How deep is Wyoming's snow? - well, bring a snorkel along

Jan 12, 2010, 9:42 GMT

Alta, Wyoming - When going out skiing, you'd better bring a snorkel along. Is this some kind of joke, you ask. But Brigid Sinram is serious.

The young woman from Grand Targhee in the north-western part of the US state of Wyoming is responsible for reporting snow conditions and she simply enthuses about the seemingly bottomless deep-powder snow, the kind which pushes out, a metre high, from your skis like water from the bow of a ship and sprays in your face.

'Just wait until you have taken a dive in our powder reserve!' she exclaims.

On this particular evening, it's only pink-coloured clouds which are drifting across the sky. But on average each year, in what must be some kind of record, an average of 13 metres of snow falls on the small winter resort on the western slopes of the Teton mountain range.

Jackson Hole with its Apres-Ski-excitement, prominent guests and freestyle ski fanatics is located on the other side of the range. It is barely an hour's drive away, but a totally different world.

Grand Targhee has exactly 96 hotel rooms, three restaurants and one tavern, plus a general store. There are five ski-lifts.

The skiing area joins two peaks with their jutting boulders and mountain ridges. There are around 70 marked downhill ski runs. The most difficult of them are aptly named 'The Good,' 'The Bad,' and 'The Ugly' and they all finish up in the 'East Woods.'

Wyoming is America's Wild West. It was once home to the Shoshone and Blackfoot Indian nations, and the resort is named after one of their chiefs, Targhee.

Here, your ski pass is still punched, in the old-fashioned way, with a ticket-punch. The bunk beds in the lodges are reminiscent of a youth hostel and many skiers are wearing cowboy hats.

Disembarking from the highest ski-lift, the four-seater 'Dreamcatcher,' and then following along the 'Teton Vista Traverse,' it seems that you can simply reach out and touch the 4,000-metre-high peaks. Even the Grand Teton National Park does not offer such a panorama.

The park lies on the eastern side and, since 1929, has protected the chain of mountain peaks which tower above the valley basin and resemble a gigantic row of sharks' teeth.

The original French-speaking fur traders in the region, spending a lonely existence for months at a time, had females on their mind when they named the mountains: 'Tetons' is the French word for breasts.

Despite the risque nomenclature, the gleaming glaciers, the crystal-clear lakes and thundering waterfalls, many people give Teton Park a miss, hurrying as they are to the geological wonder of Yellowstone with its steaming geysers, located just a few miles away on Highway 191.

Alta, the next town with its 469 inhabitants, is located 20 kilometres away in the opposite direction. The vacationers are staying up in the skiing area.

But this is about to change. The resort belongs to billionaire George Gillett jr. He has, for the moment, put his plans for expansion on ice. But at some point there are to be 450 new residential units and new ski-lifts.

On a recent morning, snow-cats were heading up to the 'powder reserve' on Peaked Mountain. The guests were following ski guide Dana Stillson, whose trademark is a pair of 'fat skis' - which are wider and shorter than normal skis.

'With these you can swim on top of the deep snow,' Dana explained.

Dana also had an avalanche beeper in his backpack - but there was no sign of a snorkel.

Even the night before, in 'Snorkels Cafe,' there were none to be found. A guest finds himself looking closely at one of the large plastic beverage straws and thinking, maybe I should take one along, just in case?