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

We caught up with Grace Potter before she and her band, the Nocturnals, performed Friday afternoon at Targhee Fest.

Basking in her green “mermaid dress,” Grace was a good sport for this on-the-fly interview, filmed by David Stubbs.

We talked about summer in the Tetons, the owls she keeps as totems on stage, the band’s new lineup, and of course, the magical rhythmic egg.

Afterward, she imparted this advice:

“Keep shaking it, baby.”

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Posted under Music, Ski Resorts

Chow down in the shade of the cottonwoods.

Firefighters in Wilson are actually stoking a blaze this morning, sweating over dutch ovens and getting the coals white-hot for the 42nd annual Chicken Fry.

One of the summer’s biggest community events runs from noon to 4 p.m. at the Stilson lot at the intersection of highways 22 and 390. Tickets are $8.

Last year the volunteers cooked up 2,000 pounds of chicken and 1,000 pounds of spuds to go with salads and desserts. Snake River Brewing Co. again is pouring the beer.

The department will be showing off its newest rescue truck, purchased with proceeds from the Chicken Fry.

Those firefighters love the heat!

Posted under Food

Once again, the Teton County emergency Twitter feed was the only source of information about the jam. Click to enlarge.

You had to have been stuck in it to know how bad it was, and if you weren’t you probably could care less today, but last night saw one of the biggest and strangest traffic jams perhaps ever to hit Jackson Hole.

A gas leak at the Rustic Inn on North Cache apparently was to blame. Authorities diverted all traffic from Highway 26/89/191 to Spring Gulch Road.

The normally 20-minute ride from Moose into town took an hour, as a surreal line of cars stretched the entire length of Spring Gulch.

Compounding the woes of anyone looking to cross the valley, a confluence of road projects left the West Bank cut off for periods of a half-hour or more. Grading of the Moose-Wilson Road coincided with the Snake River bridge repair, leaving motorists unable to reach Teton Village and Wilson.

The streets of town were pleasantly quiet, with mostly cyclists zooming carefree around the roads. Gave us a glimpse of what the future could hold, if ever we were to envision and plan for a car-free community.

Posted under Economy, Environment

The biggest vertical drop — and season pass price — of any resort in America.

You knew someone was going to have to pay for that snowball, didn’t you?

Replacing the window wasn’t cheap, but it’s small change compared to the tab for the $31 million Jackson Hole Aerial Tram. Season pass holders are being asked to ante up.

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort has raised the price of its full-season pass by $50 to $1,675 for 2009-10. A Weekend Warrior pass rises $40 to $740. Ten-day passes cost $25 more this year — $415 when purchased during the early-morning sale on Aug. 1. (Only 500 passes will be sold at this price, available on a first-come basis; the rest will be $530.) Click here for a full list.

These prices are for passes purchased by Aug. 31. After that, a full-season pass costs $1,970 and a Weekend Warrior $870. The price of lift tickets has not yet been posted.

Given the size of the investment in the new tram, last winter’s disasters and some of the moronic acts of destruction committed at the end of the season, the resort probably could have turned around and fired a hard-packed iceball in the faces of pass holders, but it didn’t.

Then again, how much longer can people afford to pay $1,700 for lift-served skiing? Isn’t that a bubble price?

One has to wonder whether Jackson Hole has built the Yankee Stadium of ski lifts. Won’t be easy to fill the “Legends Suites” at Teton Village this winter.

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• Grand Targhee pass prices

• Snow King pass prices

Posted under Economy, Ski Resorts, Sports

Here’s a clip of Warren Haynes and Grace Potter performing together at the 2008 Jammy Awards. Could be a preview of what we’ll see Friday night, when the newly revamped Grace Potter and the Nocturnals open for Haynes’ Government Mule at Targhee Fest.

The bands have toured together, and the two singers have collaborated on a number of memorable covers, including this classic by Fleetwood Mac (with a touch of CSN thrown in). Grace is every bit as sexy and soulful as Stevie Nicks in her prime.

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Posted under Music, Ski Resorts

Byron Thames

It appears there was a transcription error in Grand Teton National Park’s account of Friday night’s rescue on the Snake River.

The man pulled off a logjam with his son was not Byron Phames but Byron Thames, an actor and composer from Los Angeles.

Thames is the son-in-law of Connie Stevens, the actress and singer with longstanding ties to Jackson Hole. Stevens owns several properties in the valley and for years hosted the Celebrity Ski Extravaganza at Teton Village, a fund-raiser for a community nonprofit.

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Posted under Entertainment, Environment, Sports