My Retirement Year: An Ongoing Skiing TR

[Buster Highmen]

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[MyNameIsAugustWest]

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Following your Eurospin as well.

[Peruvian]

So have you found a realtor yet? [emoji6]

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

So have you found a realtor yet? [emoji6]

Both of us have been perusing Zillow...a little more expensive than Londonderry, VT.

[MMP]

Both of us have been perusing Zillow...a little more expensive than Londonderry, VT.

But the conditions here ....


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[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Day 71: Grand Targhee (Targhee pass)

GT got an unexpected 2" overnight but the mountain was obscured this morning. I waited for the clouds to push out and headed up once I could see Fred's from the condo.

Almost nobody there (again) and I found 8 laps worth of mostly untracked snow over the previous soft base.

Goniff had to work until about 2:00 so I was solo today. Only pic is of the cliff band of Peaked Mountain


Another good day. MMP's picture of my home mountain leads me to believe I'm living in the wrong part of the country...

ETA: Goniff stayed up on the hill to photograph the sunset...

[Brownski]

That’s quite a sunset

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Day 72: Grand Targhee (Targhee pass)

Goniff and I headed up for a morning session as he had to pick up another visitor at the Jackson airport today.

We're anticipating 8" overnight and into tomorrow so we thought we would take it easy. I was skiing mostly groomers as the snow had set up and the off-piste was more dense and choppy than the past few days. Goniff decided to hike to Mary's. After about 45 minutes he caught up to me and said, "you gotta go with me for lap 2."

So off we went. He wanted to ski a line off Peaked Mountain's shoulder but my bindings were giving me fits (they seem to freeze up so I can't click in easily); not good for putting skis on in dicey spots. I decided I would play videographer for his run from the saddle between the 2.

In the vid, Goniff is starting in a grove of deciduous trees on the ridge top. You'll see a snowboarder drop in above him just as he goes...


My run down was pretty good but like the off-piste on the main mountain, the snow on Mary's was dense; not effortless like it was 2 days ago.

Another good day...I'm cooling my heels (and icing my knee) as I write this but Goniff and our new visitor headed back up to the mountain for the live band at the Trap Bar.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Day 73: Grand Targhee (Targhee Pass)



Admittedly, we watched Swift, Silent, and Deep a coupla nights ago but the tunes were appropriate for today.

Fair warning for our East Coast bretheren...the pics may make you cry.

Wasn't doing jack when we woke up so we decided to watch the webcams and would head up when it started snowing...that was about 9:45 and up we went. By the time we got to the lot, it was nuking pretty good


Visibility was B+ for Targhee meaning we could see 5 chairs in front of us on Dreamcatcher. Light was flat and it was hard to see the undulations underneath the 2" of new snow but we endeavored to persevere. 10 points for whoever can name the movie that phrase comes from....




It got better as the day went on (snow-wise) and was still snowing hard when we left at 4:30. Forecast is for dry cold air to move in after 9pm so the snow should be primo tomorrow.

[Djongo Unchained]

Day 73: Grand Targhee (Targhee Pass)



Admittedly, we watched Swift, Silent, and Deep a coupla nights ago but the tunes were appropriate for today.

Nice work fellas...

One of my top 5 songs ever.

Closing scene in SSD is a still of the old guard after a bombing run into Granite, most of us launching the 7 dwarfs cliff band for Casimiro.
Look again and see if you can tell which one is me.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Nice work fellas...

One of my top 5 songs ever.

Closing scene in SSD is a still of the old guard after a bombing run into Granite, most of us launching the 7 dwarfs cliff band for Casimiro.
Look again and see if you can tell which one is me.

Thnx DJ. We'll look again. We spent the entire movie trying to see you; now that we know where to look...

Just want to say that your post in the Yurp thread caused dust in my eyes also. Didn't know you IRL when I donated to that cause but knowing what I know now, it was the best $$ I ever spent.

[skiJ]

Thnx DJ. We'll look again. We spent the entire movie trying to see you; now that we know where to look...

Just want to say that your post in the Yurp thread caused dust in my eyes also. Didn't know you IRL when I donated to that cause but knowing what I know now, it was the best $$ I ever spent.

word ^^^

Dj sets the bar high.


(skiJ)

[Djongo Unchained]

Thnx DJ. We'll look again. We spent the entire movie trying to see you; now that we know where to look...

