Teton Pass Ski Area : Review

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.

Next Page : Teton Pass Pictures

Page : 1 | 2 | 3

Top of Page