Picto Diary - 24, 25 January 2021 -First Annual LSDM Ma and Pa Ski Weekend

Above: NH Cousin#1. Pine Creek Ski Resort. Cokeville, WY. 24 January 2021.

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First Annual LSDM Ma 'n Pa Ski Weekend.

Four inches over night fresh powder.
Skied every lift. No lift lines.
Is that a babyface in the cloud?

I have always loved the obscure. Part of my contrarian nature. I can enjoy a motorcycle ride though Chalk Creek/Yellow Creek to Evanston as much as a walk through the Sistine Chapel; or, an off season Amtrak ride to Glenwood Springs with the LSDM Train Group as much as a dinner cruise on the Bosphorous. Don't get me wrong. I like that other stuff, but the obscure holds a special place in my psyche. The LSDM Ma and Pa ski tour fits in nicely with the obscure ethos.

Pine Creek is located, near Cokeville, situated along the Bear River drainage, in southwestern Wyoming. Pine Creek Ski Area is about 10 miles east of Cokeville in the mountains making up the southern end of the Salt River Range. The Salt River Range, along with the sister Wyoming Range, adjacent to the east, run (from the Cokeville area), north to near Alpine, Wyoming, about twenty five miles southwest of Jackson. Between the two ranges runs the Greys River, which flows north into the Snake River. The parallel ranges are about 150 miles long. I discovered Pine Creek about fifteen years ago while motorcycling in the area. While there, I rode my 1998 BMW R1100 GS motorcycle up the dirt road ending at the top of the ski lift. At the time, I said to myself, "I have to get back here to ski." I accomplished that objective circa 2011 when Mwah (sic), NH Counsin #1, and Guzzi came up for a day of skiing. That day was foggy and blustery. NH Cousin #1 tore a rotator cuff on a spill that day.

As Ma and Pa ski resorts go, Cokeville is about as obscure as there is. Close by, some better known Ma and Pa's are dotted along the underside of the Snake River, in Idaho: Pommerel, Magic Mountain, Kelly Canyon, and Pebble Creek. Further afield, are some back in the really obscure Pine Creek category, such as Warner Canyon, near Lake View Oregon and Antelope Mountain, near Ten Sleep, Wyoming. The granddaddy of Ma and Pa's... not that obscure... is Beaver Mountain, in Logan Canyon, Utah. We expect to ski at Beaver Mountain tomorrow.

Pine Creek is open each Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the ski season. There is one fixed chair lift with a 1600 foot vertical climb... the same climb, say as Sultan and Deer Valley or Super Condor at Park City. There are six or eight ways down the mountain with three or four different groomed options. There is a surprisingly diverse variety of terrain with a good mixture of black, blue and green descents.

A small lodge has a ski rental, ticket sales, and cafeteria (hot dogs, hamburgers, chili etc.).

I asked the girl at Pine Creek selling me a ticket if she had a senior rate. She said yes...$30.00 for 70 and over. "I'm 75, I said." "No your not," she replied. "You couldn't be over fifty," she added. I was had. I'd have to reach into my pocket to get my drivers license and go through the rigamarole of proving my age. Too hard. Besides, I liked the girl's moxie. Likely she was an owner... she had skin in the game. A resort like this needed every buck they could get just to stay operating. I smiled and paid the full lift ticket price. $48.00. As an aside... I have always had a bit of a problem with the whole senior rate paradigm. As a cohort, seniors, particularly skiing seniors, are part of the wealthiest cohort in the history of the world. And they're given a discount opposite the struggling working people skiing at Pine Creek today who pay full price?

Mask protocol signs were up... but, half the people, skiers and employees, weren't wearing them. The lift operators and the lifties seemed to be a combination of local kids and farmers from the area. All were friendly. They wore no identifying uniforms or parkas.

I asked a liftie about the Pine Creek market. I had noticed by 11:00 AM that there might have been one hundred fifty cars in the parking area. The liftie, noted Montpelier, ID, Kemmer, WY, and the Star Valley, WY as the principle source of customers. Later, atop the mountain, we ran into a skier dad and his eight year old novice skier. He said he was from Afton, WY. Afton, situated in the Star Valley, situated between the Wyoming and Salt River ranges, is about half way between Jackson and Pine Creek. Afton is the home of Rulon Gardner who won a wrestling gold medal at the 2000 Olympics by defeating the heavily favored Russian, Aleksandr Karelin.

At lunch, a mom and her daughter were seated at an adjacent table in the ski lodge. Mom taught Home Economics at Kemmerer high school. Her husband owned an electrical company and was currently doing a job at Big Sky, MT. She said that her annual pass at Pine Creek for four family members was $500.00. Most of us think of skiing as a very expensive sport. But, there are inexpensive ways of doing it. Pine Creek is a classic example.

Over fifty percent of the people on the mountain were young people riding snow boards. There was no snowboard or ski instruction going on. There were quite a few young families (lottsa little kids) skiing and riding. A couple of ski patrollers roamed the mountain. We saw only one other couple of what I would call serious skiers. They were a married, thirty-five something couple, who were from Kamas. We saw no geezers other than ourselves on the mountain.

