Jackson Hole Underground

Controversy erupted at the 33rd World Championship Snowmobile Hill Climb late Thursday as event organizers were ambushed by last-minute entries of hybrid snowmobiles.

The four-woman team from California-Amazon Technical School, calling themselves “Team Al Gore Rhythm,” arrived unannounced in a Toyota Prius towing two experimental sleds which they claimed burned an alternative fuel.

Jennifer Flynn, the team captain, said, “We’ve been working on a recyclables-based technology we call pre-apocalyptic craptacular fusion. Using a mixture of sea water, pulverized No. 1 plastic and shredded coated-print stock — we use Victoria’s Secret catalogs because we love the irony — we have created a 55-pound engine that delivers nearly pure energy. The gimbal-mounted flywheel acts as a gyroscopic stabilizer, too.”

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Residents of east Jackson reported being disturbed this morning by a nuisant whining noise that began abruptly and has carried on for hours.

“Dude, what is, like, someone clear-cutting Cache Creek with a chainsaw?” said Carter Stoneman. The part-time ski instructor reported feeling “shanked” when the buzz became audible over the Widespread Panic jam he was listening to.

“It sounds like someone is drilling an oil rig straight into Snow King Mountain,” said Emily Trussfund, who nearly spilled her herb tea at the nonprofit she works for, upon hearing the grating sound.

Customers at nearby Pearl Street Bagels began coughing after mysterious fumes wafted through the neighborhood. Authorities are investigating.

I returned from Casper this weekend to find a young moose has moved into our neighborhood in east Jackson. It appears to be the same moose that has been hanging around downtown for several weeks and was photographed by Mark Gocke on the deck of the restaurant Thai Me Up.

The moose has been sleeping in my neighbor’s yard, beneath the shelter of a large pine tree, and chowing all the shrubs between our houses. Last night the ungulate lay down beside my friends’ front porch and practically pressed its snout against the glass of their windows.

I’ve lived in other, more rural places in Jackson Hole where it’s not unusual to see moose. But in our dense residential neighborhood, this is a first.

We don’t mind sharing our space with the moose, which obviously is struggling to find food with the deep snowpack in the surrounding hills. Hopefully by pruning the aspen trees and willows in our gardens it can stay alive till the snow melts up Cache Creek.

Of course, some people take the nurturing too far, as this video attests.

The footage, while dated, appears to have been shot in Wilson.

In their first private meeting since the coup disputed election of 2000, Nobel Peace Laureate Al Gore and “President” George W. Bush sat down this week to discuss global warming.

Think there has been a thawing in the relationship between the two?

This brilliant photo by Doug Mills of The New York Times not only tells the story of the meeting but pretty much sums up the last seven years of American history.

During their 30-minute chat, Gore should have told the joke about the “fence post turtle.”

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It’s prime hunting season in Wyoming, and Air Force Two was parked at Jackson Hole Airport over the weekend. Uh, oh.

His excellency the vice president jetted back to Jackson on Friday afternoon and was gone by Sunday evening. The terror alert was raised to blaze orange.

Only a short stroll from the veep’s residence at Teton Pines, Osama bin Laden sipped cocktails Saturday night during the Q restaurant’s Halloween party.

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