previously:  part I,  part II,  part III &  part IV

Day 9 ~ 340km

Jackson Hole, a US$ 600 per day heliski

No, we didn’t sign up for heliskiing (I’d love to though), the lift ticket prices were high enough and there was no way of buying discounted tickets at some supermarket as is the norm elsewhere. Janez did get his ticket about $10 cheaper as a ski instructor but I paid the full $70 (or was it $75?).
The price is high (add a bit more for parking as well) but so definitely worth it.
Say what you will but Jackson Hole is the best thing outside Europe (though I have yet to see Whistler and Aspen). The trails are all perfectly groomed, there are loads of amazing expert terrains, three freestyle parks and shitloads of excellent backcountry skiing.

The impression that I got while waiting for the tram to the top was that everyone around me was either on various  Drake Boinays (the hardcore bunch, someone even had one of the early prototypes) or  Rossi B3s (everyone else). My dream skis by any standard and suddenly my own Head Monster 85s were feeling a bit out of place. An amazing contrast with Europe if you think about it. Hardly anyone is using mid-fats and you can’t even buy proper fat skis anywhere outside Chamonix. Not in the stores anyway… And in the US you can’t get a decent pair of proper carving skis. The only thing we got in common is a growing popularity of freestyle boards.
One group in the tram was on their way into the backcountry for a filming session and this one guy had a big heavy tripod strapped to his backpack. Naturally I was wondering how serious these guys are and asked if he’s using a proper film camera (16mm seems to be popular for such applications). His answer was short and sweet: “I wish!”
We didn’t see them after that but I hope they got something they can work with. Unfortunately I forgot to ask who they’re filming for.
We though best not to follow them and decided to stay inside the gates. There was plenty to ski around there anyway. From huge cliffs, narrow couloirs and tree runs to wide open spaces to carve down. But as I said before, the entire continent was experiencing lack of snow and Jackson Hole wasn’t any better off. There were no problems accessing some fabulous freeride terrains but the packed crud didn’t really impress us.
We felt like dropping by the freestyle parks but didn’t try going down the massive big air or equally impressive half pipe although we did a couple of runs down the terrain park with its various grinds and jumps to add some more video footage to the collection.
But the trails, ohh the trails I tell ya…. I mean, how can you possibly resist something called Gros Ventre (large belly) and other entertaining blue and black diamond runs? Every run we did was at least a bit of a challenge rather than just another cruise down the mountain. With nearly empty resort to occupy us we got to ski aggressively and push ourselves and equipment beyond the limit to the point where either failed to keep up. In other words… it’s a skiing paradise no matter what you’re after. The best day of skiing in my life but I think another visit is in order…

Grand Teton National Park

It’s a relatively small park where you might run into a moose and a few coyotes but it’s rather empty during the winter months. The curious thing about it was the fact they were charging money to enter through the southern entrance (so you could drive the 5miles of the road that was actually opened) yet there was no one on the northeastern entrance where almost the entire length of the road was perfectly drivable.
We saw three moose (mooses?), one was hanging around in plain sight some 150m away from highway 191 and the other two (cow and calf probably) were hiding in thick undergrowth about 50m from the side of the road in the vicinity of Jackson Lake Lodge. How Janez spotted them from the car I’ll never know. I left the car and walked in the direction he pointed out and couldn’t see anything for a while. I found them eventually, the photos were bound to be crap since there were many branches in the way but we didn’t get another chance.
One of the coyotes was a funny character… he stared at his shadow for what mush have been 15min and only took a brief glance at us just 20m away. He couldn’t possibly be less bothered by our presence….

The Stampede

Deer (or elk or whatever) herds seem to act the same all over the world. They stand at the edge of the road for eternity and wait for a car to come near. Only then will they move and it’s usually in the direction of that car. It was totally dark while we were driving through western Wyoming and we didn’t see any other cars for hours at a time either. What we did see quite often were shadows and little glowing dots illuminated by our headlights that kept jumping across the road.
About the only town that came with more than 2 or 3 buildings was Lander and it was to be our destination for the day. We eventually found one motel that was still open and again settled in for a marathon of Who’s Line Is It Anyway?

to be continued…