Come by Skinny Skis this Thursday for the Teton Pass Ambassador Night from 5-8pm. Some of the issues being discussed will be avalanche safety, parking, hitch-hiking and of course, the controversial sign on top of Glory Bowl.
The subject of the new (and sometimes missing) sign on top of Glory Bowl popped up on Facebook last week (click like here to read the comments) and is sure to be discussed on Thursday. I don’t think the sign is necessary since it states the obvious and doesn’t distinguish between high and low danger avalanche conditions. BUT, I also don’t care if it stays. Personally, I don’t think there is as much of a problem up there as is lead to be believed. Yeah, early in the season it can be a junk show, especially if it there is good early season snow, but it usually calms down once JHMR opens.
the sign on the top of glory went through forest service approval and is a collaborative effort between wydot and myself to throw a heads up to people who might not know what they’re getting into on glory- i won’t pretend to assume that it will take care of all the potential avy issues in glory but if it keeps one person out at the the right time it will have done it’s job- the consequences of a slide in glory bowl affect much more than just the skier involved- i want to be proactive on the access issue and try to be doing everything i can to keep us skiing up on the pass- i think a lot of people would be surprised to see what goes on in glory bowl and what the average level of ski experience as wll as avalanche safety and knowledge- for example on tue. the 8th 47 people had skied the bowl by the time i left at 3 pm and i did not see a single person do any kind of a pit or test- this is in a bowl that averages 36 degreees- we had 7 inches of snow with winds averaging 18 mph from the wsw- so fine the bowl didn’t slide- how much luck do you think went into that No Slide day- how many times will we continue to be lucky – i’ll talk about more of what i see that goes on up one pass tomorrow night- hope to see you there.
thanks ampassador. i’m not sure how to respond…but i will say that i rarely dig pits or ski glory bowl.
be sure to check out this link.
http://www.adventure-journal.com/2011/02/backcountry-warning-sign-polarizes-teton-pass-skiers/
I read the linked article, my big question is does wyDOT not do regular avalanche control on slide paths that over run the highway?
If they don’t even without the skiers I would say they have a pretty big safety issue on their hands.
Sounds like ultimately they may end up with a closure/permit system like Rogers Pass
kyle…wydot does do control work for natural slides that might potentially cross the road for the safety of the commuters. as a community, we hope to avoid a permit/closure type of scenario like on rogers pass.