JH Underground – news, sports and music blog from Jackson Hole, Wyoming news, sports and music blog from Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Rungius freshies! Dude, I'm so stoked on art.

• Drink. (It is, after all, New Year’s Eve.)
• Divert elk migrating to the refuge onto the pass to help trample the rain crust.
• Transceiver practice.
• Take up skate skiing.
• Find out just what the Murie Center does, anyhow.
• Drink some more. (Good thing the Brew Pub has expanded.)
• Start a blog!
• Sell carbon credits on the trips up Teton Pass you aren’t taking.
• Finally see what’s inside the Wildlife Art Museum.
• Monkey-wrench oil and gas drilling.
• Shoot guns in Idaho; shoot pool at the ‘Coach; shoot tourists on the Town Square.
• Realtor Iditarod: Teams of unemployed brokers pull sleds on a 10-day odyssey across Wyoming.
• Mexico — Last one out of Jackson Hole turn off the lights!

Posted under Humor, Sports

Cafe Swept Away? A resort employee surveys the damage following the Headwall avalanche. Photo submitted by anonymous reader. Click to enlarge.

Wow. The events of the past three days have been dizzying, leaving many of us confused, upset and even afraid.

I want to address two undercurrents of the comments posted on this blog and discussions I’ve been a part of around town.

First, the conventional wisdom seems to be that Jackson Hole Mountain Resort brass has been pressuring the ski patrol to open the mountain for the peak holiday crowds despite the extraordinary avalanche danger, resulting in unsafe conditions.

A popular target.

I’ve spoken to several mountain employees with intimate knowledge of the fatal avalanche Saturday and yesterday’s Headwall slide into the Couloir restaurant. They had no reason to lie, and they assured me that resort management has put no pressure on anybody to do anything other than what’s in the best interest of safety.

The Jackson Hole Ski Patrol decides when and where slopes should be opened, and resort management defers to their expertise. The mountain operations manager, Tim Mason, is no corporate bean counter but rather a longtime resort employee with years of experience running the lifts and working with patrol.

Second, the clamor has been growing louder that the resort is trying to cover up these incidents, or at least control the flow of news. Yes, there has been a frustrating lack of information at times, and continued conflicting reports, but let’s remember that these employees have been dealing with a crisis for several consecutive days, just as the holiday rush arrived.

Those who are not a fan may be surprised to learn that Jerry Blann, president of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, was at the scene of the Headwall avalanche Monday, grabbed a shovel and dug out at least one of the buried ski patrollers. Along with other executives, Blann remained on top of the gondola well into the night as workers cleared debris.

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Posted under Media, Ski Resorts, Sports

Photo of the debris pile outside Couloir, submitted by JH Underground reader.

Web cam photo of ski patrollers probing debris shortly after the Headwall slid this morning at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Click to enlarge.

The Headwall slope at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort avalanched this morning and crashed into the Couloir restaurant atop the Bridger Gondola, but preliminary reports indicate no one was killed or injured severely.

Ski patrol triggered the slide using explosives, according to a mountain employee who was on scene.

Two patrollers were buried but dug out OK, according to a member of Teton County Search and Rescue who assisted in the probing effort. Ski patroller Mike Werner reportedly was hit by a table but was not badly injured.

The back wall of the Couloir restaurant was smashed, and windows were blown out. The slide reportedly trapped a ski patroller inside the patrol hut, but he or she was extricated without injury.

The resort released this statement:

“At approximately 9:30 a.m. this morning, after JHMR Ski Patrol had completed one avalanche hazard reduction route and were getting ready to conduct another, the Headwall slid naturally from the southeast aspect above the Bridger Restaurant.

“This incident took place before this area of the mountain had been opened to the public. A search for potential victims took place and everyone has been accounted for. This incident is under full investigation and a more detailed report will be released at 4 p.m.

“At this time, JHMR will remain closed until further notice.”

Read More…

Posted under Ski Resorts, Sports, Weather

Updated 10:03 a.m. Dec. 28

The slide occurred between Paintbrush and Tower Three Chute, in an area known as Toilet Bowl. Click to enlarge.

A skier died in-bounds at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort today after being buried in a slide in Toilet Bowl.

The skier has been identified as David Nodine, 31, of Wilson, according to the Jackson Hole News&Guide.

David Nodine, from his Facebook profile.

Ski patrollers located the body within 10 minutes but were unable to revive Nodine. He was one of two skiers who triggered the slide, possibly after one of them lost a ski following a jump; the other skier was unhurt.

The crown at the top of Toilet Bowl reportedly was about 8 feet high. It remains unclear whether the area was open at the time.

The slide came shortly after the resort finally opened all of its upper lifts, which had been closed for more than two days because of heavy snowfall and extreme avalanche danger.

The slope, located below Thunder chairlift to the skier’s right of Paintbrush, had been bombed by ski patrollers in the morning and had been skied by other people, according to the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center.

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Posted under Ski Resorts, Sports, Weather

Somewhere in there is an automobile.

That makes five feet of snow in less than five days.

Christmas Day I enjoyed some of the best powder skiing of my life — on Snow King Mountain.

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort has been unable to open its upper lifts because of avalanche danger. A ski patroller was swept by a slide in the Insomnia area above Thunder chairlift yesterday. The patroller reportedly lost all of his gear and had to ski down the mountain on loaner skis.

As of 2 p.m. Friday, the Thunder and Sublette chairs and the Aerial Tram had yet to open since the storm.

Even relatively mellow slopes such as Sleeping Indian and Wide Open were reported to have slid.

Teton Pass also was closed today as WyDOT cleared avalanche debris. Judging by the Web cam, Twin Slides must have run pretty big onto the highway.

The Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center reported 35 inches of snow at the higher elevations in 48 hours. I measured 18 inches in east Jackson this morning, while yesterday Rick Armstrong reported 25 inches in his yard in Wilson.

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Posted under Holidays, Ski Resorts, Sports, Weather

Sunrise over Haleakala, November 2008. Photo by Jim Stanford.

“This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising.

“Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.”

— John Muir

Happy holidays.

Posted under From the Publisher, Holidays