18/19 Jackson/Targhee/Tetons Thread- Ski the big red one

[snapt]

From a guy who triggered a slide on 4 Pines today "I was solo so cruised the trees down the nose. Avalanche triggered at the rocks lower down. I was surprised to be caught in an avalanche on a day when it was only considerable." Can't make this shit up.

I came here to post that. Crazy...!

[skibrd]

From a guy who triggered a slide on 4 Pines today "I was solo so cruised the trees down the nose. Avalanche triggered at the rocks lower down. I was surprised to be caught in an avalanche on a day when it was only considerable." Can't make this shit up.

Darwin always wins


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[AdironRider]

At least they’ll never shut down four pines.

Meanwhile several jabronis decided that despite WYDOT being up there controlling all day with howitzers and rotors, that it would be a swell idea to skin up the pass and get in everyone’s way.

According to Buckrail, this was the 2nd to last straw for WYDOT and the next skier triggered slide that hits the road ends the party.

Are people seriously that stupid? If you are going to skin from the valley floor, why wouldn’t you go into the park yesterday, or any of the hundreds of other mountains available?

[kokomas]

At least they’ll never shut down four pines.

Meanwhile several jabronis decided that despite WYDOT being up there controlling all day with howitzers and rotors, that it would be a swell idea to skin up the pass and get in everyone’s way.

According to Buckrail, this was the 2nd to last straw for WYDOT and the next skier triggered slide that hits the road ends the party.

Are people seriously that stupid? If you are going to skin from the valley floor, why wouldn’t you go into the park yesterday, or any of the hundreds of other mountains available?

This is terrible to hear. I'm very late to the game on this, is there a fallback position the skiers/riders should take now, such as proposing a system requiring a permit to use the area for recreational purposes? Perhaps self administered and policed? I have very little hope for our continued access unless we change our behavior collectively, including our weakest links.

...Says the Joey from Jersey

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[climberevan]

Canada has a very interesting and apparently effective system around Rogers Pass that aims to allow recreation but also periodically close zones for avy control. Parking passes are required and one must take a fairly extensive exam that explains the system in detail to obtain one. If we're sensible we'll implement something like that, but more likely we'll just shut-er-down.

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[Foggy_Goggles]

I can't believe the Teton hardcores can't even regulate their own valley. Did you check for a lanyard on 4 Pines Guy and Pass Losers? Oh wait...they were there because "The Village" was overrun by IKONerds.

There are assholes from everywhere. Some are your neighbors. Seems like they are part of "ruining it" too.

[rideit]

Totally OT, but I went to Street Foods last night at 8:30, and it was 100% dark and closed. Any beta?

[Ottime]

I bet they put a lift up the headwall before detachable quads replace anything.

That would suck. I enjoyed the terrain above Casper very much while I was there. Once the place is tracked out, still was able to find good lines and good snow days later up there. I didn’t have a partner and was just starting to tour back then, and OB was not an option. Maybe that would be different if I ever get back.

I had no lines when I was there and enjoyed the slow Sublette/Thunder lifts and skiing the Hobacks with no lifts in sight. Replacing with HSQ would change that. Fuck I would get tired lapping Sublette w/o an 8 minute rest ride.

[Ottime]

From a guy who triggered a slide on 4 Pines today "I was solo so cruised the trees down the nose. Avalanche triggered at the rocks lower down. I was surprised to be caught in an avalanche on a day when it was only considerable." Can't make this shit up.

Fucking insane. Don’t know that terrain well, except that it is steep, but Considerable and surprised it slid should not be used together.

[snapt]

Report from the BT Avalanche center of a slide on the pass with one person buried, recovered unresponsive.

[Woolly the Mammoth]

JHN&G says that there were three of them and that they are ok.

[panchosdad]

Sublime skiing on Taylor today, didn't see any sign of instability until we got into the wind at about 9500'.

[SUPERIOR]

The News and Guide article said the party who triggered the slide had been skiing Wolf Trap, and kicked the snow on top of others who skied the claw today.

Not an expert, but the only time I hit the Claw was during a period of nice stability a couple winters ago. Did the Wolf Trap area in the spring one year (May!), and it definitely slid.

How was the snow today? Pretty touchy?

[Ted26]

As I was part of one of the groups involved in the slide in avalanche bowl today I’d like to give people an idea of what happened cause I’m sure a lot will get lost in translation.

We were on our third run of the day in the area, first edelweiss, second run skiers right of avalanche bowl. Skinning the ridge north of avalanche bowl on our way back up for another run we noticed a group skinning across the ridge but had no contact with them as they were a ways away. No signs of instability or anything moving on ski cuts all morning.

On the next run my partner dropped in first towards the skiers left side of avalanche bowl. At this time we hadn’t seen the other group for some time and had no indication that there could be anyone below us. My partner pulled up and was scoping an air in the area.

