skiing (and boarding) in jackson hole • 03.07.10
flying into jackson, you actually land in the middle of grand teton national park. pretty impressive and only a short 15 minute shuttle ride from the town of jackson (and the very nice homewood suites with the super-friendly staff and the free shuttles to/from the airport and the slopes). it was a really cute little town. it had great restaurants, a cool feel, and much more reasonable prices for food and “stuff” than most any other place i’ve been.
lillis liked their town square with the shops
and she particularly loved the antler arch (elk antlers).
the mountain was seriously steep.
we met people who had actually relocated there from other ski areas just to have access to more advanced terrain. it was certainly a little steeper than any place i’d been before, but it did have some beginner perq’s if anyone was going with a “mixed skill” group. #1 it seemed that the easy slopes were grouped all together at the bottom of the hill, #2 there’s a smaller mountain in the town that has 30 something dollar lift tickets, night skiing and tubing, and #3 it is a short drive to grand teton or yellowstone parks. also, skiers or any ski level can enjoy making jokes using the words “teton” and “jackson hole”.
team photo up on the hill
lillis wore my helmet to protect her little head. i’m not being precious, it really is rather small. anyway, the helmet looked huge on her and she was trying to cover it up for her picture. i thought she looked rather like the “great gazoo” but she had never heard of him. i forget she grew up on a farm.
here lil shows off some of her moves coming down a double blue
then we took a final shot at the end of our skiing to show that we’d both survived.
btw, another strong feature of jackson hole….music at the bottom of the resort every day at the end of the day and kids and dogs running around all over the place. really a nice setup they’ve got there.
we went out to dinner all three nights. night 1 – Gun Barrel Steak and Game House – AWESOME bison and elk. night 2 – mountain high pizza pie – solid and inexpensive. night 3 – Nikai sushi – FANTASTIC sushi place. well worth the (admittedly expensive) meal. when we got back lillis had a special moment with the moose we bought her. she was infatuated with moose on the trip (even though we never saw one). after a glass of wine at dinner (it doesn’t take much) she had a spirited conversation with the moose, trying to decide his name. she just kept repeating….”Maaarty…..JACK…..Maaaary……JACK…..Marty Moose sounds cool, but Jack is good because he’s from Jackson Hole.” in an upset, Marty won out.
the next morning we had one last brunch and lillis enjoyed the sunshine and the coffee before we headed home.
while the snow was mediocre, the resort was great, the town had a cool vibe, and the break from everything else was enjoyed. i highly recommend the place. here are the rest of the photos from the trip. enjoy!
oh, and finally, below is the video. nothing too crazy this year, as we only had three days on the hill and lil hadn’t skied in a 2 years and i was boarding a little gingerly to protect the ribs. so, no super high speeds, and no big aerials – particularly as most of my big aerials tend to end with big wipeouts.
Skiing and Boarding in Jackson Hole ’10 from charles breland on Vimeo.
