Jackson Hole Underground

The Town Square is a ghost town right now, with more Jacksonites in Moab, Sayulita and (soon to be) Jazz Fest than in Jackson Hole.

For those of you who have been checking this site daily, I apologize. These words are long overdue: I’m taking a spring break.

The obligations of work, travel and other pleasant distractions have proved too taxing for me to keep up. So I’m putting the blog on hold until the wildflowers begin to bloom and the Snake River rushes with runoff.

Thanks to all of you for making the first season of JH Underground such a success: nearly 20,000 page views, all by word of mouth, and some incisive dialogue on life in the Hole.

While there will be posts periodically, daily news and commentary will not resume until May, when I aim to be back with renewed vigor and an improved site.

Until then, bon temps and happy trails!

Whoever wins tonight’s college basketball championship between Florida and Ohio State, let’s hope the NCAA does a better job of printing the T-shirts than the NIT did for its champion, West Virginia.

If Ohio State upsets Florida for the title, exacting revenge for the football Fiesta Bowl, B.J. Hansen of Vertical Media wins the Bradshaw pool.

If Florida rolls to its second straight title — and the Gators look unstoppable right now — an out-of-towner named Shawn Veldhouse takes the pot.

At the very least, may the game be better than Saturday’s dull semifinals.

Go Buckeyes!

Participants in the 32nd annual Pole Pedal Paddle have about three more hours to submit their entries, or be hit with a late fee of $15 per team member.

The deadline is 5 p.m. at the Jackson Hole Ski Club office upstairs at Snow King Center. Or you can register online.

The four-stage, slope-to-stream race used to be known as a “rite of spring.” But now that spring has come and gone, it will be interesting to see whether participation dips with the Nordic leg replaced by a 2.9-mile run.

As much as I hate running, it’s only fitting that we have half the winter sports legs than usual, as this year we had only half a winter. Although it’s snowing pretty heavily outside right now (and could be, through May).

Michael Pearlman has a story in today’s JH Daily on March’s meager snowfall being the lowest on record at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. More interesting would be a comparison of the temperatures for the month versus the historic norm. A little on the toasty side, I suspect.

If anyone knows where such data is compiled on the Web, please pass it on. That would spare me from having to hassle Jim Woodmencey for his records.