skier. backpacker. photographer.
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!
Powder days are fun, but that zipper sound that my skis make across fresh corduroy can’t be beat! Sometimes the fog even lifts, and the sun pops out to reveal giant fir trees coated in impossibly thick blankets of white snow. The sky looks a pure, deep blue from up near 10,000 ft elevation, and sometimes puffy white clouds even come out to play.
A morning of clear blue skies and and the first rays of sunlight as it peeks over the mountains to warm up ghost trees.
I love to take in the scenic views with a few fresh inches on top of the groomers and frosted white trees.
Last year was my first winter in the mountains. I live 20 minutes away from Grand Targhee, so I had to learn to ski. I started off with a group beginner lesson. I remember falling down and one of my skis getting so deeply stuck into a snow bank that another woman from my lesson kindly helped me dig it out. I was a mess, but I had fun.
Here is a really flattering moment from my second time on skis – I’ve got the wedge AND the upper body swing going on at once. I’m also wearing a horrific pair of hand-me-down men’s ski pants from the 90s that made me look like a dork. I had to pull them up to my armpits under my jacket to mitigate the sag. I’m skiing the flattest green run at Grand Targhee, The North Pole, in the photo below.
Here I am six weeks and three more group lessons later on a blue run that was much steeper, and with more than twice as much vertical feet to the bottom of the trail. I’m stiff and my thighs are clenched in fear as I ride my skinny 142cm skis down the mountain, still wearing pants that are way too long – and goggles (also from the 90s) that are quite out of fashion. This photo makes me laugh now. And can you tell that I was cold?!
This is me on March 30th, 2014 (oh how I miss having that much snow at this time of year!) plowing through about 8 or so inches of powder, still on my skinny 142cm skis. I realize now why those skis were not helping me out much in these conditions. I had fun, though! And I bought a new pair of ski pants on the mountain that day, after all that falling snow soaked through my old pants so badly that I’d had enough. Good riddance to them!
This was me in April 2014, and where I left off technique-wise last season. I was getting better, learning to get on my edges, but still figuring the rest out.
This was me near the beginning of this ski season, in December 2014. I have a fatter set of skis in 159 length this season, and I’m starting to lose my fear of steepness and speed. This was the first time I went down the final steep drop of Wild Turkey at Grand Targhee without being terrified.
I started to think I was getting pretty good this year, but I still hadn’t put all of the pieces together yet. But when I would ask my husband Max (who served as my ski instructor after the initial beginner lessons) if I was getting better, he would always respond with, “NO. Still looks the same.” I had him take all of these photos of me along my journey, as well as many videos, so that I could try to figure out what I was doing wrong and how to fix it. I was so determined not to get another “NO” answer to my “Am I doing better this week?” question!
Finally, in early February of this year, I had a breakthrough moment. As I rode the lift up the mountain, I was watching the racing school skiers go down, and I realized that I needed to set my arms free. Until that time, I had been concentrating so hard on keeping my hands in front of me that I didn’t realize that it was okay to unclench my arms from my sides in order to make room for my body to move through my turns. And then the next run down the mountain, I got it. Even Max agreed!
After another few weeks of working on my technique, I started skiing black diamond trails. And skiing them really fast, feeling completely in control! This is me now. A year ago, it was hard to imagine getting to this place.
