October Blues
October 29th, 2008Posted in Skiing Everywhere
With the exception of the historic powder dump of 60″ up in Pony, MT a couple of weeks ago, winter is hardly teasing us at all here on the Idaho and Wyoming border. The Tetons have been blanketed with snow once or twice, but only remnants remain above 10,000′ now. I guess this weather pattern is good for all the ski movie purveyors. With little real snow to seek out for early season turns, the movies provide an alternative skiing experience for snow craving skiers.
Looking up at the bare mountains while enjoying the bright sun and 60 degree temps, one wonders how enough snow will ever cover them and their rocks and their deadfalls to allow good skiing in less than a month when Grand Targhee officially opens for the winter season. Sure Targhee has some snowmaking capabilities these days on its lower mountain green runs, but for real skiing, both it and Jackson need real snow, and lots of it.
Somehow Mother Nature manages to come through, year after year (some years later than others) and those of us who moved to the Teton area for the skiing give ourselves pats on the back for our wisdom as we can go for years without ever touching artificial snow. Before Targhee installed its minimal snowmaking set up it was famous for its slogan “Snow from Heaven, not from Hoses.” Since it uses its snowmaking so seldom, I wonder if Targhee, after a record snowfall year- like last year- ever reconsiders that decision and might want to remove the under used snowmaking and turn up the marketing a notch in favor of differentiating itself as the home of all natural snow again?
But looking up at the snowless mountains, feeling a little blue at the lack of the white stuff, wondering about the Global Warming angle, I wonder if the good old days of abundant November and December storms are going the way of the days when snows in the Teton Valley created drifts as high as telephone poles. Perhaps Targhee was right in losing faith in heaven. Last year, a near record year for snow by the end of the year, it wasn’t until the end of December before the heavens opened up and buried the mountains.
Skiers need to be optimists. We don’t think we’ll ever get hurt palying our dangerous game on the dangerous mountains in their most hostile weather. We ‘re confident winter will always show up to justify our huge gear outlays, not to mention investment in resorts and second homes. And now days, we bring up our children to love a sport that might not be viable in the future except in very rare locations or in climate controlled buildings.
Enough blue thoughts. Winter will eventually get here this year. I heard on the radio there was a Winter Storm Warning yesterday for Upstate New York- in October! Maybe this is the first year in a long time that I haven’t had even x-c skis on my feet in October, but there is a chance of rain predicted for this weekend, so maybe the higher elevations will start turning permanently white. I smile at the thought.
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