_reborn (visiting from SLC)
DjongoUnchained
Goniff
MyNameIsAugustWest
Schwerty
EastOrBust
BabyBear and her hubby

Big props to Mrs. Kokomas for allowing this gathering. So great to meet people IRL. Looking forward to more in the coming days.

Goniff and I will be heading over to Driggs on Saturday afternoon. If any GT folks are following this, we'd love to link up and ski/drink together. We'll be there through 3/29 although we'll be heading up to BS for the Montana BBI 3/19 and 3/20. PM me or Goniff to link up.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Day 53: Jackson Hole (Ikon Pass)

Kokomas had to work until 11 and Mrs. K was also interested in skiing so we headed over then. We missed our planned linkup with the locals so we decided to go soft-snow hunting. We wanted to head up to Rendezvous Bowl (Goniff had found some windbuff up there yesterday) but the line was too long. I guess the sunny weather brought out more peeps.

Kokomas suggested Apres Vous so we skied a bunch of laps off AV and Teton chairs. We found a fair amount of decent snow on the top halves of the runs there but it was pretty scrapy lower down. We saw this local on our first chair ride


The view from the top of Teton Chair was pretty sweet


Goniff snapped this pic of Kokomas finding some soft snow


View of the resort from Kokomas' casa


And the local wildlife in their yard

[kokomas]

This was an excellent day. With the sun out and the snow softening it was dangerously close to Magic-caliber!

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[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Day 54: Jackson Hole (Ikon Pass)

At the Thursday night soiree at Kokomas', we arranged a mag linkup to ski today. We had
Djongo
BabyBear
muted_reborn
StevieD
Kokomas
Goniff
Kokomas' friend Marty
and me.

Usually a crowd of 8 is too much to manage. Again huge props to the locals who all ski way faster than me but were more interested in keeping the group together than turning and burning.


We skied all over the mountain in search of soft snow and many soft turns happened but there were some spots that were not so friendly.

Marty had to bail due to some work that needed doing but Mrs. Kokomas filled in nicely.

The only downer for the day was when a snowboarder cut all the way across a trail and whaled into Goniff. He was shaken but recovered quickly. StevieD handled the diplomacy with the miscreant and all's well that ends well, I guess.

If you're a maggot and you're going to ski at JHMR, you need to reach out to Djongo and/or BabyBear. They will show you incredible hospitality and they are ripping skiers to boot. DJ is headed for the EuroBBI soon so he may be unavailable for the next 2-3 weeks.

We had to jet at about 2:30 to head for Driggs. The condo seemed great until we tried to turn on the water. None, nichts, nada. Nice views though.

[kokomas]

What a great day! So nice for you to share your season with us MNIAW. And also great to hang Goniff. Also other Mags, nice meeting you Muted and thanks for the hand delivery on those powder boards

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[babybear]

super fun joining in on the MNIAW100 project as well as meeting my hometown Barre homie MyNameIsAugustWest.
we had a blast today which as mentioned above is hard to do with an 8 person crowd.
No new snow but sunny skies, chalk and good conversations
also keep us posted on goniff bruising- hope all is still well .
I told him to post any gnarly pics 🤣

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

We are now in a hotel in Victor. Property Manager took care of the hotel bill and is hoping to get the water fixed by Monday at the latest.


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[skiJ]

Day 54 -

Sweet post - Thank you !

" ... some spots that were 'not so nice'. " ! !!
A new term for Conditions ! I have never heard before !
( I lol - may I use it (?) )

I have always called the cover "variable" and winter weather is - at it's worst, "balmy. "

" not so nice. " I will use with Permission - 😳😬

heal-up, G ! !!

I hope you guys have A Grrreat month ! !!


Thank you. skiJ

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Use away. i'm a horrible writer but if that phrase struck a chord, I'm a happy camper.

Day 55: Grand Targhee (Targhee Pass)

Pretty spectacular on the drive up this morning.


It was still quite cold this morning but the sun was out and it made things pleasant. We suspected that the intense morning sun might soften things a bit but El Sol could not outcompete Jack Frost. Upper mountain was chalky goodness and down lower wasn't bad but became a little grabbier.

After noon, high clouds rolled in and we had to be careful about aspects. I guess the sun did do some softening but when the clouds rolled in, it started to lock up on south-facing aspects. West and north was still good though and we skied uncounted runs off the groomers. So much fun.

On the condo front: still no water at the condo we booked 4 months ago. We did find a backup house just south of Driggs but it is not as nice as the one we're in. Property manager is due here in about 10 minutes but he hasn't heard back from any plumbers yet. We loaded up a cooler with snow and we're melting that to refill toilets. We can handle one more night like this (maybe 2).

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Day 56: Grand Targhee (Targhee Pass)

Why is it that smoke detector batteries always fail at 2am? I mean WTF? Every house I've owned and had battery failures, it's always at 2am. Enough whining.

Property manager for our condo contacted City of Driggs to see f the could determine if it was the water meter that was causing our issues. City water guys was scheduled to be here at 9:30 and Goniff had to work so I headed up to be on first-ish chair. The light was really flat so I stuck to groomers for about 4 laps on Dreamcatcher. On ride 5, the sun poked through the cloud layer and everything changed.

Did 4 or 5 more Dreamcatcher laps testing the non-groomed snow and it was a lot like yesterday; chalky goodness and small bumps to turn on (my bum knee is really appreciating the terrain here).

