My family went home today, leaving me to ski the next week all by myself. Even though we come out here for 2 weeks every year, this year the boys decided they couldn't miss a week of school so they went home. With no one for me to take photos of, I just have words today.
I said goodbye to my family about 5 AM, and came back to the suite and baked bread. First I made dough for pain a l'ancienne to make pizza and baguettes after it slow ferments in the refrigerator for a couple of days. Then i made pita bread and ate a couple with honey. Mm-mmm!
After reading for awhile and doing a crossword puzzle, I finally got out to ski at 10:30. I learned my lesson--always be in line when the lifts open. The skiing was great today and I missed the first hour-and-a-half; bummer. It was windy all night long and buffed the bumps in Rendezvous Bowl smooth. I had two great runs down the bowl even though the wind was still howling. It was so windy in Tensleep Bowl that when I pointed my skis downhill, the wind kept me from moving. The wind scoured off all the snow, so Tensleep was about the only place that wasn't fun to ski, but it led me to Cirque which had excellent snow in the dead tree line.
Two hours after my late breakfast, I met Mimi and Frank at Osteria for lunch. They were meeting with a couple (owners of The Fresh Market) that were considering moving to Jackson Hole and wanted to get an insiders view of what family living in Jackson Hole was like. It was interesting to hear what they value about living in JH. Mimi said they live outside, not inside. That's why their house is small, but their garage is large, to hold all their outdoors recreation equipment. This emphasis on the outdoors gives their children an interest in nature and conservation. Living in JH also reduces materialism, partially because of the lack of shopping opportunities, but mostly because the residents focus on what people do, not what they own.
After lunch, I did another lap of Tram, Sublette, Thunder. Cirque was still good. So was Triangle Trees. The snow was excellent in Tower Three Chutes too, but the bumps were heinous. My legs were exhausted by this point, so I took the gondola so I could sit and recover a bit. Like all the other lifts, the gondy had no line. In fact, I was given an 8-person gondola car all by myself. Just before the door closed, a young woman joined me. At first I was disappointed not to be able to enjoy a solitary ride up the mountain, but she was very interesting and we had a great chat. She graduated from Dartmouth (where she was the leader of the Dartmouth Outing Club) six years ago and moved to Jackson Hole. She works for the Rocky Mountain Conservation Something or Other. Her fieldwork includes ski-tracking wolves during the winter.
After the lifts closed I checked out the gear at Wildernest Sports. Two things stood out: the ski boots with clear shells so that you could see the linings; and the great deals on barely used demo skis. The ski shop guy told me that hotel bookings were down 30% this year, and that translates into a bad year for ski rentals.
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