December 14-19, 2004, Tetons

Got really lucky on a road trip I almost didn't start for reports of poor conditions.

Apparently the night before the day I arrived at Grand Targhee 2-3 inches of pow fell on top of a mild rain crust, then it got cold enough that the water in the crust evaporated to a large extent, leaving what basically felt like 6 inches to a few feet of pow for the ripping, with an inch or 2 of hoar frost crinkling like broken glass on the surface on some aspects.  Not much base but the drizzle a few days earlier firmed up the pow just enough so hitting bottom was no longer too much of an issue.  Not quite face shots but better than the average "pow" day at Crystal.  So it was pretty much a point it and rip like a mad man type of situation.

Outside of an awesome uncrowded resort day and two freshy days of cat skiing, I found some partners and skinned the BC, sticking to the ridges and the high elevation glades due to pretty strong avalanche warnings.  Lots of fun w/ best coverage higher and/or out of the tight trees.

Didn't get to Teton Pass but I'm sure it is decent there too.

It was raining/snowing pretty hard last night on the drive back on I-90 through Idaho, and at Snoqualmie Pass it was coming down pretty good and almost sticking.