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By: Molly Glassman
This season in Colorado has been a tricky one—our storms have been few and far between with high winds and warm weather, leading to an extremely variable snowpack, constant avalanche concerns, and unpredictable conditions in the backcountry. I have spent much of this season monitoring storms and avalanche forecasts for zones outside of Colorado, like Mt. Baker, Washington and Jackson, Wyoming just to see what I’m missing out on. When my friend Laura suggested picking a week at the end of February to explore a new zone, I was super eager. We decided on Jackson because it’s only a 7.5 hour drive from Carbondale, Co and it looked like we might have some decent conditions.
Making the most of the conditions we were dealt the first few days. Not bad!
The first couple of days were a bit of a warm-up and weather wasn’t ideal—high winds, heavy warm snow, and avalanche conditions kept us from pushing high and too steep. Between Laura, Nicky (Laura’s husband), and I, the three of us had gotten a few different zone recommendations from friends who live in the area, but everyone seemed to think that starting in the side-country of Jackson Hole Resort would be a great way to kick things off. It had snowed 9 inches the night before but most of that snow was heavy and wet. It wasn’t blower powder, but it was still awesome to explore a new zone and see all the potential it holds for when conditions do line up. Sweet couloirs right outside the gate, long pillow runs, and some long open tubes.
The following morning, the wind was so strong that it actually woke me up. This was pretty discouraging and lowered our expectations for good snow but we still wanted to keep exploring and get eyes on new terrain. We decided to check out some well-known backcountry zones off Teton Pass. Coming from Colorado, where a lot of the best terrain requires long slogs or technical approaches, I was amazed at the easy access to good riding here. And the snow was surprisingly good! A short skin put us right into a sweet zone with endless options that you could just lap with a car or hitch-hike. On the weekends, there’s even a public shuttle for backcountry skiers.
Midway through the trip, things started to line up and our crew decided to check out Teton National Park, a zone we’ve heard our friends talk about for years. We climbed a little higher here and found sheltered north-facing trees that had held onto cold, untouched snow. Nicky forgot his poles so he impressively climbed +4500 feet only using a single wizard staff style branch, strapped to his backpack in between the uphill laps. The wizard staff was worth it even for just a few turns in this zone. We got blower powder through the trees with some fun mini-golf lines too. We lapped the zone, and got some amazing views while enjoying the best turns of the season.
Nicky and his aforementioned wizard staff
For our final day we decided to head a bit farther out to check a new spot about an hour outside of Jackson. The sun finally came out giving us our first true bluebird day of the week, so we hopped out of the car and skinned about 20 minutes to a beautiful face with tons of mini cliffs, drops and perfect snow! We were all so stoked to get a few laps in the sun before making the trek back to Colorado.
Laughing at the horrible side-hill I miraculously just made it past
Tetons showing off at the end of the day once the sun finally came out.
The riding was sick, but the trip itself was also a highlight. We stayed at the Flat Creek Inn, a super affordable spot in town that was exactly what we needed for a backcountry-focused trip. It was the perfect distance from everywhere we explored and just outside of town. We also spent a few nights enjoying some nearby hot springs and cold plunging in the river to keep our legs fresh.
Just below the clouds
We arrived a little on the early side of the weather window, and if we had stayed a few days longer, we definitely could have pushed higher into the alpine for some proper big mountain lines, but unfortunately we all had to get back to work. We barely dipped our toes in as far as the amount of terrain there is to explore, but we were all super stoked on all the beta we took away from the trip and definitely feel motivated to get back up there soon to ride some bigger objectives.
Laura and I admiring the Tetons / Blocko approved Bliss Jacket
Gear Notes
Molly is using the Cham Jacket, the M's Capitol Pant, the W's Bliss Jacket and Banger Touring Hat.
