Jacksonhole
Jacksonhole has been receiving tons of media lately. Being the home town to super athletes like Jimmy Chin and Travis Rice has made it even a bigger deal. Trust me Im not wrong…. locals tell me that after Jimmy got nominated and won an Academy Award more people have been visiting Jacksonhole. And recently a couple years ago this insane competition called “Kings and Queens of Corbets” started which is also sponsored by redbull.
To make justice, I will steal some pictures from the internet, since I really want you to percibe the reality of how beautiful this place is. From the first second when you are descending into the ONLY airport located inside a National Park in the US it is just breath taking…
There is only one street in and out from jackson, so aparently during the peak weeks of winter the place gets so packed (because of yellowstone and jacksonhole) that you can spend up to 30 minutes going through the town some uber drivers told us), since that it gets at least twice as busy during summer than during winter.Right after you exit the airport, to your left hand just before going through the jackson town you actually pass by the National Elk Refuge. There are some guided tours you can visit the refuge via snowmobiles or even via dog/horse sheds.
AMAN
I highly doubt that you can get a better pampering experience elsewhere than in the Aman. You might think that you might prefer the whole Ski In – Ski Out thing, but it turns out the Aman has a small private lounge literally in the mountain so you kinda have the ski in ski out experience. It will be not just to try to put the experience into words… so please watch their promo video here…..
EAT
Wether or not you end up staying at the AMAN there are three spots to eat you MUST go when in Jackson… The Granary which is situated just next door to the AMAN has amazing food, drinks and what I believe to be the best view of the entire city. Then Teton Thai in the mountain has amazing authentic thai food. And finally the biggest MUST would be King Sushi…. I still can not believe and can not get over how fresh the sushi was in this place… I would even dare to say that havent had a sushi this fresh and good in Miami… We also ate at rendesvous, local (burgers) and snake river (according to locals the best…) restaurants, but this last three were just regular ok restaurants.
While hitting the slopes you have the famous waffles at top of the tram at Corbets Cabin. Then you can stop at the base of the tram at a place called The Cable, where they have amazing pizza and cookies! Lastly Jessilane said that drinks and appetizers at the Four Season terrace were super good with great atmosphere…
The aman experience is quite expensive, but I trully recomend that if you can afford it you MUST DO IT!
ANVIL HOTEL – CACHE HOUSE – GLAMPING TINY HOUSE
SKIING
I did not find the Jackson mountain resort quite big. It has a descent size, but nothing compare to salt lake or to vail, although the out of bound terrain is pretty gnarly. Just by going a little of the gates you get to traverse some coulouirs and the terrain is pretty steep as well.
I was also lucky enough to get non stop snow every single day, but one. The snow was just unviliabable. Let me tell you that I have had the opportunity to ski in Europe, South America, Colorado and Utah, but the snow and terrain in Jackson was just amazing. The lift experience was also great, seeing and being in the big red and watch people drop down Corbets Coulouir was beautiful (Corbets was closed, but was fortunate enough to watch some ski patrols testing the coulouir).
As for my backcountry exxperience I paid the Backcountry day package to get a real feel for the virgin terrain and snow. You have to rent all the avy equipment such as, shovel, beacon, proove and backpack so the guide can go over how to use each piece of equipment briefly.
I was a little dissaponted since we didnt get to take our skis off and hike off piste, but the terrain was so deep that it wasnt possible. Never thought I would actually complaint about snow bein too deep… hahah… Skiing down through the middles of coulouirs was something I had never experience before and it was trully an unbelievebable experience. It was actually because of this experience that I decided to sign up for my Avy (AIRE I) course in the following months to come.
YELLOWSTONE
The oldest national park of them all. Great overall experience but most of the park is closed during winter. We weren able to see the most famous Geyssers nor terraces…. We only got to see and hear the famous Old Faithfull Geyser, which explodes every 90 minutes… It was an incredible experience, but I honestly wanted to see the colorfull hot springs.
On the ride to the Geyser we were able to see some beautifull waterfalls and wildlife such as Bisons. Overall a great experince, but now definelty want to go back and experience Yellowstone during warmer times. VAIL + AIRE IAfter having experience the Jacksonhole backcountry I wanted more out of that winter season, thats why I registered for the AVY I course. I convinced Dannyg and the twins to join with me. It was a 4 day curriculum course, and to be honest I thought we were going to spend more time skiing… but the reality of the class is that is 70% class 30% field experience.
It wasnt what I was expecting at all, but gave me some real deal mountian knowledge. At the end, all I wanted to take away from this course was to be confident enough to go backcountry by myself and a group of buddies with rescue expertise…. but ended leaving the course with the conclussion that I will probably not go backcountry skiing without a real guide or a real local.
We practice avalanche rescue and digged snow pits to analyze snow layers. Also used our topho maps and did some hands on route planning. Overall the experience is worth the money and I am glad I took the course, but now that Ive taken the course I would advice anyone who doesnt live in the mountains not to spend the money in taking the course and instead hire a backcountry guide everytime you have the chance. Two life changing experiences…. one night skinning…. the second one getting lost in East Vail and almost not living to talk about it. Not really going to go in depth, but learned the hard way not to go backcountry skiing whenever you are not familiar with the terrain… East Vail is no joke if you dont know the terrain.
MiBiCi Adventures 