Just want to say that your post in the Yurp thread caused dust in my eyes also. Didn't know you IRL when I donated to that cause but knowing what I know now, it was the best $$ I ever spent.

Thanks mag, I consider that a HUdge compliment and indeed look forward to turning with you two devil dogs before ya bolt home.
Truly realize you were an integral part of a seismic shift in this old ski bum's life and career.
Thank you so very much, my friend.
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I was a young guy just beginning my real apprenticeship under RJ, Howie and Benny back then. No viddy of me and the First tier were the attraction.

I was stoked to go when Benny and I got off the tram and he says, 'Ooh, this looks like trouble a brewin'.
After a brief discuss with Steve C. He wrangles the 20 ish guys and says let's bomb Granite.
It was a veritable free for all into the cooler, Like elbows to get in before yer bud. That alone was quite the scene...

[Djongo Unchained]

word ^^^

Dj sets the bar high.


(skiJ)

Thanks brother.

It was a privately emotional trip for sure.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Thanks mag, I consider that a HUdge compliment and indeed look forward to turning with you two devil dogs before ya bolt home.
Truly realize you were an integral part of a seismic shift in this old ski bum's life and career.
Thank you so very much, my friend.

Fuuuck...making me tear up again. You just paid me the highest compliment possible...

On to today's post

Day 74: Grand Targhee (Targhee Pass)

Oh

My

God

It continued to snow after the lifts shut down last night and GT reported 10" in the last 24...trust me, it was more than that. Goniff had to work until noon and he missed out on this morning's pow harvest. His friend TA and I were in line at 9:10 and we decided to follow a local's advice (that I had gotten at the Trap Bar yesterday afternoon) and we headed for the Blackfoot lift. On our way, we skied untracked to the skier's right of Headwall...we were getting stoked.

We rode up Blackfoot and traversed out toward the area boundary...we saw a shot that looked untracked and we hit it. We repeated this 6 times and found untracked each time. No pics because we wanted to harvest as much as we could before it got schralped.

By the time Goniff arrived, my knee was shot. He was on his 2nd lap of Mary's when we caught up to him and TA went with him. I headed toward Driggs...

Random snowboarder launching off the shoulder of Peaked Mtn where Goniff dropped in


As the JH and GT folks know, we had an avy fatality a coupla days ago about 10 miles south of here. Goniff snapped this pic of a slide within sight of the inbounds at GT


TA finishing his lap of Mary's


New best day of the season. I heart GT....

[kokomas]

Racking them up over there, nice work! You guys got the best of this one. In bounds at the village it was chalky and nice today but not a pow day

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[Djongo Unchained]

You've got me beat by 6 days and pulling away.

Way to get after it mag, Solid Work.

[singlecross]

Glad you timed it well for your western residency… Get some without apology!

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

You've got me beat by 6 days and pulling away.

Way to get after it mag, Solid Work.

Hope you're feeling ok and get over the crud quickly.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Edit to add...

The local that advised hitting Blackfoot also told me that area that slid never slides. As several have noted in the JH, GT, SK thread, the snow is really funky out there. Be safe everybody.

Rode up with a guy that mostly skis BC and he said the couple that got buried a few days ago were 500-800 feet below the crown when it went. Scary to trigger it from that far away....

[jackstraw]

Is this your first extended period of skiing inda west?

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Is this your first extended period of skiing inda west?

Yup. Have done many week-long trips but this is by far the longest. When you go for a week (as you know) you can get skunked. If you go for 5 weeks, chances are you're going to get some goods.

[snapt]

Edit to add...

The local that advised hitting Blackfoot also told me that area that slid never slides. As several have noted in the JH, GT, SK thread, the snow is really funky out there. Be safe everybody.

Must be a covid local, that slides much bigger with regularity.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Must be a covid local, that slides much bigger with regularity.

He said he's been living her for over 20 years but originally from the east coast. I doubted what he was saying just based on what I could see from the bootpack up Mary's.

[Djongo Unchained]

Must be a covid local, that slides much bigger with regularity.

A covid local !!!!

Oh my god that is fucking hilarious.



Cannot wait to throw that one out...
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Hey, when do you mags head back east??
I gotta make a plan to get over there asap, had planned on this week, but stalled due to my C19 lap.
My 10 day quarantine ends tomorrow, symptoms all but gone and plan on an antigen test in the AM. Plan on rolling some lifts alone at the vill this week as I haven't made a turn in 9 days.