Jackson Hole Ski Trip Report
Jan 24th, 2005, 01:28 PM
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Jackson Hole Ski Trip Report
Hi
Just wanted to post a report on our 6 day ski trip to JHole. We've skiied all over the US, and in Europe a couple times, so have some background. That said, we are not expert skiiers, so were a little nervous when everyone told us JHole was a hard mountain. We had no problems- we were practical and skiied to our level though, not skiing anything higher than a double blue. We skiied for three days and were plenty entertained with the amount of terrain that suited us. Plus, there was nobody there!! No lift lines! It was great...wouldn't have found that in Vail over Martin Luther weekend.
We stayed at the Snow King and it was nicer than we expected. The building itself is old, but the rooms were very clean and had fun pine/western style furniture. A great hot tub, convenient breakfast, big fireplace gathering area in the lobby. The staff was very helpful and friendly (in fact, everyone in JHole seemed to be this way). And the shuttle service was so convenient...Snow King was at the beginning of the route so there were always seats. We had no problem catching this into town or getting back from town. Snow King also gives you free shuttle tickets to get to JHole Mtn and provides a free airport shuttle. We are in our twenties, but this would be an excellent place for kids, groups or couples.
We didn't buy lift tickets to ski at Snow King Mtn as we thought it was a "little" mountain. I guess it's pretty decent, and we would probably plan to ski here at least one day next time (and would also plan to ski Grand Targhee as we're classic intermediate skiiers.)
Liked the town a lot and restaurants were very good. Hard to find anything moderately priced though. It's either BBQ/Mexican/bar food for cheap or $30+ entrees. We ate at the Snake River Brewery (great happy hour and beer!), the Blue Lion (expensive but good) Merry Piglets (good cheap Mexican) and the Gun Barrel (highly recommend-our best meal).
In addition to skiing, we snowshoed at the Nordic Center-but I think it would have been cheaper to go from SnowKing because you don't get charged a trail fee at SK. We took a cab to the Elk Refuge($8 one way). It was neat to see once.
We also took the Jackson Hole Snowmobile Tours trip to the granite hot springs. This was a really neat trip because of the activity, (not the guide). Mostly trail riding, so anyone can drive, and it's very scenic. Sitting in the springs was great (but bring towel, flip flops, bags for your clothes) and our lunch (outside on the grill) was very good. Our guide, Mark, was not good though. I don't think he could've had less personality. Told us nothing about the area, the springs etc. Hardly even talked. I would definitely recommend this trip, but maybe not with this company, and definitely not with this guide.
All in all, we liked Jhole more than we expected. There's so much to do, even if you don't ski! We would've loved to have fit in a trip to Targhee and a wildlife trip. Have to save that for next time. The only thing we didn't like is the 1/2 hour shuttle to the ski hill. Gets annoying when you're tired and just want to get home. Can't imagine it's any better staying at Teton Village either though because there's next to no restaurants there, so you'd have to catch the shuttle into town for dinner etc. Probably the one downfall of the whole area. But we'd still go back!!
Just wanted to post a report on our 6 day ski trip to JHole. We've skiied all over the US, and in Europe a couple times, so have some background. That said, we are not expert skiiers, so were a little nervous when everyone told us JHole was a hard mountain. We had no problems- we were practical and skiied to our level though, not skiing anything higher than a double blue. We skiied for three days and were plenty entertained with the amount of terrain that suited us. Plus, there was nobody there!! No lift lines! It was great...wouldn't have found that in Vail over Martin Luther weekend.
We stayed at the Snow King and it was nicer than we expected. The building itself is old, but the rooms were very clean and had fun pine/western style furniture. A great hot tub, convenient breakfast, big fireplace gathering area in the lobby. The staff was very helpful and friendly (in fact, everyone in JHole seemed to be this way). And the shuttle service was so convenient...Snow King was at the beginning of the route so there were always seats. We had no problem catching this into town or getting back from town. Snow King also gives you free shuttle tickets to get to JHole Mtn and provides a free airport shuttle. We are in our twenties, but this would be an excellent place for kids, groups or couples.
