Merry Christmas Powder Hounds!

Ahhhh, Christmas 2008-the best day I have ever had on skis in my life. I think I'm still in shock. Jackson Hole got 39" of 4% uber light powder in about 36 hours. Nate and I were lucky enough to get over Teton Pass right before they closed it down for a full 24 hours so we could ski at the Village. The avalanche danger was extreme, a first for the 8 years I have lived in Jackson Hole. The drive over was harrowing, but I had my face stuck to my new iPhone (the best xmas present ever, thanks hubby) while Nate braved the driving conditions.

Village Road mid-storm

It was snowing SO HARD and the avalanche conditions were so extreme that the majority of the mountain never opened. The Jackson Hole ski patrolers are saints in my book. Even though the tram never ran and the gondola didn't open until about 1:00, they did an incredible job getting at least some of the area open in some of the scariest conditions I am sure they have ever seen.

When we arrived we walked right past the optimistic hopefuls in the mile-long tram line and chose to ride waist deep snow through the singles line at AV all morning. By 1:00 we were toasted and ready to go home when all of the sudden the gondi opened, the boots went back on and up we went!

Nate, thigh deep. Keep in mind he's 6'3 and wearing fat skis!

Now I love mountain biking, but there's just something about powder skiing that hits a unique euphoria button in the brain. Cruising down a slope in chest deep powder is a feeling that could never, ever get old. It was so deep that Nate and I skied with beacons and packs and never let each other get out of sight. It was the kind of day that if you fell into a tree well or simply fell at all, it would be really easy to get buried and suffocate. Hehehehehehe....

After endless over-the-shoulder powder laps, we tried to drive home to get to a Christmas party. But, no dice. The pass closed at 4:00pm so we stayed slope-side at a friend's condo in the Village for the evening. Our neighbor Bill, another pass refuge, ended up there as well, so we spent the evening sharing stories of the epic day over an amazing Christmas dinner of sushi and saporro. The Village set an all-time record of the most amount of snow in the shortest amount of time (3" an hour at some points) and Bill (who's been skiing the Village for 30 years) said it was the best day he's ever had there. Now that's a very merry Christmas!