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

Word has filtered out since last winter, and they have been on the shelves for a few weeks, but Snake River Brewing Co. is hosting a party Wednesday to celebrate its latest innovation: cans.

The pub is canning two of its signature brews: Pako’s IPA and Snake River Pale Ale. The cans are made in a factory in Worland and filled in Jackson. The pub is distributing them to vendors around town by bike.

The party is in conjunction with BikeWire, a bicycle courier network spearheaded by Andy Zimmerman of the pub’s next-door neighbor, Fitzgerald’s Bicycles. The service helps connect users needing or willing to transport goods by bike. Festivities run from 2 to 7 p.m. on the pub’s loading dock.

There were several factors behind the switch to cans, says Tim Harland, the pub’s vice president of sales and marketing.

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Posted under Business, Environment, Food, Wyoming

Tags: barack obama, beer, cycling, recycling, restaurants

Highway 26/89 reopened through the Snake River Canyon today, but landslide danger and maintenance challenges will persist in the coming weeks.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation is going to have to rebuild about a quarter-mile stretch of road through the Blue Trails area, which encompasses the Double Draw Slide. The slide poured mud, rocks and trees down the mountainside and had closed the highway since May 14.

The mudslide is only one of several worries at Blue Trails, named for dark-colored ledges of rock. The entire area is unstable, and west of the slide the highway has slumped, coupled with erosion on the riverbank below.

WyDOT engineers fear that if a slide doesn’t take out the road, the river might.

The agency has hired a contractor to place riprap at the river’s edge to stabilize the slope “before highway failure occurs,” according to a report. The Army Corps of Engineers and Bridger-Teton National Forest approved the emergency measure, which likely will affect a small rapid called First Cut Bank.

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Posted under Economy, Environment, Sports

Tags: landslides, national forest, river running, snake river

Skiers and snowboarders should enjoy good coverage and fresh powder when the Jackson Hole Aerial Tram opens for the season Saturday.

Meteorologist Jim Woodmencey is calling for up to 8 inches of snow by Sunday, and the Bridger-Teton National Forest Avalanche Center has rated the danger as moderate. Shredders might want to pack a neck gaiter, with temps in the teens and winds of up to 45 mph …

— Wait, isn’t it Memorial Day weekend, time to hit the beach and fire up the barbecue?

Oh, that’s right, it’s Cold Wet Days, the traditional kickoff of “summer” in Jackson Hole.

Not since the thaw of the last Ice Age, perhaps, has Mother Nature conspired to create such surreal conditions in the Tetons. The snow depth in Rendezvous Bowl today measures 158 inches — 16 inches deeper than when the resort closed for the winter on April 3.

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Posted under Holidays, Ski Resorts, Sports, Weather

Tags: aerial tram, backcountry, films, jackson hole mountain resort, powder, skiing, snowboarding, tourists

The rock band and global consciousness-raising spaceship that is U2 touched down in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, treating Western fans to a deafeningly loud, visually stunning show unlike anything ever seen in Utah.

From profound anthems to more recent hits and gems dusted off and newly inserted into the set list, the band gave a two-hour-plus performance that spanned its career. All of this took place beneath a 360-degree, 164-foot-tall stage with mesmerizing video and lights, nicknamed The Claw.

Still reaching, still searching after more than three decades together, the Irish rockers hit the right note with a song from their last album, No Line on the Horizon. “The sweetest melody is one we haven’t heard,” said Bono, introducing “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight.”

The song pretty much summed up our approach to a night spent among 35,000 staid and sober — no beer was sold at the show — Utahans.

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Posted under Entertainment, Music, Politics, Religion

Tags: rock, travel, U2, utah

Update 5/29: Both lanes of the highway are open.

Despite significant road damage, the Wyoming Department of Transportation aims to reopen Highway 26/89 in the Snake River Canyon by late Friday, a WyDOT official said today in a phone interview.

The following is the latest press release from the agency about the Double Draw Slide, which has forced closure of the highway since May 14:

Most of the slide debris has been removed from US 26-89 in the Snake River canyon southwest of Jackson, but significant work remains to improve drainage and repair the highway before it can be reopened.

Completion of the debris removal revealed the full extent of a trench the slide debris and water cut across the highway. The trench measures as much as 50 feet wide and seven feet deep.

“That actually is a benefit to us,” WyDOT District Engineer John Eddins said. “The trench eroded across the road is in the same location we knew we were going to have to put in a large drainage pipe, and it’s wide enough that we could divert the water and debris flow to the east side of the trench and prepare a bed for the drainage pipe on the west side.”

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Posted under Economy, Environment

Tags: landslides, river running, snake river

Well, maybe Not So Good, if you’re the retailer who recently went out of business on Broadway.

Curmudgeons snickered at the closing of the “genuine neighborhood shoppe.”

Despite its cheery outlook, another national brand couldn’t hack it in downtown Jackson, joining the ranks of Polo, Benetton, J. Crew, Taco Bell and The Gap.

(Photo by Mike Geraci, via CD)

Posted under Economy, Humor

Tags: Media, tourists