We didn't buy lift tickets to ski at Snow King Mtn as we thought it was a "little" mountain. I guess it's pretty decent, and we would probably plan to ski here at least one day next time (and would also plan to ski Grand Targhee as we're classic intermediate skiiers.)
Liked the town a lot and restaurants were very good. Hard to find anything moderately priced though. It's either BBQ/Mexican/bar food for cheap or $30+ entrees. We ate at the Snake River Brewery (great happy hour and beer!), the Blue Lion (expensive but good) Merry Piglets (good cheap Mexican) and the Gun Barrel (highly recommend-our best meal).
In addition to skiing, we snowshoed at the Nordic Center-but I think it would have been cheaper to go from SnowKing because you don't get charged a trail fee at SK. We took a cab to the Elk Refuge($8 one way). It was neat to see once.
We also took the Jackson Hole Snowmobile Tours trip to the granite hot springs. This was a really neat trip because of the activity, (not the guide). Mostly trail riding, so anyone can drive, and it's very scenic. Sitting in the springs was great (but bring towel, flip flops, bags for your clothes) and our lunch (outside on the grill) was very good. Our guide, Mark, was not good though. I don't think he could've had less personality. Told us nothing about the area, the springs etc. Hardly even talked. I would definitely recommend this trip, but maybe not with this company, and definitely not with this guide.
All in all, we liked Jhole more than we expected. There's so much to do, even if you don't ski! We would've loved to have fit in a trip to Targhee and a wildlife trip. Have to save that for next time. The only thing we didn't like is the 1/2 hour shuttle to the ski hill. Gets annoying when you're tired and just want to get home. Can't imagine it's any better staying at Teton Village either though because there's next to no restaurants there, so you'd have to catch the shuttle into town for dinner etc. Probably the one downfall of the whole area. But we'd still go back!!
Jan 24th, 2005, 02:09 PM
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Thanks for a great trip report. Jackson Hole is on my list of places to go. (summer or winter? I am not sure yet)We went there when I was 7 years old (summer trip). I would like to take my kids to see the big sky in the west!
Feb 4th, 2005, 11:46 AM
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LM3682
Stayed at Snow King many moons ago! I agree it is a bit out of the way but very self contained!
Had nice entertainment when we were there!
Was bitter cold but we still had a wonderful time.
Next time you have to do Targee! Intermediate Heaven!!
We also did the snowmobile tour and found it the most unforgetable part of the whole trip! Not sure how they run it now, but we toured all the key areas (Hot Springs, waterfalls, Sulfur Fields and had lunch at "Old Faithful")
Oh Yea! Skiing was fantastic as well!
JOHN
Stayed at Snow King many moons ago! I agree it is a bit out of the way but very self contained!
Had nice entertainment when we were there!
Was bitter cold but we still had a wonderful time.
Next time you have to do Targee! Intermediate Heaven!!
We also did the snowmobile tour and found it the most unforgetable part of the whole trip! Not sure how they run it now, but we toured all the key areas (Hot Springs, waterfalls, Sulfur Fields and had lunch at "Old Faithful")
Oh Yea! Skiing was fantastic as well!
JOHN
Feb 5th, 2005, 04:57 PM
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Thanks John, we are looking forward to the skiing and are supposed to go to Grand Targhee for one day. One of the suggested ski packages also includes a day of snowmobiling and it is with a company called Goosewing. Is that the group you went with or did you go with another. If it is as boring as you say I wonder if we should bother -- although I've never been on a snowmobile before and I tought it might make for an interesting activity change from skiing every day. (we're going to be in Jackson for 9 days.) The snowmobile tour is either a choice of the half-day Hot springs tour (which I was looking at )or the full day Togwotee or Crest Trail tour. We wanted to visit Old Faithful and Yellowstone Park too but not on a snowmobile -- rather in a snowcoach. I don't think we'll be skiing at Snow King , more at Jackson and Targhee. I don't know how the trails are as I heard that Jackson is a pretty tough mountain but that there are intermediate terrains too. We are advanced skiiers and do black runs but out east the black runs that we are used to are probably blue ones in Jackson. Any thoughts? I would appreciate your input re the snowmobile.
