Super Sunday at Grand Targhee

The Super Bowl doesn’t really light up my radar the way it does for most Americans. Not that I’m not a fan, I just don’t ever plan anything around it and some years I don’t even watch it. Luckily I have friends that do make plans for it and after spending this past Super Bowl weekend skiing at Grand Targhee Resort in Wyoming, I’m going to look forward to the Super Bowl Sunday for years to come.

Breezer and I got in late Friday night to the house Pauly had rented in Driggs, Idaho and snow was already falling. As we poured the first cocktails of the evening we talked about what the next day was going to be like.

“The snow report is calling for 5-7 inches of new snow overnight,” Doug said. “It should be nice and soft tomorrow.” Once the card games started and he got a few drinks in him Doug gave us regular weather updates. “In case anyone is wondering…IT’S STILL SNOWING.”

By the time the party moved to the hot tub there was at least 2 inches accumulated. It created perfect conditions for our snow angel competition, which before long turned into a big air powder dive comp that I believe Jamie won with her patented rail grind to back flop move, though Ari was a close second with the classic swan dive to roll around. Anyhow, the powder was fresh and fluffy and we were in a hurry to take advantage of it.

Despite our enthusiasm from the night before, we got a surprisingly late start on Saturday morning…go figure. When we got to the parking lot at Grand Targhee everyone that had been there before was shocked.

“I’ve never seen the parking lot this full at Targhee,” Doug said. We were still strangely able to find a spot in the front parking lot. It must have been the fact that three white boys rolled up in a ski laden Lexus bumping gangsta rap…intimidation is key in establishing dominance in the parking lot.

Luckily, arriving late didn’t mean we’d missed all the best snow either. Despite the parking lot, Targhee is a wide open mountain with a lot of terrain and before long we were charging fresh lines through light powder and white bark pine trees. The clouds remained overhead all day and their were no views to be had, but it didn’t matter, we were looking down hill all day anyway. It skied more like there was a foot of fresh rather than just 7 inches too.

It was something of a weird day though. We had a crew of half snowboarders, half telemark skiers and one lonely alpiner. The tele skiers kept having bindings break, 3 total, until on the last run Doug had his binding rip completely out of his ski, take a hard tumble and dislocated his shoulder. Lucky for him we had a frozen bottle of liquid pain killer in the car and parking lot dance party to attend.

Overall though, my first day at Grand Targhee was a good one. Not only was I impressed by the terrain and snow, I had a chance to learn a little bit about their sustainability efforts and I was impressed by that as well.

“We’ve had our Sustainability Program going for about 3 years now and our Green Team going for 10,” said Christina Thomure, Grand Targhee’s Sustainability Director. “The cool thing about the Green Team is that our employees are the ones that have encouraged this initiative. It’s a bottom up effort.”

The resort has set a goal of reducing its energy consumption by a 10% average over 5 years. Currently, 20% of their energy consumption comes from renewable sources and they are testing for the use of wind and recently received a grant to explore the possible use of biomass. They were involved in a carbon offset program which helped win them Skiing Magazine’s “Greenest Ski Resort” award, but decided reducing their impact was the better path to take.

“After we’ve done everything we can internally to reduce our impacts we can return to the offset program,” Christina said. “The outdoor industry as a whole has an opportunity to be the leaders in sustainability. We recognize that what we do here isn’t going change global warming or save our environment, but it has a ripple affect. What we do to raise awareness and to educate people goes a long way.”

Along those lines they’ve partnered with Protect Our Winters, a nonprofit organization dedicated to “reversing the global warming crisis by uniting the winter sports community and focusing our collective efforts towards a common goal.” After all, it’s all that wonderful snow that makes Grand Targhee such a great place to visit. Well that and the world-class view of the Grand Teton Mountains when the clouds clear.

Saturday night was a little bit easier on the liver and we when we woke up to blue bird skies, we all knew it was going to be a good day. They had a smokin deal of $29 half day tickets so other than Pauly and Geoff, who had a day of a lifetime snowcat skiing, the rest of us waited until noon and headed up.

I gotta give Pauly his due though, he earned his day by putting together a great trip with an amazing rental that slept 15 of us, had a flat screen HD tv to watch the Super Bowl on and a hot tub, all for only $500 a night. (Another buddy had rented a 3 bedroom 2 bath condo for only $100 a night — a trip to Targhee is pretty economical these days)

What can you say about skiing a blue bird day, with great people, underneath some of the most beautiful mountain peaks in the world? Thank you is all that comes to my mind but I’ll use the words of Jamie and Johnny, “DANCE PARTY!!!”