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PrintSnug in the Snow
High-mountain yurts offer comfort and convenience
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Mid-February last winter: a superb time to ski in the Tetons. An unusually persistent and historically dangerous heavy snowfall buried the high slopes day after day, from late December through late January. Subsequently, a couple of weeks of clear, sunny weather consolidated the snowpack; avalanche danger subsided and the slopes again became skiable. Then it snowed again—several days in a row of at least six inches of powder each. A recipe for perfection; particularly where there are no crowds to track it out.
It is right at this time that I enjoy my second winter trip to the Commissary Ridge Yurt. It’s my third yurt trip overall through Jeff Jung’s and Diane Verna’s company, Rendezvous Backcountry Tours; the other outing was to the nearby Plummer Canyon Yurt.
Five friends and myself are in for a good time. Typical weekend warriors, we hike in to the yurt on Friday morning. After we climb to the ridge, dense forest gives way to clearings and thinner tree stands; and then, right at the yurt, the view explodes into one of the most magnificent anywhere of the Grand, Middle, and South Teton peaks. We quickly eat lunch, hydrate, and reorganize for an afternoon of skiing on the lower slopes of Beards Mountain, and for a recon of what the terrain and conditions will offer for the rest of the weekend. Then it’s back to the yurt for well-earned dinner and sleep.
Forget the bumper sticker that reads, “A Bad Day of Skiing is Better than a Good Day at Work.” This just doesn’t apply to yurt trips in the Tetons—because, I’ve decided, there’s no such thing as a bad day there.
Three primary elements combine to justify that conclusion: magnificent ski-touring and telemark-turning terrain; three mountain yurts, each situated for optimal access, views, and skiing; and deep, legendary, west-slope powder.
Starting with the last, an average of five hundred inches of snow falls on these slopes each winter. Heavily laden clouds from the Pacific arrive at the Teton Range and stall until, as if paying a toll, they dump their loads in order to pass over the massif. (Nearby Grand Targhee Resort’s tagline “Snow from Heaven—Not from Hoses” is no vain boast.)
Then there’s the unsurpassed skiing terrain that’s the recipient of all that snow: easy-angled tree glades and open bowls at lower levels; and, at the higher elevations, some of the most exposed and thrilling Alpine touring country in the Northern Rockies. If days of touring and turning among the forested foot-hills is your dream, a yurt trip is ideal. If you’re an elevation-gaining, couloir-skiing fanatic, these yurts are also your scene. Guided, high-mountain, and yurt-to-yurt combination services are available, or you can just book self-service, self-guided trips utilizing the yurt accommodations. The approaches are simple, navigationally; easy, physically; and relatively quick: an average hike of four miles and 2,000 feet of elevation gain on free-heel skis and climbing skins will get you to your wintery Shangri-la....(Continued)
