skier. backpacker. photographer.
Max and I toured 7.5 miles through the backcountry on a snowy day in search of deep, fluffy powder and… we found it! We skied some new terrain and then toured up to what has become our new favorite terrain. Now that I have finally found a way to keep the blisters and hot spots at bay I can enjoy these longer missions, even when my boots have steam rising out of them after I take them off.
After a week of nothing but foggy ski days, Max and I had been hoping for the sunny day that the weather forecasters predicted… but we showed up at Grand Targhee on Saturday morning to more of the same fog. After skiing our way by feel for a couple of hours, we decided to take a coffee break, and when we came back outside again, the sun had popped out to reveal a beautiful blue sky and perfectly snowy white ghost trees.
This ski season started out with a very dry November, which led to a delayed opening at Grand Targhee. And then opening day wound up being the first ever single-green-run-with-artificial-snow opening that I know of. Things got a little better in December – the Dreamcatcher lift finally opened on December 3rd, but it was still the worst rock season ever.
Then in January, the snow finally came – over 8 feet of it in the first 12 days of January. The video of me powder skiing below was shot on January 10, 2020. The fresh snowfall totals that day were 28″ in 48 hours, 21″ in 24 hours, and 12″ since the lifts closed. And instead of the usual fog and clouds, the sun was actually out with a deep and clear blue sky. This was glorious fun!