Thanksgiving Plans???

Wondering what Timmy, Mel, Natty, Seth, Hils, Matt, & Liz are doing for Turkey Day. Erica and I were throwing around the idea of coming up to Jackson and I wanted to see who's around. Here's a flash back from Turkey Day 2005:

FORECAST: The End of an Era? The La Nina Era......!

After looking at heaps of data from the Pacific ocean, it seems clear that ocean temps will be returning to normal after a La Nina year last year, when sea temps cooled, resulting in Jackson, Utah, New England (there was also a La Nina in 00-01...that was sick!) and Colorado being pounded with Pow-Pow. With a year that looks like it will be neither El Nino (Taos wins) nor La Nina (Montana/Jackson wins), it's a bit of a tossup. Thus, current plans to visit Utah in January seem like the best bet being that Alta may maintain one of the most consistent snowfall averages of any ski area in the U.S., maybe the world. That being said, NOAA's seasonal predictions are a bit iffy on neutral years (and strong on El Nino/La Nina years) so we really don't have a good idea of snowfall potential this year. Seems like it could be an average year? Lets cross our fingers and hope we don't have a season like a couple of years ago.... Opinions are always encouraged on the issue at hand.....

Mission Accomplished

After several long days of hiking in the park, my goal of skiing for 12 consecutive months has been accomplished. Amazingly enough, the September ski this past weekend had the easiest access of the summer. At this point, I see no need to stop skiing until the snow melts next summer. It has now been freezing in the valley every night and I have to scrape my car windows in the morning. In the mountains it has already snowed a few times. There was in fact some fresh snow to be skied in Garnet Canyon. We skied both the pictured Cave Couloir just below the Middle Teton and another snowfield in the south fork of Garnet Canyon. The other one had far superior springlike conditions with an inch of fresh corn on top. The conditions in the couloir were less than ideal.
The other pictures are from August when we skied above Snowdrift Lake in Avalanche Canyon. We were able to follow the snow all the way to the lakeshore where I went for a refreshingly chilly apres ski dip. It was one of the most beautiful places I have skied. Awe inspiring as we descended toward the lake with the South Teton towering above.

Powder Room Visions

The September Backcountry mag arrived in my mailbox yesterday, the Gear Guide. So today I get to flip through and drool over all the gear I can't afford. Plenty of white dreams though for my mind to wander off to today at work. I think I'm going to need to pop some ski-porn into the DVD player tonight and pop a beer, maybe smoke a cigarette when i'm done.
TK if the weather pattern stays fairly true to what we've seen recently, I think NE has a good chance at having a repeat performance of last year's snows. Overall it has just been cooler and a more "normal" feeling this summer...some hot, some cool, some rainy, some dry spells. This winter I could do without all the freezing rain though. I think I should be booking a trip out to Cali cause they're due for a big year.
That leads me to what's been brewing in my mind the past week or two, this year's winter trip out west. TK, I know you would have a x-mas break, what other winter va-kays do you have? Seth & Hils, I realize you won't be quite as flexible as last year. You guys have a good time or week other than the x-mas week? Grayson...Natty-king?
My first thought is a trip to the Uinta Mountains. Seth, you would probably be the best source of info about possible yurts or cabins for rent. The Uintas seem like a good halfway point for the western parties involved and seem like an awesome mtn range to explore. Thoughts?