2022 Ski Season // Alex Norell

We bought Mountain Collective passes for the third year in a row. The pandemic wasn’t fully over and we really wanted to do a road trip to hit all of the western US mountains. We had bought a truck after buying our house and were planning on using that to get around the mountains.

The Plan

Road trip around the US Rockies in our truck
Spend a longer period of time in each city

The Truck

We purchased a 2006 Chevrolet Silverado in July 2021 as a second vehicle mainly for the house projects we were planning on doing with our new house. It had four wheel drive and I also outfitted it with new snow tires and a truck bed cover at the beginning of 2022 in preparation for our trip.

On January 6th, just before 6AM, our truck was stolen from the street in front of our house. This threw a huge wrench in our plans.

The truck was found a day later in Oakland with the interior completely stripped and no wheels, tires, tailgate, doors, or hood.

We had obligations to drive up to Idaho for a trip to Grand Targhee at the end of January. The following weeks were spent trying to work with insurance and to plan how we were going to get our trip back on track. We flew up to Idaho for the trip to Grand Targhee and bought a new truck while there.

We ended up buying a 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche. We thought about getting one back when looking for our previous truck, but were convinced that it would not be as practical. While that might be true for truck stuff, it is exactly what we need for the stuff that we want to do with it; drive it a bunch of miles, be comfortable, and have a covered truck bed. When we need a full length truck bed, we can drop the seats and the midgate and have a full 8 foot bed. When we don’t need that, we still have a bit more than 5 feet of length that is fully covered and locked.

Ski Trip Log

Days	Mountains	Vertical Feet
17	9	318.1K

Grand Targhee

The trip started off in Idaho with a drive over to Wyoming for a long weekend of skiing in Grand Targhee, WY. We stayed at a nice vacation rental in Driggs, ID.

January 30 - Grand Targhee, WY 25,964ft

Decent day at Grand Targhee with okay visibility. Ripped groomers most of the day.

January 31 - Grand Targhee, WY 18,671ft

Bad visibility up top. Spent the day ripping groomer laps on the Sacajawea Chair.

February 1 - Grand Targhee, WY 15,200ft

Better visibility. Did a half day with 5 laps off Dreamcatcher.

Bozeman

We spent a week in downtown Bozeman, working from local coffee shops and getting up to Big Sky two times. We stayed at the Kimpton Armory Hotel in downtown Bozeman.

February 6 - Big Sky, MT 25,217ft

Looked all over the mountain for steep. Only found it in a couple places. For context, Big Sky had just started charging $80 for access to the top of the mountain where the steep was. We didn't feel like spending money on an additional lift ticket. We also probably weren't ready to ski a lot of the stuff off the top. We also kept running into bare spots on the runs and rocks. There really wasn't a lot of snow coverage.

February 11 - Big Sky, MT 18,163ft

We spent most of the time getting further up on the mountain and exploring a bit more. Big Sky is a really big mountain, and we didn't even cover half of it.

Jackson

We spent the weekend in Jackson, staying in the Motel 6. It was clean, but definitely not recommended. This was also the weekend of Kings and Queens of Corbet’s, so Rendezvous Mountain were pretty busy. The first thing we did our first day was to ride up the tram and experience Jackson Hole from the top of the mountain. Everything about the mountain lived up to the hype or exceeded it.

Top of the tram

February 12 - Jackson Hole, WY 29,564ft

Beautiful blue sky day in Jackson. It was cold, but not extremely cold. From what I understand, we got incredibly lucky with this weather. We explored the mountain and tried to ride every lift. My favorite stuff was off of Sublette and the Tram.

February 13 - Jackson Hole, WY 20,417ft

Another beautiful day at Jackson. We spent almost our entire day on Rendezvous, lapping the tram, Sublette, and Thunder.

Denver

We spent the week at a family member’s place in Denver and made a couple day trips up to Arapahoe Basin.

February 16 - Arapahoe Basin, CO 18,550ft

Had a great time back at the legend. Lapped some of my favorite runs and explored other parts of Zuma bowl and the East Wall.

February 19 - Arapahoe Basin, CO 12,490ft

Explored The Beavers a bit and brought Mariah along for a run off Zuma Cornice.

Salt Lake City

We spent a long weekend in Salt Lake City skiing Alta and Snowbird. My family came to Utah to ski it with us. We stayed at the Residence Inn in Sandy. It was such a fun experience sharing Alta and Snowbird with our family and bringing them to some of our favorite mountains.

February 22 - Snowbird, UT 23,825ft

First run of the day for me, I see the National Guard helicopters come down the valley, and then crash. Pretty crazy to watch. It was a huge powder day too, so it sucked that they had to close mineral basin for the rest of the day. Spent the rest of the day going around the mountain exploring it more.

February 23 - Alta, UT 21,371ft

Huge powder day again. Everything on the mountain was so much fun to ski. Waist deep powder in some spots, and everything I wanted to ski was open.

February 26 - Snowbird, UT 20,236ft

All the family was out this day and we brought them around the mountain to show them everything. Mineral Basin was open again, so everybody got to see the two wrecked helicopters. Watched my cousin tomahawk down lower cirque.

February 27 - Alta, UT 10,371ft

Did a half day and showed Alta to my dad.

Tahoe

We spent a couple days in Tahoe skiing Palisades and stayed with family at a friends place in Carnelian Bay.

March 20 - Alpine Meadows, CA 17,927ft

Skied with my uncle and cousins. Had a lot of fun in the late spring snow.

March 22 - Palisades, CA 13,501ft

Had a blast skiing a half day with the family before parting ways. Blue sky day.

Mammoth

We finally had a chance to get down to Mammoth to ski. We had a wedding in Riverside to attend and instead of driving back up interstate 5, we drove to Mammoth Lakes and spent the weekend there. We stayed in the Westin which made it super easy to get on the mountain every day.

April 3 - Mammoth, CA 10,266ft

First time at Mammoth and had no idea what to expect. Ended up skiing a shorter amount of time than I would have liked due to Mariah not feeling well.

April 4 - Mammoth, CA 18,081ft

Beautiful day, but snow was starting to get slushy. Enjoyed hitting Cornice Bowl and Skyline a couple times.

Ski Gear

I replaced a few pieces of outwear this year, but the hard goods all stayed the same.

Skis and Bindings

Still skiing the Mantra 102s with Pivot 14 bindings. They are still handling everything I throw at them and then some. From ripping down groomers at high speed to getting into the fresh stuff after a storm, they handle it all beautifully.

2020 Volkl Mantra 102

Boots

Just like the skis, I continued to ski with the Dalbello Panterra 120 and ZipFit liners. My feet hurt a couple times, but everything seemed to work out if I kept my boots tight.

Poles

My tried and true Goode G-Max poles are still with me with no signs of needing replacement.

Goode G-Max Poles

Helmet and Goggles

My goggles and Helmet didn’t change this year either. I did end up picking up couple more lenses for the goggles before the season started to be more adaptable to different sun conditions.

Outer Layer

At Grand Targhee I decided to get some new gloves to keep my hands a bit warmer in the frigid Teton Range. I picked up a pair of Hestra Three finger gloves. Hestra really makes a nice glove and the price is definitely warranted.

Otherwise, I still skied in my North Face Decagon Jacket and 686 Quantum pants from previous years.

Base Layers

Nothing new on this front. I’ve been skiing in SmartWool socks since I started skiing. I also used 32° brand long underwear as a base layer for most days. For particularly cold days, I added in my REI Down Jacket.