Cheers
Swannee
Cheers
Swannee
Feb 6th, 2005, 08:36 AM
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Swanee:
Did I say Boring?? Yikes!!!! I said "Unforgetable"...., sorry I should have said it was the BEST part of the trip!! I have never snowmobiled before that trip. It was 10 below zero but when we got to Old Faithful it was a balmy zero!! The sun was shining and it felt like 50 degrees (F).
Do not remember the tour group. This one started us at dawn and it took the whole day! We were exhausted, but thrilled from that day!!
JOHN
Did I say Boring?? Yikes!!!! I said "Unforgetable"...., sorry I should have said it was the BEST part of the trip!! I have never snowmobiled before that trip. It was 10 below zero but when we got to Old Faithful it was a balmy zero!! The sun was shining and it felt like 50 degrees (F).
Do not remember the tour group. This one started us at dawn and it took the whole day! We were exhausted, but thrilled from that day!!
JOHN
Feb 6th, 2005, 08:49 AM
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Swanee:
Got too excited and hit 'enter' before I was done!
Skiing Jackson was fine for our group. At the time I would have clasified our group as strong intermdiate to low expert!
Only place where it was dicey was on the Gondola to the very top. It is here where the infamous "Corbets Coulier" is located! I looked over that drop-off and decided I wanted to live a bit longer!
The sign at the bottom of the gondola use to say "Expert Only, no easy way down!. If you decide that the trials are too difficult get back on the gondola" (something like that!)
We found a way down but it was steep!!
Rest of Jackson has a lot of variety!
Try and get into Yellowstone by Snowmobile or snow coach. This time of the year the Bison come down close to the trails for 'eating'. You will never forget the experience!
We also did the "Elk Encounter" Was just OK! It felt more like a Zoo than an encounter.
John
Got too excited and hit 'enter' before I was done!
Skiing Jackson was fine for our group. At the time I would have clasified our group as strong intermdiate to low expert!
Only place where it was dicey was on the Gondola to the very top. It is here where the infamous "Corbets Coulier" is located! I looked over that drop-off and decided I wanted to live a bit longer!
The sign at the bottom of the gondola use to say "Expert Only, no easy way down!. If you decide that the trials are too difficult get back on the gondola" (something like that!)
We found a way down but it was steep!!
Rest of Jackson has a lot of variety!
Try and get into Yellowstone by Snowmobile or snow coach. This time of the year the Bison come down close to the trails for 'eating'. You will never forget the experience!
We also did the "Elk Encounter" Was just OK! It felt more like a Zoo than an encounter.
John
Feb 8th, 2005, 06:17 AM
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Swannee- We used the "Jackson Hole Snowmobile Tours" for our hot springs trip. There are a lot of companies that do the snowmobile trips though, so you shouldn't have a problem finding others. We chose based on activity, times and price. Ours was a 'full day' which lasted from 8:30-4:00. Many of the other snowmobile trips were from 6:30am-6:00pm, which is kind of a long day! We also chose the hot springs trip over others because we only covered about 25 miles. Other were closer to 100 miles and that didn't sound like fun to me.
The one other thing I would have you consider is the amount of trail riding versus "powder" riding. Even though we're young and mildly adventuresome, we preferred the trail riding. It's more scenic and easy to do. We have ridden snowmobiles only a couple other times so we didn't find the powder riding that much fun-it's hard work and we rolled our maching twice. I had noticed that some of the tours are geared specifically toward powder riding. Our tour was 90% trail riding, with the option of 45 minutes in the powder (if you didn't want to do it, you just waited for the others to finish up-we tried it, then quit and chatted with the other people waiting).
