I was sick of not having decent snow at Mammoth, so I decided to drive all Wednesday night to get to Alta in the morning. After a truly miserable drive, I picked up my pass and got 7th chair, not too bad. I don't really know the mountain, but I met a friendly local on my chair who showed me around for a few hours. On the first run, we put the first non-patrol tracks in Thirds, which was predictably awesome. There was about a foot of snow, with the top layer being plenty light enough to provide face shots. After hitting some trees in the North Rustler area following Thirds (I'm not exactly sure where I was), my next run was High Rustler, which was already chopped up but was super soft. After that, I did a few more runs off the High T (I think Gunsight, Lone Pine, and Eagle's Nest), which were all great lightly tracked pow.
I was pretty dead from my total lack of sleep, so I took a mellower run on Wildcat before hoping to get the opening of Supreme. I didn't time it quite right, but it was still mostly untracked over there as the morning crowds had already gone back to work. I had a couple of great runs in some chute in the Piney Glade area before heading out to Catherine's for two low-angle but totally untracked runs. No pictures from Alta--the weather wasn't very nice.
After driving to Jackson through a total blizzard (and I have a 2WD car that thankfully performed great), I managed to get a few hours of sleep for the first time in 40 hours before my first day at Jackson. I couldn't get up early enough to be on the first or second tram, so I opted to take the Gondola instead. I once again met a friendly local and we headed straight for the Crags which hadn't opened the previous day and likely held the deepest snow. I certainly did have great snow, no less than thigh deep, generally more like waist deep, and super light (at least for my standards). My guide unfortunately hurt his knee hitting a cliff on that first run, so I was on my own after that. I stuck to hike-to area for 4 more runs, all ridiculously deep and mostly untracked. There was consistently a large tram line, but the Crags area stayed pretty quiet.
My own private mountain
Fun little chute
The most tracked run, still great
I wanted to take the tram, and since I was tired from 5 straight hikes, I decided to wait the ~25 minutes. Rendezvous Bowl was tracked but very smooth and soft, whereas South Hoback had clearly received less snow and wasn't as good. I can see how the Hobacks are incredible on a big pow day, but the snow there was clearly lower quality even on a cold day at the end of January.
The next day, another ~4 inches of snow fell and I started out by heading to Apres Vous to try out the Crowheart area. I was literally the only person there, but the subsurface was pretty firm and coverage wasn't great. Thunder and Sublette both had way better snow. Tower 11 Chute had really soft snow, and Expert Chutes off Sublette were amazing and mostly untracked, albeit short. I completely lucked into a rope drop in the Dog Face area and got more untracked before I decided to go do my first tram lap of the day.
I wanted to take a look at Corbet's, and when I got there, I got peer pressured by a bunch of teens (there was a high-level Junior freeride comp going on--the local kid who films with TGR didn't even podium), so despite Corbet's being totally tracked, I had to do it. There was a pretty major hip check involved, but at least I didn't lose a ski and the apron was fun. The Headwall hike was about to close and I wanted one more run there, so I went straight there from Corbet's and went out to the Crags area. I dropped in a bit before the main runs and found totally untracked snow. I soon learned that was because it ended in a cliff, but after Corbet's, a 10 footer to 3 feet of pow seemed pretty tame. I landed the cliff and made one really high speed turn through some trees before slamming something hidden under the snow and getting thrown into a pretty major tomahawk, during which I thankfully didn't hit anything. Looking back up the hill, I realized I had gone full speed into a log, and the log definitely won.
Going down from the log, the first mark in the snow was my left ski (which didn't come off) and the next mark is where my head first hit. Pretty good distance on that one! I'm pretty sore still, but I didn't hurt anything. \
/
I've had single better days in Mammoth, but given a pow day in the middle of winter, I don't think there's any place I'd rather be than Jackson. The terrain is incredible, snow quality great, and even though there are big crowds of locals to start each day, untracked was easily available all day for an uneducated first time visitor.
I was pretty dead from my total lack of sleep, so I took a mellower run on Wildcat before hoping to get the opening of Supreme. I didn't time it quite right, but it was still mostly untracked over there as the morning crowds had already gone back to work. I had a couple of great runs in some chute in the Piney Glade area before heading out to Catherine's for two low-angle but totally untracked runs. No pictures from Alta--the weather wasn't very nice.
After driving to Jackson through a total blizzard (and I have a 2WD car that thankfully performed great), I managed to get a few hours of sleep for the first time in 40 hours before my first day at Jackson. I couldn't get up early enough to be on the first or second tram, so I opted to take the Gondola instead. I once again met a friendly local and we headed straight for the Crags which hadn't opened the previous day and likely held the deepest snow. I certainly did have great snow, no less than thigh deep, generally more like waist deep, and super light (at least for my standards). My guide unfortunately hurt his knee hitting a cliff on that first run, so I was on my own after that. I stuck to hike-to area for 4 more runs, all ridiculously deep and mostly untracked. There was consistently a large tram line, but the Crags area stayed pretty quiet.
My own private mountain
Fun little chute
The most tracked run, still great
I wanted to take the tram, and since I was tired from 5 straight hikes, I decided to wait the ~25 minutes. Rendezvous Bowl was tracked but very smooth and soft, whereas South Hoback had clearly received less snow and wasn't as good. I can see how the Hobacks are incredible on a big pow day, but the snow there was clearly lower quality even on a cold day at the end of January.
The next day, another ~4 inches of snow fell and I started out by heading to Apres Vous to try out the Crowheart area. I was literally the only person there, but the subsurface was pretty firm and coverage wasn't great. Thunder and Sublette both had way better snow. Tower 11 Chute had really soft snow, and Expert Chutes off Sublette were amazing and mostly untracked, albeit short. I completely lucked into a rope drop in the Dog Face area and got more untracked before I decided to go do my first tram lap of the day.
I wanted to take a look at Corbet's, and when I got there, I got peer pressured by a bunch of teens (there was a high-level Junior freeride comp going on--the local kid who films with TGR didn't even podium), so despite Corbet's being totally tracked, I had to do it. There was a pretty major hip check involved, but at least I didn't lose a ski and the apron was fun. The Headwall hike was about to close and I wanted one more run there, so I went straight there from Corbet's and went out to the Crags area. I dropped in a bit before the main runs and found totally untracked snow. I soon learned that was because it ended in a cliff, but after Corbet's, a 10 footer to 3 feet of pow seemed pretty tame. I landed the cliff and made one really high speed turn through some trees before slamming something hidden under the snow and getting thrown into a pretty major tomahawk, during which I thankfully didn't hit anything. Looking back up the hill, I realized I had gone full speed into a log, and the log definitely won.
Going down from the log, the first mark in the snow was my left ski (which didn't come off) and the next mark is where my head first hit. Pretty good distance on that one! I'm pretty sore still, but I didn't hurt anything. \
/ I've had single better days in Mammoth, but given a pow day in the middle of winter, I don't think there's any place I'd rather be than Jackson. The terrain is incredible, snow quality great, and even though there are big crowds of locals to start each day, untracked was easily available all day for an uneducated first time visitor.
Great stuff!