A Look Back: Tahoe has been a rough go for the past 37 days. A rough go. It wouldn’t have been so rough had other places in the Big 4 (ie Tahoe, Jackson, Utah, and Whistler) been getting nailed. Of those other locales, Jackson had been doing the best. They got the same pre-season insanity that we got in Tahoe…but, the snowfall there never stopped. It just kept coming.

jackson hole backcountry - the north shore view

After the about 24 days of no snow in Tahoe Eric Bryant and I began to feel the horrible effects of CPD (Chronic Powder Deprivation). So we loaded up Eric’s Chevy 3500 diesel pickup truck and hit the road.

the north shore - jackson hole backcountry

Neither of us had ever been to Jackson and we literally had no idea what we were getting into nor what to expect of the conditions. All I knew is that there is this place I’ve seen in all the movies called “The North Shore” that I’ve been dying to ski for about 10 years now.

the north shore left - jackson hole backcountry

Here’s a quick breakdown of our trip, Jan 25-28

Day One: With no one available to show us around, we were told to go thru the gates to the South. We skied 4 Pines, Cody Bowl, Break Neck, and Pinedale just by walking out there, eyeballing things and going for it. It worked out and we were able to ski our first powder in weeks. Our CPD symptoms began to subside.

Day Two: While hiking Cody Bowl the previous day I spotted The North Shore, a zone that I’d been drooling on for years. On this day Andrew Whiteford took us out there and showed us how it’s done. The TGR guys were out there filming as well and it was great for us to watch them, see how to ski the zone, and see what the conditions were like. We got two laps and it was the best day of the trip.

Day Three: We were pretty wasted from the previous days of hiking. Squaw local and High Camp extraordinaire, Benjamin Brackett, guided us out to the Endless Chute off the Granite zone. We got some good footage up high, then descended into dense fog and variable conditions. The Endless Couloir feels like it’s about 4,000 feet long. After the most heinous sidestep of my life, I was over Granite, forever, and we did two laps in Mario Land, one of the most fun zones I’ve ever skied.

Day Four: Teton Pass was something we’d heard too much about to pass up. We booted up the 40 minute ’20 minute’ bootpack and basked in the glory of a hot sunny Teton day. Unfortunately, all that sun and heat had funkdified all the snow up high and we weren’t able to get too wild. We did find some amazing powder skiing in the trees down low. We almost got lost in the Wyoming wilderness on our way out, but my gps saved the day (gapers).

our north shore tracks - jackson hole backcountry

Day Five: We battled back through the bleakness of Nevada to our beloved jewel, Lake Tahoe. We found some extremely friendly deer along the way and a crazy ice-coverd slide that Ben had told us about the day before in Twin Falls, Idaho.

It was one helluva trip and it’s certainly ranks within the top 5 ski trips of my life.

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