Whirlwind tour ends perfectly
Skiing around here is wonderful. But the challenge of new terrain can make you better on snow. Overcoming adversity on the road can make the experience even more satisfying.
A mountain-hopping tour is a crapshoot. You bet on snow quality, driving conditions and mountain weather. I rolled snake eyes last week, but stayed in the game and came out ahead.
Traveling with my uncle Roy Jennings, I left Spokane on the afternoon of Feb. 7. A blizzard escorted us from Lookout Pass to Missoula. Five hours later we arrived in Hamilton, an hour’s drive from our first mountain.
Lost Trail Powder Mountain is a snow magnet off U.S. Highway 93 at the summit of Lost Trail Pass on the Montana/Idaho border. Last Friday we found 2 feet of the lightest, driest snow I’ve skied. But there was a catch. Wind gusts up to 80 mph on the 8,200-foot summit shut us out of a burn area touted as the mountain’s best terrain.
The lee side of the hill was outstanding, but wind became a malevolent force dogging us throughout the trip.
Our next destination was Grand Targhee, about 250 miles southeast on the western edge of Wyoming. We continued south on 93 to Salmon and took State Route 28 through the Lemhi Valley, a flat plain lined by jagged peaks up to 12,000 feet high on both sides.
A fierce wind pounded across the starboard bow. Shrieking turbulence pushed us around on the icy road. Gusts created a vacuum threatening to suck the windows out the port side. We were periodically blinded by ground blizzards.
At Rexburg, Idaho, we learned that all routes to Grand Targhee were closed. I canceled our condo reservation at Teton Creek about 8 miles from the ski area and holed up in a cheap motel. Saturday morning the highways remained closed.
We improvised. Our original plan was to ski Grand Targhee Saturday and Pebble Creek Sunday. We made a beeline to Pebble Creek, a ski area 25 miles southeast of Pocatello.
Heading south on icy I-15, the wind howled. We saw a car flipped on its side in the ditch. Another had its side windows blown out.
Pebble Creek rises to 8,500 feet above the desert 25 miles southeast of Pocatello. It turned a shoulder to the wind. It’s a small mountain that skis big – 2,200 feet of vertical with long runs and steep drops. Most trails are black/double black. But snow is a precious commodity. Locals say all they have is rock skis. If you want a challenge on your way to Utah powder, pull off I-15 at the Inkom exit and ski Pebble Creek.
After a night soaking in the hot pools at Lava Hot Springs, a town about 25 miles southeast of Pebble Creek, State Route 26 to Grand Targhee finally opened. We hit the road at 6 a.m. Sunday and were skiing by 9:45.
Grand Targhee is a ski area in a spectacular alpine setting that reaps bounteous snow. On a clear day its backdrop is the Teton range. But the 10,000-foot summit of Fred’s Mountain was fogged in. We skied bowls and glades all day on the north and south flanks, but avoided the sheer cliff drops on Peaked Mountain. After coming this far, I wanted to live to ski another day.
Monday we drove 8 hours from Idaho Falls to the Silver Valley, where the relentless wind backed down. Looking up at Silver Mountain, it was snowing. We pulled off the interstate and geared up one more time.
There’s no place like home.