Teton Pass Ski
Area : Review.gif)
Expert
Terrain at Teton Pass Ski Area
 |
| Looking
down on the base area at Teton Pass Ski Area |
Experts
will find some challenging terrain at Teton Pass – although
none of it is death defying. All of the expert terrain begins
at the top of the chairlift. To access the expert terrain,
you can go one of two ways once at the top.
The
best terrain in my own opinion is found by going to the
left once you get off the chairlift, following the South
Star Trail. This trail will take you to an open area (which
also has been partially burned years ago). From there, you
can drop down on either the Cherokee Trail or the Firewater
Trail, both of which offer excellent open terrain skiing.
Both
of these trails are fairly steep on their upper half and
then flatten out to a more intermediate grade as you
go further down the mountain. Regardless, though, these
two trails provide some very nice skiing in open terrain
(which
means you just cut your own tracks and aren’t confined
to a rigid trail). Just beware of rocks during low snow periods
as these trails have a southern exposure and can be bare
in spots.
Other
good expert terrain of a totally different nature is found
by going to the right once you get off the chairlift,
on the North Gully Escape trail. Once you drop down
from this trail on any of the expert runs below it, you’ll
have an interesting trip down to the bottom – as it
literally involves skiing down a gully. The trails twist
and turn and
are not very wide. These gullies can also fill up with snow
at times – allowing for some interesting, and deep,
powder skiing conditions.
Here’s
one thing to
keep in mind about these gullies, though. Like gullies
everywhere, when it has been a while
between snowstorms and the gullies have been packed down,
skiing down them is like skiing on a bobsled run, for lack
of a better word. The gullies are quite narrow and will have
a U shape to them, with fairly steep sides. As such, even
though these trails are not horrifyingly steep, they can
provide some challenging terrain none the less – especially
on skis.
Also
note, the up and down skiing
can really play havoc with your technique – and
your equipment (I broke a pair of skis AND my boots on
the same run while skiing on a out of bounds gully trail
off the summit of Mt. Mansfield in Vermont years ago).
But, while not easy, this gully skiing is lots of fun
and is definitely
worth a try if you’ve never done it before. Intermediate
skiers will also like these gullies, too, especially
the one found on the lower mountain – the Many
Falls Ski Trail.
Summary
 |
| Wind
blown terrain is fairly common on some exposed
slopes at Teton Pass. So watch out for the occasional
bare
spot and exposed rocks. |
Overall,
Teton Pass is a wonderful ski area tucked away in a quiet
and beautiful corner of Montana. The ski area
has a nice mix of trails, a beautiful location and the drive
up to it is both relatively simple (at least during good
weather) and very scenic. Teton Pass is also affordably priced,
allowing even large families to enjoy a day of good downhill
skiing that won’t break the bank account.
Also,
the hours of operation should be mentioned. Teton Pass,
like many smaller ski areas in Montana, is not open
every day of the week. The standard hours for Teton Pass
are Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Additionally, if you have
a large enough group, you can rent out the ski area during
the rest of the week – giving you and your friends
a private ski area all to yourself.
 
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