My Long Short Trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming

by Amy Patenaude
Outdoor/Ski Writer

When my friend Laura invited me to join her in Jackson Hole I thought it was a fantastic idea. Yes it was exciting and crazy to travel so far for just three days of skiing. I rationalized it was a great opportunity, they had a ton of snow and Laura is such an awesome fun skier. I figured I could pull it off.
I went on-line to find flights. Ouch, I didn’t think that buying a ticket a week out would be so much more expensive compared to purchasing a flight at least 30 days in advance and Jackson Hole is an expensive place to fly into even with an advanced booking. This was by far the most expensive “economy” ticket that I have ever purchased. Wednesday- Boston to Denver to Jackson Hole and a return flight on Sunday from Jackson Hole to Salt Lake City to Boston.
A few days later the weatherman started talking about a huge snowstorm that would be arriving late Tuesday night and snowing into Wednesday morning. Are you kidding me? On Tuesday morning I checked the Concord Coach website and they were warning that buses would not be running during the peak of the storm.
By mid-day they had cancelled buses after 3pm.
The storm was predicted to be light in Boston but in New Hampshire they were calling for more than a foot. I gathered my gear and headed to the Concord bus station and took the last bus to Boston’s South Station. I made arraignments to stay in the North End with our niece Fran and her family and she’d drive me to the airport in the morning.
I had a fun Tuesday night helping the kids with their homework and eating pizza.

In the morning it was a quick trip to the airport and before I knew it I was in Denver. I sat there by the gate waiting to board my flight to Jackson Hole. Next thing you know we are being told our flight is delayed an hour. The man next to me says it is snowing too hard in Jackson Hole I bet we don’t get out tonight. Eeeek! An hour went by and then another and then another. Next thing I know they’re cancelling all kinds of flights. Flights to Aspen, flights to Idaho Falls and my flight to Jackson Hole and hundreds of us went rushing to the customer service desk.
While waiting in line I called the airline on my cellphone. They couldn’t find another flight to Jackson Hole until Friday night and they suggested another option would be to return to Boston. Eeeek! They changed my flight to a redeye that would fly that night back to Boston. I stayed in the customer service line since it was nearly my turn and I hoped for something better.

While I had a few moments to think, I called my friend Sylvia in Fort Collins, Colorado and asked her if I could spend a night or two with her. They re-booked my flight for Friday night and at least I could have one day in Jackson Hole and a couple days in Colorado.
The line to try to retrieve luggage was hours long. I figured I’d let my gear get to Jackson Hole as soon as possible. Maybe I could pull off a miracle in Colorado, all my carry-on contained was my ski boots and a tooth brush.
I took the Green Ride shuttle to Fort Collins, I think I got there around 9pm. After a quick beer and some catching up I was thankful to crawl into bed where sleep came easily.
The next morning at Sylvia’s urging, I called the airline and- surprise – they found me a seat on the 7pm flight that evening, Thursday. Whoohoo! I enjoyed an extended morning visit with my college pal and I had a super lunch with another ski friend before taking the Green Ride back to the airport.

All the earlier flights from Denver to Jackson Hole went off and I was confident I’d be arriving there too. I recognized a few people from my time in the customer service line. One man had rented a car and tried to drive but got stuck in Laramie, WY, spent the night and drove back to Denver and got on this flight. Another gal paid additional money to upgrade to first class to get on this flight. When it came time for boarding we watched the gate agent walk up to the desk and speak into the microphone. “This flight has been cancelled and rescheduled for 7 am tomorrow morning, please use the same boarding pass.” Eeeek!
I spent the night at the Holiday Inn Express. I’d been wearing the same clothes since Tuesday afternoon so I washed my underwear and socks in the sink of the hotel room. I set my alarm for 5am and I went to sleep wishing for some luck.
The flight went without a hitch. Laura was there waiting for me and so were my bags at the luggage desk.
We swung by our hotel room and I changed into my ski clothes and we grabbed a breakfast burrito in town on our way to the ski resort. Since it was about 11am there was no line for me to get my Mountain Collective Pass and the lift line at the Tram was short. The sun was coming through the clouds and more snow would arrive in the afternoon.
I did my best to find my powder legs and hang on.

Bernie’s Bowl, Tower 3, Expert Chutes, Headwall and Alta something – we skied powder and bumps. It was an amazing! When the lifts closed we had a beer at the Mangy Moose located near the Tram base.
That evening we walked to dinner at a funky little Sushi Place and we had a fun evening swing dancing at the Wort—a classic western hotel.
Saturday morning arrived fast. Snow fell again all night. I-80 was closed and so were the passes. We were snowed in at Jackson! We decided to skip the Moose Chase (the cross country ski race) and head back to the mountain to ski more powder.
Laura and her other friend Amy float and glide like they have wings. They are lovely super strong skiers. Again, they took me all over the mountain and we did some hiking. We made many fresh tracks. I confess by early afternoon my legs were toast, burnt toast.
I confessed to my fatigue and urged them to hike again without me and I’d meet them in the lodge at the top of the gondola. Whew. Soon they met up with me and we all enjoyed a snack and a hot chocolate.
Then they took me to the other side of the mountain where there are groomers. Who knew there were groomers, there are lots of groomers. But I guess I never would have seen them if my legs hadn’t turned to rubber.
That night we went to Thai Me Up, a Thai restaurant that is also the Melvin Brewery. We met a couple of Laura’s paddling friends and I enjoyed an evening of laughter over tales of their adventures.

Sunday morning arrived even more quickly and Laura got me to the airport at 5:30am. Of course it was snowing. The plane sat on the tarmac for almost an hour waiting its turn to be de-iced. I had visions of missing my flight in Salt Lake to Boston. Eeeek! But I didn’t.
Actually the way home went smoothly. Even though I was gone only 4 nights it felt like I had been away forever.
I had the best two days of outrageous 3,000 vertical feet powder runs but you know there is a lot of good to be said about skiing here at home.
Have Fun.