I skied down through the trees-ish in sort of center left and had pulled off on skiers left side of the exit avalanche path out of the way. Had not seen any people during this time. My partner dropped in soon after and it appears he triggered the slide when he landed off a small cliff. It propagated from the base of the slope to the top, appearing to slide to ground in some spots.

He didn’t notice there was snow behind him and was taken out from behind as he skied into the exit chute. I watched him get hit and saw everything from the side. As the snow stopped moving I threw my skins on to start searching from the last place I saw him roughly 300 feet above me.

At that time I noticed there was another group who had been hit by the slide. Without speaking for them my guess is that there first couple members must’ve skied into the area almost right when the slide released.

I briefly communicated with one of their members to establish we each had a member missing. I then skinned up the debris and started working back down. My partner ended up at the bottom of the debris and had extracted himself before I realized he was no longer buried.

By that point I believe the member of their group who had been buried had already been found/dug out. My partner lost both skis and I helped him walk out to the old pass rd. Search and rescue sleds took him the last half mile or so to the road.

I (we) feel terrible about what happened. To the best of my knowledge everyone from the other party is okay. Feel free to contact me for more information

[Bruce Springskiin]

Ted, glad everything turned out good in the end. Thank you for sharing. Sounds like it was pretty big, and scary with another group involved.


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[passholer]

a couple of these made for a fun day

[cdubski]

What's the word with the new "no music" policy for the lifts?

“Insurance policy” which I took as possible code for tightening up the ship getting it ready for sale. Can’t imagine that they just renewed the policy.

[kokomas]

As I was part of one of the groups involved in the slide in avalanche bowl today I’d like to give people an idea of what happened cause I’m sure a lot will get lost in translation.

Glad you guys are alright and thanks for posting

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[simple]

Heavy avy incident. Glad all are ok.

[peterbmoorman]

Interesting....

Any word on buyers?

What's the "Buy It Now!" price for JHMR???

[raisingarizona13]

https://www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/...b365126b0.html
I haven't seen this link posted on this thread yet, so thought put it up here. I'm sure the problem is partially IKON, but if you think about it, SLC/northern UT is getting very populated and even though they have a ton of resorts, I think you still get lot's of people from there. Also southern Idaho's population, and especially SW Idaho is expanding big time, (seems every other person has moved here from Cali). JH is easy access for all of these people, even by car.

If I owned JH, I'd attack the lift line problem with 3 things:

1 - Convert Thunder and Sublett to HSQs.

2 - Put a new HSQ in, (named Lower Sublett) from the base of the South Pass lift to the current Sublett lift.

3 - It might not be huge, but I'd not allow sightseers on the Tram on "Powder days", and even on "regular" days only after 1 PM.

4 - Back in the day, JH used to have a multi-tiered day pass. It was one price for all lifts but the Tram, and then it was a higher price for the Tram. As I recall, if you bought the lower price one and wanted a tram ride you could buy a single ride ticket. They maybe should look back into something along those lines.


My logic for the HSQ expansion is as follows:

If you take the 2 existing old/slow quads and convert them, you will get a lot more people up the hill quicker, and yet it seems that everyone disperses pretty well once on the slopes, (I don't see people running over each other over on AV or the new Teton lift). The masses stay on the groomers and the better skiers/riders get to enjoy more powder runs. Some may argue with the concept of a "lower sublett" lift, but if you think about it, it would take a lot of pressure off from the tram lines and still give people plenty of options for finding the goods. Also, it would ONLY have skiers/riders on it who had already negotiated the steep stuff to get there. I'd still never put a grooming machine on any of that terrain that it serves and that would keep most of the Jerry's out.

Here's what it would look like:

Attachment 269853

Wouldn't you want the lift to start from the Village and not the back side of union pass to move people up and out of the Village?

I bet Rock Spring will eventually be developed. The terrain is pretty good for intermediate trails. What kind of land is below there? It seems like it could be a good spot for a second base area.

[Crispy critter]

I bet Rock Spring will eventually be developed. The terrain is pretty good for intermediate trails. What kind of land is below there? It seems like it could be a good spot for a second base area.

Rock Springs zone is actually private land that has a conservation easement on it. They can cut trails but no infrastructure / development. The easement was donated to in trade for development at Stillson Ranch.

[snapt]

Isn't a lift to the top of Cody technically in their operating agreement if they wanted to? Not saying it's a good idea, just that they could.

[SUPERIOR]

Yeah, there’s a rope tow in Cody bowl on the master plan, and a snowcat road connecting R bowl with top of rock springs ... I had the pic of the plan posted here last year


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[mall walker]

Glad you guys are alright and thanks for posting

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yeah that was good of you to post about. glad everyone is ok.