JH conditions in late March

I was there last year at that period and it was great!!!

Telluride is amazing in March. It's high 9000-12500 with a North and NorthWest exposure. And its biggest snow month.

Jackson is not amazing in March. It's low 6000-1000 with a Southest and South exposure. And past the big snow months.

That does not hurt Jackson during the cold WY winters....but when the sun comes out. The great open steeps of the lower mountain are...hmmm not-so-great. The Hobacks are cruddy. Sublette the same. Gondi and Casper can get baked early. Up high is OK. Very slushy overall.

I would not due Jackson in late March. Not optimal.

More times than not it gets pretty sloppy in late March. The terrain pretty much covers every direction except west. There is some terrain that faces northest. The only positive is that is not very crowded by that time of the season.

second (third?) that. If you go to JH in late March, stay high (altitude) as much as possible. as you go lower at the end of the day, expect slush to slop towards the bottom.

[edit]:
My suggestion for end of March: Summit County. why. The altitude. even the towns in Summit are at or above 9500 ft. The best spring skiing in that area will be found at Loveland and A Basin, and up high at Copper.

Only issue with that is that CO doesn't have alot of snow to work with. Some high snow total, higher elevation resorts to consider:

- Kirkwood
- Mt Rose
- Big Sky/Moonlight
- Alta
- Snowbird
- Wolf Creek
- Targhee (West exposure can be an issue)

Powdr

Is there another Wolf Creek besides the one in Colorado?

If the CO one, it can close end of March.

The problem with Jackson is steep ungroomed terrain with predominantly SE exposure. Bob Peters and I debated this issue at some length last year http://forums.epicski.com/archive/in...p?t-38275.html , but it has since occurred to me that the perfect demonstration of the effect of exposure is at my favorite mountain Snowbird.

I am Snowbird every year for 4 days between March 4 and March 17. Mineral Basin and Little Cloud are matching terrain pods with comparable terrain and altitude but opposite exposures (north wrapping around to west in Little Cloud, south wrapping around to east for Mineral Basin). Mineral Basin opened in 2000, and for the first 5 years weather was sunny and off-trail conditions in most of Mineral were crap. The only runs we would ski out there we would traverse at least to Powder Paradise and usually all the way to the Bookends, which are tilted slightly northeast. This year I got lucky with cool weather and a substantial dump overnight on March 13. I racked up 5 sweet powder runs in the first 1 1/2 hours in Mineral Basin. But that's one year out of 6.

At Jackson nearly the entire mountain is as badly exposed as Mineral Basin. You can argue that Utah is warmer than Wyoming, but Mineral's elevation is 9,600 - 11,000 while 3/4 of Jackson's terrain is lower than 8,500. The bottom line on Jackson: don't advance book for any later than mid-February. I was there President's weekend 1995, and as soon as the sun came out the snow turned heavy. I went to Jackson in late January this past season, and it finally lived up to its billing.

i skied JH last April on closing day weekend (1,2,3).

it was pretty much like everybody else has said. up top off the no-defunct gondola was great, but it got black-out foggy the first day.

the bottom half of the mountain was all sludge, very similar to Cali's "sierra cement" and then snow gremlin grabbies (slush) at the very bottom near the base lifts.

the second day i skied the other side of the mountain and it was slick groomers if you stayed mid-mountain and sludge/slush at the bottom again. pretty much what i expected for Spring skiing.

i went to Colo and skied Breckinridge the following week and had a blast staying in the windblown bowls off the t-bar up around 10-11-12,000. again, it was sludgy down near the bottom.

I'd say Feb is the month (i hit Utah in mid-Feb last year and we caught a storm for 2 days with a third day of niceness).

I would not plan a trip to JH past mid February. I have learned this lesson 1st hand the hard way (3 trips in late feb/early march with zero new snow and 40 + degree weather). Warm bluebird days turn JH's inbound terrain into some pretty thick slop in a hurry. And when it gets heavy at the top, you've got 4000 feet of heavier and sloppier to get through before you are off the mountain.

If you have the skills and knwledge to ski OB, the conditions stay solid until much much later.

My son Adam had 3 days of instruction at JH at age 10 and considered the lessons outstanding. But he had already been skiing expert terrain for 3 seasons. The quality of the instructors is extremely high but the quantity of green and easy blue terrain is very limited. I think anyone considering skiing JH should be comfortable on single blacks at an average ski area.