NH Cousin #1 and Mwah (sic) wanted to cover the entire resort. Sticking to groomed runs we found six ways different ways down the mountain. There were spectacular views looking to the west, over the Bear River valley into the northern Bear Lake area, including Montpelier and Paris, Idaho.

A downside of the Ma and Pa's is that the lifts are all fixed chair. You won't get as much skiing in at a Ma and Pa ski resort as you do at a major resort, with detachable chair lifts, on an uncrowded day. The Pine Creek lift ride was close to fifteen minutes, bottom to summit.

We were blessed with a mostly blue bird day post six inches of last 24 hours snow fall. A great skiing experience.

Above: Beaver Mountain Ski Resort, Logan Canyon, UT. 25 January 2021.

Image taken from deck of Beaver Creek Lodge.

It is about 60 miles from Pine Creek to Beaver Creek Lodge where we spent the night... in anticipation of skiing the next day at another Ma 'n Pa, Beaver Mountain (see image).

Beaver Creek Lodge caters mainly to snowmobile vacationers, though, as we found out, it is a great place to go the evening before a ski day at Beaver Mountain. We saw more than one hundred large pick-up truck/enclosed trailer combinations while driving between Garden City, UT and Beaver Creek Lodge. At either side of the road (US 89) were criss crossed snowmobile tracks in the snow.

Beaver Creek Lodge had a dining room... not a restaurant. You prepaid your meal... $30.00, and took what they gave you. In our case, dinner was roast pork, hyper rare roast beef, spaghetti, and squash strips... not exactly gourmet fare, but very satisfying after a hard day of skiing at Pine Creek. The lodge doesn't have a wine or liquor license, but, they are very accommodating of BYOB. There was a team of two running the dining room, a boy and a girl, or a man and a wife... thirty something from Dillon, Montana. They were career western resort seasonal contractors who moved from resort to resort as the jobs opened up.

Around 3:00 AM, I heard a thud coming from the floor above my room. I could hear a kid crying. At breakfast, a grandfather with his three year old grandson walked into the dining room. I said to the kid, "Are you the little kid who fell out of bed last night?" The boy just looked at me. The boy's grandpa mumbled that, yes, the boy fell out of bed the previous night. Grandpa didn't want to talk about it. The little boy, looking me straight in the eye, started jabbering about how he had his own snowmobile. Sure enough, I looked out the window and there it was, parked by the snowmobiles being used by the rest of the family... a tiny, pint sized, snow mobile. So cute! I love seeing families interacting and having fun together. One of the real joys for me of these "obscure" excursions is the high incidence of authentic experience involving grounded people... people who work for a living; people who prioritize family. What you see is what you get. Less of poseur sleight of hand types. you see in elite settings; more of people who know how to do stuff.

When the rest of the family came into the dining room... the boy's mom and dad, and the grandmother... I, again, referenced the boy's late night tumble from bed. Mom looked at me with fright. Apparently, grand dad, who had responsibility for the boy overnight, hadn't told his daughter about the boy's late night tumble. Mom mumbled something along the lines of "nobody ever tells me anything." I realized why grandpa, earlier didn't want to pursue the previous night's incident.

The kid seemed OK. Who hasn't fallen out of bed at one time or another?

Rooms (they have ten rooms) were comfy... beds with duvets... clean and properly stocked bathrooms. And warm. That night's temps went below zero. I'd go back in a heartbeat. Aside: I generally measure hotels by how TIMDT would react. This one: grimace, shrug, see room, say nothing, spend the rest of the time sans complaint.

Above: F350 at Beaver Mountain Ski Resort. Logan Canyon, UT. 25 January 2021.

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NH Cousin #1 and Mwah (sic) agreed that Beaver Mountain was in the upper tier of Ma and Pa ski resorts. Beaver Mountain, opened in 1939, is the oldest continuously family owned resort in the United States. Employees wore branded parkas. Ski instructors were available. There was a solid rental operation. Three operating lifts provided entry to a more than expected number of smooth, modestly pitched, blue cruisers with fresh snow under foot.

The market for Beaver Mountain is Logan, UT... a college town, and southern Idaho... Franklin, Preston. I wasn't expecting that many people, it being a Monday. But, circa two hundred fifty vehicles were in the parking lot by 10:30 AM. The mountain itself was not crowded... never a wait at the lifts.

Three operating lifts. Harry's Dream is a 1700 vertical triple. and Marge's Triple is a 1200 foot vertical lift. The other lift is a beginners lift...500 foot vertical... but, there is a blue option off the beginner lift.

A great bluebird ski day. 38 inches of settled base. Four inches new snow over the previous 24 hours.

We were off the mountain by noon... and, we're ready to eat by the time we reached Don Pedros, in Evanston, at 1:30 PM... a fitting end to a very successful LSDM Ma and Pa Ski Weekend.