It was a dark and stormy night. The fresh snow crunched underfoot as the men (and a few women) of CLASC lowered their shoulders to push the bus free from the grip of the snowbank. We were back on our way...

Our trip began normally enough, with our flight leaving Houston on time with clear weather. After we transferred planes at Denver International, with the obligatory stroll across the terminal, we sat on the tarmac for a while before they informed us that the Jackson Airport was snowed in. We deplaned and ate lunch in the terminal before being told we had about five minutes to get to the opposite side of the terminal to catch a flight to Salt Lake City. All of us made it except for James Broughton, who had wandered off to make a phone call. He caught up to us a couple of hours later as we waited for our bus. United had four busloads of people to get up to Jackson. Since we were the largest group, we were last. It's just as well, as two of the buses had to spend the night in Idaho Falls due to closed roads. We got on the bus a little before 5:00PM with no skis and about 2/3 of our luggage. Eight and 1/2 hours later we were in downtown Jackson. The bus driver missed the turnoff to the airport and while backing up to turn around got us stuck in the aforementioned snowbank. It only took us a few minutes to get it free. After arriving at the empty airport, we piled into a smaller bus for the ride to the mountain. I still can't believe we fit that many people and luggage in that tiny bus. We checked into our condos at around 3:30AM. I finally got to bed about 4:30. (Note to self: remember to reset alarm clock to local time zone so it doesn't go off an hour early. Second note to self: if it does go off an hour early, don't hit the snooze button.)

Monday morning arrived bright and early with clear blue skies and lots of fresh snow. I got up and had breakfast in time to get to the rental shop before the lifts opened. I picked up a pair of K2 X15 skis (193cm) and joined the anxious crowd in the gondola line at 8:30. They finally started running it around 9:00. The tram line was a complete zoo with lots of locals having been waiting since 7:00. Nothing like a bluebird powder day to bring out the powderhounds. The lift lines on the Thunder and Sublette chairs were packed until after 11:00. Some clouds started to come in then and most of the locals stopped playing hooky and went to work. I had a blast playing in the soft, deep snow. The X15s ski a lot better in powder than my skinny skis. If I find a pair at a decent price, I may have to buy some. I took the tram up to the top in the afternoon and peaked over the cornice at Corbet's Couloir. In a sudden and unexpected flash of sanity, I decided not to drop in. If you went in from the left side it was only about a ten foot drop but you had to turn in mid-air and nail the landing or you'd hit the rock wall. The right side had about a 30 foot drop. The middle of the cornice looked a bit unstable so I wasn't able to peek over it. I never did make it back up there. I was having too much fun skiing to go spend more time in the tram line. Maybe next time.

On Tuesday, a fairly large group of Texas Ski Council skiers headed over to Grand Targhee (aka Grand Foggy). There was a lot of fresh snow and it kept snowing for most of the day. The visibility at the top of the mountain was close to whiteout. You had to know which direction to go and ski by Braille until you could get into the trees. The snow was great, although not nearly deep enough to require snorkels. I spent the morning skiing with some of the Los Amigos until they quit for a lunch break. I then hooked up with some of the Austin ski club members. We had 14 of us being led on a tour of all the good powder shots by a ski patroller. Absolutely fantastic skiing. I didn't see too many of my fellow Clear Lake Area Ski Club members, although that's not too surprising considering the lack of visibility. It didn't help that I was the only one of us wearing the club windsock. Everyone I talked to that had skied at Jackson Hole that day said visibility was bad there too, although they all raved about the snow.

By Wednesday my skis had finally arrived. For the first 3 or 4 runs I was really floundering. I finally started to get the hang of skiing powder on my skis and decided maybe I wouldn't have to buy those X15s after all. Except for a few practice runs on the race course, I spent all day skiing the steeps, trees, bumps and bowls. Camille Goodwin, our trip leader, learned the hard way what a backwards twisting fall in the bumps can do, tearing her anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in her knee. I think her sister-in-law, Donna-Jean, also twisted her knee that day. I don't know of any other injuries to club members other than sore muscles. The hot tub took care of those.

