Getting Better

Yesterday’s cold morning sky

I’ve been getting some early morning turns in on the south side of Teton Pass before work the past couple days and it’s been pretty good. I’ve found the snowpack to be anywhere from 6-36” deep, with the more north facing aspects having a pretty good base underneath the recent new snow.

I’m not one to push it too hard for early season turns, but I like to sniff out the grassy slopes where I know there are not any rocks for my early season fix. Yesterday I had Avalanche Bowl all to my self until about 9 am. The wind had nearly filled in all the tracks from the day before and it felt great to be out again on a bluebird powder day. The new snow had a quicksand or ball bearing consistency and the wind had created a slight slab on the surface.

It’s a pretty short run you get on Avy Bowl, but that just means you have to do a lot of laps and most of the time I don’t leave without doing a least eight. Mr Suunto registered over 3000′ of vert for yesterday’s effort…which is close to skiing two laps on Mt. Glory. Setting the boot pack was interesting and every once and while I would punch through a layer and sink up to my crotch. I dug a small pit and it reviled a couple nasty layers that will hopefully work their way out of the snowpack sometime soon.

It looks like the forecast is for a slight chance of more moisture in our area over the weekend, but it looks like it will be a bit too late for Grand Targhee, who have announced that they will NOT be opening this weekend.