Great Skiing, Bad Photography
December 26th, 2009Posted in Skiing in the Tetons
The holidays are great days to ski with friends and family, especially when its bright and sunny and the snow is soft and fun. The old adage that there are no friends on a powder day definitely does not apply. Today, nobody was in any hurry to grab the best powder line or the last of the untracked snow, everyone was in a mellow, laid back mood and social skiing was the order of the day. Awesome vistas and dazzling sunlight created a made to order day for stopping to chat and snapping photos of family and friends. Skiing memories are often of great runs, amazing falls, incredible snow and terror inducing terrain, but I keep a few pages in my mind’s album space for these low key days when everyone is having a wonderful time just relaxing and enjoying being together while participating in an extraordinary sport in an incredibility beautiful corner of paradise.
I hope everyone had as great a time skiing today as we did at Grand Targhee. Yes, the snow needs to be deeper and base gouges while skiing off-piste were to be expected, but the cold air has kept thin snow cover light making for easy and very fun skiing. For a Saturday right after Christmas, I was surprised the parking lots took so long to fill and the lift lines were as short as they were. Maybe it was because there was no new snow that people took there time arriving. That was fine with me since I suspected the Mary’s Nipple terrain would finally be opened to the public this morning – and it was- so those who did arrive early had some good untracked powder skiing for an hour or so.
Just like they did last year, I have to say that Targhee has again managed to provide really good early season skiing on thin cover. In years past, there were places with many more rocks reaching for our ski bottoms on the main trails when the snow was this shallow. I have no idea what they are doing differently, but its working. Not much they can do about the off-piste though, but that is why we hang on to old skis for years- right?
Here’s a late morning shot of one of the powder raiders, in full combat attire, attacking what’s left of the Mary’s Nipple powder.
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