Jackson Hole Mountain Resort – 2009 Year Comes to an End.

What a great year at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort… It all started with the new tram and what a piece of machinery it is. Everyone in Jackson and visitors from afar were equally impressed by the new $31 million dollar tram. The speed, the size and the appearance were all impressive. Tram lines were never as short as they were this year when compared with the old tram.

The 2009 ski season will be remembered for the tram but it will also be remembered as the year we received “crazy” snowpack during the Christmas and New Year holiday. A very weird/unusual snow storm impacted the Northern Rockies and deposited feet of snow. It all started with a huge storm on Christmas that was characterized by cold temperatures. Then on the 26th it got warm and continued to snow creating what is called an “upside down” snow pack – cold, dry snow on the bottom and warm, wet snow on the top. This makes for a very unstable snow pack. Well the results were horrible. A young skier was killed in bounds at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort just after Christmas. Then a few days later a large avalanche crashed into the Bridger Gondola building closing the mountain for 2 days. It was a very eventful week during what was supposed to be a time of celebration. The Jackson Hole Mountain Resort should be credited for handling the situations professionally and well managed. The snow pack finally settled down and stabilized.

For the year we had 502 inches recorded at the mountain weather station with a settled snow base of 120 inches. The last 2 weeks of the ski season will be remembered by a lot of people, including me, as the best weeks of the season with over 8 feet of snow! Yesterday at the “end of the year” bash under the tram Christy and I witnessed a lot of smiling faces. It was a great party with friends and visitors enjoying the wonderful ski season at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

Now —- It’s time to bring on Spring!!!! Please warm up and melt all the snow…..