Goniff sent me a text with a pic of running water at the condo at around 10:15. Hallelujah!

On the ride back to Driggs (I left at around 11:15) captured this ominous view of the Tetons


Perhaps you folks that live near here (or anywhere in the Intermountain West) get numb to the spectacular terrain but for us easterners, it's pretty darned awesome.

Goniff just left to get a few laps in before closing so hopefully he gets some corn or at least some soft snow.

[Tye 1on]

First time I clicked on this thread and you're in my recently departed backyard. Glad the water got figured out, have a blast!!

[Djongo Unchained]

Stoked to hear you've got a property manager who's on it. Woulda been a drag to not be in the place you've been planning on for months.

About that view...I think most, if not all, of us are always impressed with our local views. Rarely do we take it for granted. One mindblowing sunrise or sunset will recalibrate any jadedness we may develop.

From all of the Spring babies to the Fall migrations, this place is special every day.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Day 57: Grand Targhee (Targhee pass)

Today was pretty close to the perfect retired day....

Got a few things done in the morning including updating my health care provider. Made lunch for Goniff and me and then we headed up to GT at a little before 2:00. Light was pretty flat but we continued to find movable sno off-piste that kept things interesting, North-facing aspects had good snow. I hit "The Good" and found lots of soft snow


This was just the beginning of a great day. We skied until just about 4:00 and then snaked a table in the Trap Bar within 5 minutes. Willy Waldman Band was playing and it was a Jazz/Funk jam band with a great trumpet player and the drummer played with Isaac Hayes BITD - you youngsters Google Isaac Hayes - coolest cat of my teenage years.


Awesome alpen glow, sunsets on the way back to Driggs

[Speedfreak]

First time checking in to this thread in a while and just wow. Looks like you're having an epic season/trip. Hope Ullr fires a few big dumps your way

[ticketchecker]

MNIAW, I love what you did with those chick skis. The Stealie really ties the room together.


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[MyNameIsAugustWest]

First time checking in to this thread in a while and just wow. Looks like you're having an epic season/trip. Hope Ullr fires a few big dumps your way

Thanks! GT is forecasting more than 30" over the next 10 days so....

MNIAW, I love what you did with those chick skis. The Stealie really ties the room together.

You prolly can't tell that it's a dancing bear sticker right above the Stealie. Got that one from Singlecross. Or was it you? I lose track of all the transactions...

The picture makes those skis look freakishly short...they're 188s and by far the longest skis I currently own.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Day 58: Grand Targhee (Targhee Pass)

Another great day. Goniff was regaling me with tales of peelaway corn yesterday (I took the day off) so I was looking forward to today's laps at GT. Quick rewind to yesterday...I went up to the mountain and hung out while Goniff skied and scored us a primo table in the Trap Bar for night 2 of Willy Waldman. Although the crowd's energy wasn't up to the task, the band delivered another fun afternoon.

On to today....Tried to time things so we hit prime corn and we were fairly successful. North-facing aspects were a bit crunchy but edgeable but the SW-facing aspects were where the real fun was.

Goniff shucking the corn



I had some fun also


No band at the Trap Bar today so it was a one and done. Deschutes Black Butte Porter for me....

Sorry for the sideways pic but not going to bother trying to fix it.

Nickels and dimes in the forecast (like 3-4" in 8 of the next 10 days) which should make things great and just in time for my Magic neighbor BH to get here next Tuesday.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Day 59: Grand Targhee (Targhee Pass)

In a word, today was meh.

Higher parts of the mountain were completely locked in, even the groomers were mostly un- edgeable. After trying 3 laps on the Dreamcatcher lift, Goniff and I headed for the lower elevation Sacajawea chair and we were rewarded with soft corn and slush that wasn't the least bit sticky for the lower 2/3 of every run over there.

After skiing our fill we headed for the Trap Bar as, once again, there was live music. Balsam Roots a local all-female bluegrass band was playing. The energy was low and we left at 5:00.


Supposed to snow tonight so our spirits are rising. Spent most of today memorizing where the rocks were showing through so we wouldn't hit them under the 3" or so we're expecting tonight.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Day 60: Grand Targhee (Targhee Pass)

We woke up to a dusting of snow down in Driggs and the Stick of Truth showed 2" and still snowing at the base of Targhee. We headed up early and were in line by 8:40. We were 15th-ish chair and decided to hit the groomers before the masses scraped away the 2" that had accumulated. The good news is that it was fairly dense and bonded to the layer underneath so good turns were made. There were layers of limited visibility but the surface was smooth and edgeable so no worries.

Now I know why Baby Bear calls this place Grand Foghee. After 3 runs, the layers all joined and it was like skiing inside a ping pong ball. We headed for the Blackfoot chair but that side of the mountain was also socked in. At least there were trees around to give some points of reference. We skied off-piste on NW-facing aspects and it was great skiing.


All of a sudden, it got worse. We were standing on the edge of a traverse trying to spot the trees we had been using to guide us and both of us got a slight case of vertigo. We skied down by braille and thought we might get some lunch but we were nowhere near the first people with that idea. We decided to head back to Driggs at 1:00 and would head back up for the band at 3:00.

Kris Lager Band was playing at the Trap Bar and they were awesome.


Nice sunset on the way back down the hill...

[kokomas]

Nice work, glad you guys got some softness

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