We didn't do any snowcoach tours, but would do one the next time. We saw no wildlife on our snowmobile tour. I did a snowmobile tour to Old Faithful a few years ago though, and did pass bison.
As to your comments on the difficulty at Jackson, we are mostly blue/double blue skiiers and found enough runs to keep us occupied at JHole for three days. If we had been there for longer we would have skiied at Grand Targhee too-that's supposed to be 70% blue runs.
The one other thing I would have you consider is the amount of trail riding versus "powder" riding. Even though we're young and mildly adventuresome, we preferred the trail riding. It's more scenic and easy to do. We have ridden snowmobiles only a couple other times so we didn't find the powder riding that much fun-it's hard work and we rolled our maching twice. I had noticed that some of the tours are geared specifically toward powder riding. Our tour was 90% trail riding, with the option of 45 minutes in the powder (if you didn't want to do it, you just waited for the others to finish up-we tried it, then quit and chatted with the other people waiting).
We didn't do any snowcoach tours, but would do one the next time. We saw no wildlife on our snowmobile tour. I did a snowmobile tour to Old Faithful a few years ago though, and did pass bison.
As to your comments on the difficulty at Jackson, we are mostly blue/double blue skiiers and found enough runs to keep us occupied at JHole for three days. If we had been there for longer we would have skiied at Grand Targhee too-that's supposed to be 70% blue runs.
Feb 9th, 2005, 06:41 AM
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Thanks LM3682.
That's good so we won't get "Mark" because we booked with Goosewing Snowmobile tours (unless Mark has switched jobs). We're going to do the Hot Springs tour only -no time to do others and this one sounded like the most fun.
I hope that we see wildlife on the snowcoach tour to Yellowstone.
Thanks for the ski tips -- where we ski, there are no double blue, just green, blue, black and double black and when we ski in Europe it is green, blue, red and black. So I guess we ski about the same as you do as we do blue and black and some double black here --and have done blue, red and some black in Europe. We're a bit older than you but I loved you line about "wanting to live longer" We're not risk takers so I think the vertical drop is for others.
Did you ski AprèsVous mountain more than RendezVous mountain? We're planning to do Targhee on our first day (it's supposed to be easier so I thought we'd start by taking it easy) then we'll go to Jackson.
Can you go up on the Tram for the view only and download on the tram back to a friendlier level of skiing?
Did you have any altitude problems? I used to ski in Colorado at Copper a lot and never had problems until a trip a five years ago where I got a bad bout of altitude sickness (could have been the wine I had on the plane --which I know is a no-no when going to altitudes -- but I indulged and paid the price).
Did you go on any sleigh rides?
Anyways, thanks for all the info
cheers
Swannee
That's good so we won't get "Mark" because we booked with Goosewing Snowmobile tours (unless Mark has switched jobs). We're going to do the Hot Springs tour only -no time to do others and this one sounded like the most fun.
I hope that we see wildlife on the snowcoach tour to Yellowstone.
Thanks for the ski tips -- where we ski, there are no double blue, just green, blue, black and double black and when we ski in Europe it is green, blue, red and black. So I guess we ski about the same as you do as we do blue and black and some double black here --and have done blue, red and some black in Europe. We're a bit older than you but I loved you line about "wanting to live longer" We're not risk takers so I think the vertical drop is for others.
Did you ski AprèsVous mountain more than RendezVous mountain? We're planning to do Targhee on our first day (it's supposed to be easier so I thought we'd start by taking it easy) then we'll go to Jackson.
Can you go up on the Tram for the view only and download on the tram back to a friendlier level of skiing?
Did you have any altitude problems? I used to ski in Colorado at Copper a lot and never had problems until a trip a five years ago where I got a bad bout of altitude sickness (could have been the wine I had on the plane --which I know is a no-no when going to altitudes -- but I indulged and paid the price).
Did you go on any sleigh rides?