Thursday was club race day. There were about 160 TSC racers out of around 200 trip participants. One of the smallest groups I've seen on a TSC trip. Our club raced fairly early, which was a good thing because the snow was getting really soft with the sun and warm temperatures. I had a pretty good run and finished with a handicap of 30, good enough for a silver NASTAR medal. Glen Thielke had a 24 handicap and got a gold. Several other club members finished with bronzes. After the racing was over, I headed up top and hiked up to the top of Casper Bowl above the Headwall from the Cirque. I was really gasping for air all the way up (over 20 minutes). I took a few pictures while waiting for my lungs to stop complaining. One of these years I'm gonna get in shape before ski season. The top of the bowl above the cliffs was fantastic with some untracked sections of knee-deep powder. When I got down to Casper Bowl, I picked the wrong line and ended up going down a very steep and narrow chute with slick and wet snow. After last year's fall at Taos, I was extremely concerned, especially with that big rock right in my fall line. I took my time and made it down without falling but it really psyched me out. After that I went back to just single black diamond runs.

On Friday we were supposed to have our individual races. I was really looking forward to it as they were going to set it up on "The World's Longest NASTAR Course" with over 40 gates. The weather had other plans, however, dumping about a foot of powder on us. They ended up canceling the races. Based on the times from the club races, Glen finished second in the men's division, while Alice Snider finished third in the senior women's. I ended up in seventh in the men's and eleventh overall. After I found out the race was canceled I headed back to the Sublette chair and skied Pepi's Run, a great tree run with lots of light powder. I ran into Sandy Best, the sales director from Lake Louise, who was skiing with a big group of people. One woman said she wanted to try Pepi's so I led her down it. At least I tried to lead her. Once we got into the steeper section Janet just took off flying through the trees and it was all I could do to keep her in sight. For the next run we hooked up with her three friends and took them down it as well. The five of us then skied together for almost all of the rest of the day. They were all from back east and were great skiers. By the end of the day my face was sore from wearing a "powder grin" all day. The awards banquet was that evening. We danced until we were too tired to dance anymore before heading back to the condos to crash. The band played some good two-stepping and polka music along with the fastest version of the Cotton-Eyed Joe I've ever heard. No Schottische, however. For the next TSC trip I'm gonna have to bring my boots. My hiking boots have way too much traction for dancing.

On Saturday I lucked out and ran into Janet, Jaclyn, Debbie and Eva and we skied together for about three hours. After they quit for a lunch break I hooked up with a couple of Los Amigos buddies and we skied some more great runs. On one run, I gave Ted my camera to get an action picture of me skiing. Naturally, I proceeded to wipe out and drop a ski, meaning I owed them both a beer. Ted took five or six pictures of my wipeout and subsequent ski retrieval. Ted and Ron quit for the day around 3:00 so I skied the rest of the day with Sandy Best and Greg Bryant from the Austin club. We did 3 or 4 runs before catching the last Sublette chair just as they were closing it off. I took a few more pictures, including one of Sandy pissing on his skis. Those Canadians have no shame. He did say that Lake Louise will be bidding for all four TSC trips next year and that they would also be willing to give us the same discount if we could get 100 skiers on a trip. Sign me up.

After our last run, I skied down to the Mangy Moose Bar to buy Ted and Ron their beers. I used the last picture on my camera for a shot of Janet and her friends and missed the chance to get a picture of a guy climbing up and skiing down the roof of the Inn on some telemark skis. Powder does strange things to people. That night our club went on a sleigh ride to have dinner at a cabin. It was a lot of fun and the food was great but I still wonder what they were feeding those horses. :)

On Sunday our flight out of Jackson made it off with no problems. Our plane in Denver was grounded due to a hydraulic leak so we had about a 45 minute delay while they got another plane ready. I made it home at 9:00PM, just as the pre-trip party for our Schweitzer trip was ending. We leave for Idaho next Sunday morning and I can't wait!

All in all, this was a fantastic trip. I think I could definitely get used to skiing powder.

Think SNOW!!!