You can learn a lot about a place from it’s news. Pinedale has a great little website in PinedaleOnline.com
It’s how I found out about my job here. It’s how we still keep up with what’s going on in town now that we’re here. From webcams to local news, pictures, job announcements, classifieds, etc.
Taking a look at the February news archives for this year, you get a sense of what life is like here. There are stories about sled dog races, ozone warnings, elk testing, the ever-raging wolf issue, high school ski races, scenic photos, as well as both local and national politics.
Wednesday we went skiing and continued to work on our telemark turns. Jenn is getting better and linked some good looking turns. It was in the mid 30s, windless, and the Wind Rivers were shimmering close by while the Wyoming range dominated the western skyline. We found a powder stash and had fun with our friend Steve helping us hone our turns. Wednesday night I played music at Jes’s house with Steve on banjo, me on Mando and guitar, John on banjo, and Katie on fiddle. We played Turkey in the Straw and Cripple Creek and Wagon Wheel. Thursday John and Josh and I were trying to decide between Skiing, Ice Climbing, or Fly fishing when we decided to check the weather for Lander. Turned out that climbing in Sinks Canyon was in order. The weather was in the low 50s and the sun was blissful for about 30 minutes. Friday I played music at work for our first anniversary open house before heading to the Rock Rabbit with my mandolin to sit in with John Fogerty.
This past weekend was pretty good as they tend to go. Sunday and Monday brought a foot or so of fresh snow to the mountains. Wednesday we drove up to Cliff Creek in Hoback Canyon to do a little Tele skiing. We skinned up the now-familiar ridge and made some easy turns in good powder. We used our snow study skills to evaluate the danger and found it to be quite low. We made about 5 runs and decided to head to Jackson.
The South Side Pub and Pizza Place hosts an open-mic night on Wednesdays at 8pm and John and Terry said they’d be coming up. To pass the time, we went to the Enclosure climbing gym and had a blast. Really nice gym and great staff. Weird belay set-up due to some pending litigation from an accident, but great routes and cracks and bouldering. Lots of climbers, and super supportive environment.
Open mic was great. Hosted by Aaron Davis, originally from Bowling Green and a WKU grad. Good guy, good music, great pizza. Afterward, we crawled into the back of the van and spent the night in her for the first time since October. We stayed toasty warm in our doubled up sleeping bags, and I awoke rested at 7am to the temp inside the van sitting at a balmy 14 degrees.
We got breakfast of coffee and bagels at Pearl Street before heading for the Tetons for a ski tour. We toured out around Taggart lake, broke trail toward the peak called 25 Short. As we were skiing up a little ridge, i noticed the west side of the ridge was wind-swept and the east side was loaded, convex, and at about a 35-40 degree angle. I knew it was a perfect set-up for an avy, and started to say something to jenn, but she was about 20 feet in front of me breaking trail. Not a minute later I heard her gasp and i felt a “Wump” under my feet and watched the slope break off about 15 feet to my right. It slid about 40 feet into the small trees below. Jenn was a little freaked out and I felt bad for not telling her what i was thinking. Still, i felt we were never in harms way as we were right at the crest of the ridge and the slope was short and there was no snow above us, so the worst would have been for us to slide down the slope behind the avalanche, not along with it. Still a very sobering experience.
The worst of it is that we foolishly decided to leave our beacons in the van, thinking we were not going to encounter any avy terrain. We won’t make that mistake again and I’m surprised my usually cautious self let that one go.