Anyways, thanks for all the info
cheers
Swannee
Feb 9th, 2005, 09:17 AM
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Hi Swannee-I think you'll have be fine skiing at Jackson, but will be glad to mix it up with Targhee. Just don't pysch yourself out over it...The blues at JHole are only slightly more difficult than most other large ski resorts.
I know we skiied the ApreVouz lift a lot...we stayed to the right of the tram (if looking at a trail map). There are NO blue runs from the top of the tram. We didn't take the tram up, but I believe you can ride it back down.
The altitude is about 6000ft, which is less than some US resorts, and much less than what I skiied in Europe. We noticed it snowshoeing, but were fine skiing. I did notice alcohol affecting me faster, but drank lots of water.
We didn't do any sleigh rides unless you count the elk refuge sleigh ride. I was with my brother so we weren't really looking for that cozy kind of night
Have fun!!
I know we skiied the ApreVouz lift a lot...we stayed to the right of the tram (if looking at a trail map). There are NO blue runs from the top of the tram. We didn't take the tram up, but I believe you can ride it back down.
The altitude is about 6000ft, which is less than some US resorts, and much less than what I skiied in Europe. We noticed it snowshoeing, but were fine skiing. I did notice alcohol affecting me faster, but drank lots of water.
We didn't do any sleigh rides unless you count the elk refuge sleigh ride. I was with my brother so we weren't really looking for that cozy kind of night
Have fun!!
Mar 18th, 2005, 06:05 PM
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Hi and especially to John whose tips were very useful.
We just returned from Jackson hole and had a marvellous time. I will do a separate posting on our trip. I dropped by the Chef's table and can see why you like it -- although we did not buy anything there -- basically because it is so much like some of the gourmet places we're used to in the big city. What I found amazing besides the great skiing, gorgeous scenery and friendly people was the quality of restaurants -- yes expensive but top notch in quality (there's a lot of places around elsewhere where they charge a lot and the quality leaves a lot to be desired!) and wine lists -- wow!! in a state that has less people than the suburbs of some cities. We did not do Snow King as there was no time -- but we did ski Targhee and Jackson -- I could not believe Targhee -- it was like being in your own private ski heaven. At one point there was a line up at the chair lift -- 4 people!! We loved Teton Village as well as Jacskon and my travel agent suggested that we stay in Jackson as Teton was too far and did not have to much to do -- I think she ought to go back and check it out again -- thee's lots to see and do at Teton Village too.
Anyway, I'd go back to Jackson Hole again!
We just returned from Jackson hole and had a marvellous time. I will do a separate posting on our trip. I dropped by the Chef's table and can see why you like it -- although we did not buy anything there -- basically because it is so much like some of the gourmet places we're used to in the big city. What I found amazing besides the great skiing, gorgeous scenery and friendly people was the quality of restaurants -- yes expensive but top notch in quality (there's a lot of places around elsewhere where they charge a lot and the quality leaves a lot to be desired!) and wine lists -- wow!! in a state that has less people than the suburbs of some cities. We did not do Snow King as there was no time -- but we did ski Targhee and Jackson -- I could not believe Targhee -- it was like being in your own private ski heaven. At one point there was a line up at the chair lift -- 4 people!! We loved Teton Village as well as Jacskon and my travel agent suggested that we stay in Jackson as Teton was too far and did not have to much to do -- I think she ought to go back and check it out again -- thee's lots to see and do at Teton Village too.
Anyway, I'd go back to Jackson Hole again!
Mar 21st, 2005, 06:58 AM
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Welcome Back Swanee! I am glad you came out of it unscathed!
Looking forward to your report! I hope you made it to Yellowstone by way of the Snowmobile!
When I was in Jackson, Teton Villiage was just the Moosehead Bar! Glad to hear it has developed into an area to stay...it is a very convenient to the skiing!
John
Looking forward to your report! I hope you made it to Yellowstone by way of the Snowmobile!
When I was in Jackson, Teton Villiage was just the Moosehead Bar! Glad to hear it has developed into an area to stay...it is a very convenient to the skiing!
John
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