Jackson Hole Freeskiing Open
Just returned home from another Jackson trip. Cait Phillips, Michelle Manning and I took off from Salt Lake on Thursday to head up, to meet up with Sue Larson and her boy, Chris Mineci for a mostly girl’s weekend trip. As we left Salt Lake, it was already starting to snow.
We got to Teton Village right as registration for the competition was closing. Michelle was registered and planning on competing, I was on the fence. When I found out there was a free spot, I decided to do it.
Sue, Chris, Cait and I then checked into our room at the Hostel. The Hostel X in Teton Village is one of the coolest places I have ever stayed. They have small, private rooms with a private bathroom for $60-74 a night! Unbelievable, especially for a ski town! It was a little cramped with all four of us, but it felt like going to summer camp or something. It was fun! Did I mention you can bring dogs? Sue and Chris have the most adorable little dog (the runt of a Blue Heeler litter) named Nikki and she stayed there with us too.
Here’s a pic of Sue, Chris and Nikki chilling out.
Cait with the curling iron, getting ready for a night out on the town.
We often joke that we are family, and in this shot, you can definitely see the resemblance
Our first night out was mellow-we just went to the Stagecoach for some delicious Mexican food and margaritas.
The next morning we woke up early to load a 7:30 gondola for course inspection. The Hostel also offers free coffee and when we went down there, the front desk guy told us there are 18" of new snow! We hurried to the gondola, rode up, only to get to the top to wait for avalanche control work. After an hour and a half, they finally let us out to get first tracks down. The snow was so deep that Sue and I were straight-lining down and still barely moving. Still, the snow was billowing over our heads and we heard hoots and hollers all over the mountain.
The next run, I headed up to the Headwall to do a short inspection of the course. I didn’t actually ski the run, to preserve the snow, but took a look and tried to figure out my line. Really, I just wanted to go ski pow, so I met up with Sue, Chris, Cait, and Jackson local Kina Pickett to hike to Four Pines, one of my favorite backcountry lines from the resort. We headed out the gates to find that no one had ventured out there, and Kina and Chris broke trail the entire way through almost 2 feet of snow! About halfway up the hike, the sun started to clear and I got a call that they were going to start running the girls for the comp! There was no where to turn around to, though, so I continued and skied one of my best runs of the season. I rallied back up to the start (which was about a half an hour hike) to find that I had missed my start in the order. Still, the judges and organizers let me run anyway. I skied a fast, powdery line, and ended up in eleventh after the first day.
After skiing more fresh powder, I was exhausted, so we headed to Jackson for dinner and drinks.
Sue and Nikki in the car on our way into town.
C
Chris, driving us into town.
Nikki is trying to bite me in this one
I love it when dogs howl! Here’s Nikki, belting it out.
We ended up at the Cowboy Bar in Jackson for drinks. They have saddles for bar stools.
Michelle and Cait are on the right and the bottom left is the girls with Kina.
After the first round of drinks and some games of pool, we headed to the Cadillac for a nice, big dinner.
After dinner, we went back to the Cowboy bar for more drinks and dancing. I’ve been playing around with the settings on my camera, trying to shoot more in manual. Here are some cool ones I took at the bar:
Sue and I Kina and Chris
Our last day in Jackson, we woke up to another 10 or so inches of fresh snow. We decided to head to one of my favorite places in the world, Granite Canyon. We did a short book pack up to drop in to an endless, mile long powder run. 
Sue and I in our matching one-pieces! When Roxy first started making the one-piece, I wasn’t sure about it, but now I never get snow in my back.
Here’s Sue, Kina and myself at the top of the Granite hike. He was the best tour guide to show us around.
Sue and I getting ready to rip up one of the best runs of the season. Kina said that Saturday was one of his top 3 Granite laps of the year.
That was it! I did a ton of hiking and powder skiing and had an amazing time. The terrain and skiing at Jackson still continues to blow my mind. I love Jackson Hole. I’m going to start visiting all the time.
