Jackson Hole Underground

Over the weekend we passed the 100-inch mark for snowpack in the Tetons, which back before the current drought set in used to be the benchmark for a solid winter. The Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center reports anywhere from 5 to 7 feet of snow in the last 10 days, and the forecast calls for an additional 12 to 15 inches later this week.

For those keeping score, that makes an average snowfall of more than 4 inches a day for the last 10 weeks. 2000-Grr8 rolls on.

After weeks of contentious debate over backcountry etiquette, Cloudveil and Friends of Pathways are hosting a happy hour Friday where skiers and snowboarders can discuss Teton Pass and give input to the U.S. Forest Service over management of the area’s most popular winter trailhead.

The gathering will run from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Cloudveil Store, 120 W. Pearl Ave. Free beer will be served, courtesy of Snake River Brewery. Teton Pass Ambassador Jay Pistono will be on hand, along with Forest Service and Friends of Pathways reps.

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The News&Guide has a front-page story this week about growing concern among Teton County officials over the cost and frequency of backcountry rescues, particularly of skiers in extreme terrain.

One source of irritation, not mentioned in the article, stemmed from the all-night rescue of snowboarder Toby Kuznia on New Year’s Day. Kuznia, 23, walked out on a cornice on the edge of Unskiabowl, in the southern Tetons, and triggered a slide that carried him several hundred feet over cliffs. N&G reporter Cara Froedge wrote a gripping narrative of the ordeal, with Kuznia, who suffered a broken pelvis and other injuries, pictured flashing the “hang loose” sign from his hospital bed.

Turns out that on one of the four helicopter trips needed to shuttle Kuznia’s party and rescuers off the mountain, a ski belonging to one of Kuznia’s friends fell out of the chopper and was lost. The friend allegedly asked the Teton County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees Search and Rescue, to buy him a new pair of skis.

Dude, thanks for saving my buddy’s life. How about a new set of twin-tip Salomon SPKs to go with that heli ride? And a fresh coat of wax.

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This is what hiking Mount Glory has come to: one boot-packed trail for the hardcore, and another for the slow afoot.

It used to be that the daily race over Teton Pass was the “Idaho 500″ – commuters in Subarus and monster pickups vrooming between the bedroom communities of Victor and Driggs and work in Jackson Hole.

This winter the traffic on Glory’s “Stairway to Heaven” has been astounding, particularly on powder weekends. It’s not unusual to find 25 skiers atop the summit. Last Saturday, at 2:30 p.m., people were still waiting in cars atop the pass for a parking spot.

Congestion on the bootpack recently led to at least one incident in which a hardcore type “turtled” a slow hiker apparently unwilling to move out of the way, tossing him off the trail into the deep snow. Afterward, skier Jason Tattersall, with help from Teton Pass ambassador Jay Pistono, broke the new route, which is staked with bamboo and ribbons to the west of the main trail.

I know what you’re thinking: Isn’t the rest of life enough of a rat race that people ought to take their time hiking a mountain and soak up the experience?

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Daily snowfall since last week’s post about the phenomenal skiing: 7 inches, 9 inches, 10 inches, 8 inches, 1 inch and, finally today, zero.

That makes 200 inches since Wednesday, Nov. 28, or an average of four inches a day for seven weeks. No wonder the parking lot atop Teton Pass was nearly empty this morning; everyone’s legs are shot.

It has snowed 42 out of the last 49 days in the mountains, and another four to six inches fell today after the Bridger-Teton avalanche forecast was issued.

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Just when we thought the skiing couldn’t get any better, it did.

Fourteen inches of the lightest, feathery powder greeted skiers today in the Tetons. The water content of the snow was just 3.5 percent, meaning riders were floating nearly totally on air.

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