In the past six days 45 to 50 inches of new snow has fallen at the upper elevations”

This is the first thing I read when I woke up yesterday morning. Yup, another day of living in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It is 6:30 am and I gulp at my coffee, pull on my ski clothes, feed and pet the dogs…apologizing for the 5th time this week for leaving them to sit home while I go ski, load up my gear and head up Teton Pass. Since heading over the pass is in route to work for us, of course we must stop and get some skiing in. It would be wrong not to. I know, it all sounds so torturous. We have been getting pommeled with snow this past week. It has been so hard to get any work done…oh, I know you feel so bad for me.

I love this community. We all work our butts off just to live here, but when a storm cycle comes in we all know where our true commitment lies. Suddenly, your working late to make up for skiing until noon, the laundry, dishes and bills stack up, your probably eating lots of pizza and drinking too much beer, and your legs and lower back are sore as hell. Today I was actually telling my friend that my husband and I are excited to start a family, but we are so tired from skiing and working late that who has the energy to even make a baby. We laughed so hard. Though we were joking it is sort of half the truth. Many times I feel as if we live in a separate planet here…one that revolves around powder and…oh yeah, that thing we must do…work.

The other funny thing is that we all tweak and twist our schedules to try and live the good life, but mostly we all work our butts off. If we ski until noon, well we then work until midnight. We all complain about the work but we all LOVE the lifestyle. Someone asked me the other day if I could think of one word to describe the people who live in Jackson what would it be? After filtering through bi-polar and some other similiar words I came up with MANIC!
Here are 3 dictionary definitions followed by my own “Jackson” definition.

1. A state of high excitement and activity found in bipolar affective disease and occasionally with other mental illness.

OR

Highly excited, bi-polar Jackson folks who try to live the carefree, ski bum lifestyle, but at the same time are all affected with the need to work our asses off.

2. Frenzied: affected with or marked by frenzy or mania uncontrolled by reason; “a frenzied attack”; “a frenzied mob”.

OR

Frenzied: affected with or marked by a frenzy of a POWDER day around here. Uncontrollable mobs of locals trying to get first tracks. The resort and back-country alike has a frenzied buzz.

3. Mania is a severe medical condition characterized by extremely elevated mood, energy, and unusual thought patterns.

OR

Mania is a severe condition that settles in with valley locals after that amazing POWDER day. An extremely elevated mood where everyone in the valley acts like they just drank 15 espresso shots! Well, they probably did.

This is a small community and it is amazing how we all come together like family over an amazing act of nature. We are now on 9 days in a row of amazing snow. And let me say that it is REALLY hard to not find a smile on any locals face. Maybe next month we can try to make a baby.

Tip:
If you are planning on traveling to our area to ski in the back-country, PLEASE inform yourself of local snow conditions. Avalanche training is a must when traveling in the back-country. Take a course in your area. Please stop into one of the local shops such as Wilson Backcountry Sports and also check out our local avalanche forcasting website.
PLEASE BE SMART!