Jackson Hole ~ February 20th - 27th, 2021

With COVID still impacting travel, getting a trip off the ground provided some challenges this ski season. Our original trip to Mammoth, California, was cancelled due to COVID impacts, our rescheduled trip to Schweitzer Mountain, Idaho, had to be scrapped when the resort double booked our rooms, and our final destination to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, underwent some flip-flops between weeks due to lodging and lift ticket availability. But in the end a dozen of us arrived at the Jackson airport ready for a great ski week.

We settled into our accommodations at the 49er Inn near the town center. While not a luxury ski in ski out resort, they did provide clean comfortable rooms (some with fireplaces), daily hot breakfast, private ski shuttle buses to and from Jackson Hole ski resort, and very convenient location within walking distance to most town activities.

Due to the lack of Jackson Hole ticket availability on Sunday, most of the group took a road trip to Grand Targhee. As the Teton area has been having a bountiful snow year, this resort provided lots of powder skiing opportunities. Actually due to the daily snowfall during our ski week, both resorts could not keep up with keeping groomed runs groomed. The rest of the week our group skied at Jackson Hole where we found weather conditions changing every hour. Some days we arrived in a snow storm that cleared to a beautiful sunny sky and other days we arrived with clear views of Grand Teton mountain range only to be hit with another snow storm. You just had to be prepared for any weather but the snow was always great and plentiful.

With a small group, we tended to travel in a pack enjoying evenings together. Several went to Liberty Burger for a great tasting bison burger, Merry Piglets for some outstanding Tex-Mex dishes, The Wort Hotel Silver Dollar Saloon for good food while listening to a great Tuesday night local band, One Ton Pig, the Persephone bakery for French style breakfast, and the Blue Lion, a favorite with locals for fine dining. On Wednesday we had a group dinner at the Gun Barrel Steak and Game House. In addition to great food, the restaurant also features many of the full mount game trophies and antique cowboy artifacts from the location's former Wyoming Wildlife Museum. On Thursday most of us gathered around the large fireplace in the 49er breakfast room for pizza, leftovers and drinks. The resort owner was cooking a special BBQ elk dinner for another visiting club and invited us to join the party. Excellent food! And on Friday some gathered at the Mangy Moose, a slope side watering hole decorated floor to ceiling with all sorts of memorabilia and odd artifacts, to celebrate a great week of skiing. During the week we had plenty of wildlife sightings including a mama moose and her baby hanging around the Mangy Moose.

For the non-skiers and those who took a day or two off, they also found Jackson Hole to be a winter wonderland.  Some rode the tram for the spectacular views of the Grand Teton Mountains and the top of the world dining experience in Corbet's Cabin, where they will serve you anything you like as long as it is waffles!  Definitely a treat and worth the ride up to the top!  Between spa visits, snow shoeing, sleigh rides through the elk reserve, and wandering through the shops and art museums in the town of Jackson, everyone had a great time and were happy to be traveling again.