Goods from the gods

Endless Powder Days in Jackson Hole

By Chris Hansen, 1-23-08

	Cryptic messages were appearing and quickly disappearing on vehicles on Teton Pass this past month. Photo courtesy of Jim Stanford/JHUnderground.com.

Jackson Hole reached a snowfall milestone early this week: total snowfall for the season was 302” as of Monday morning, which brings us within 23 inches of last year’s total, according to the final avalanche report of the 2006/2007 season from the Bridger-Teton National Forest Avalanche Center, which reported only 325 total inches for the year. And here it is not even the end of January. Needless to say, it has been quite a season so far. We’ve had so many powder days this year that it’s about all anyone can talk about. While in most seasons we think back on the great powder days and try to add them up, this year I find myself looking back to see if I can remember the days it hasn’t snowed. It’s been a wonderfully difficult task.

So with a lull in the action, I thought I’d look back at the last month or so’s daily snow totals. It’s rather impressive. I include any day that has at least an inch of measurable snowfall (there were only a few of days with less than one inch but more than zero), and I went back a few days before the opening of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort to show the good snow we received in the week before opening day. While there are a lot of onesies and twosies in there, the overall snowfalls are quite impressive. And let me tell you, the skiing has been the best, most consistent powder I’ve skied in years—maybe ever.

In the essence of full disclosure, there are two snow-reporting stations at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort that the Bridger-Teton National Forest Avalanche Center uses for reporting and I’ve chosen to use the higher number for each of the following listings. In most cases the higher number comes from the Rendezvous Bowl plot at 9,580’, but in some cases the Raymer Plot at 9,300’ had the higher number.

The other thing I’ll say is that in most cases the snow reported seemed like less than what you could find once you got out there. Happy skiing!

01/21/08 9”
01/20/08 11”
01/19/08 1”
01/18/08 1”
01/17/08 1”
01/16/08 5”
01/14/08 1”
01/13/08 8”
01/12/08 10”
01/11/08 9”
01/10/08 8”
01/09/08 14”
01/08/08 2”
01/07/08 6”
01/06/08 8”
01/05/08 14”
12/31/07 4
12/30/07 15”
12/29/07 3”
12/28/07 1”
12/27/07 2”
12/26/07 1”
12/25/07 7”
12/24/07 3”
12/23/07 3”
12/22/07 2”
12/21/07 9”
12/20/07 10”
12/19/07 4”
12/18/07 8”
12/17/07 1”
12/16/07 8”
12/15/07 1”
12/14/07 2”
12/13/07 2”
12/11/07 4”
12/10/07 1”
12/09/07 1”
12/08/07 5”
12/07/07 9”
12/06/07 6”
12/05/07 1”
12/04/07 4”
12/03/07 2”
12/02/07 1”
11/30/07 8”
11/29/07 2”
11/28/07 5”

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