Having been in Singapore for over 2 years now?? can not believe how the time flew!!! they say as you get older, time accelerates faster and faster, until one literally disappears into a dust storm of atoms? This has absolutely nothing to do with this Blog.
In a past/former life , Rebecca and I went skiing with a backcountry skiing company out of Driggs, Idaho ( Rendezvous Ski Touring http://www.skithetetons.com/ ), It was always ranked as one of our best back-country skiing trips we had ever been on. Fast forward 3 years to Singapore , and I find myself bragging about all of the powder, fantastic terrain with Jay, well before you know it I am e-mailing Diane and Jeff in Driggs about availability in May for spots in Feb. Like i said it is a sweet trip and folks that have been on it tend to come back, so if you want to go, start booking at least 6 months ahead. Although, when booking this trip you should understand that Diane and Jeff are either skiing in the winter/spring or surfing in the summer( it s rough life, at least someone has figured it out) so they may not get right back to you , but they will get back to you. At the time I wanted the whole yurt which can accommodate 6 people, the 2 guides sleep out in a tent. The program we picked was, a day-trip back-country skiing out of Teton pass and 3 nights at Baldy knoll ( Baldy knoll is a yurt , 3 miles and a few thousand foot elevation in the Targee national forest ). Jay put the group together, it included his brother Adam,and friend Jim, Dan from Seatttle. We had one open space, which Rendezvous filled with a great skier ( Steve) out of Minnesota .
Nothing like traveling in 24 hours from Singapore at 95 F deg 95% Air/Water , to Driggs Idaho’s 25 F deg. Feels liberating to use F instead C with out having to justify/defend America’s way of life. 
I know i look cold , but i am really roasting inside, with a smile on my face and a song in my heart
The program Rendezvous has set up( and their are many programs) for folks staying at their yurt, is to bring them to Teton Pass the first day, one reason is to assess their endurance and skill.
For this group it was all about making turns in a beautiful environment, the first of many beautiful days. Folks that don’t know about back-country skiing , the first thing you learn is that if you want to go down, you have to go up, and the only way to go up is the old fashion way, by your own two legs. Some folks like the up as much as the down, good time to reflect on the scenery, chat . They call it earning your turns?
As you can see , the scenery is breathtaking, which means that you need to stop every once in awhile and catch your breath while enjoying the scenery. Jeff is taking the lead here, shortly after this picture, Jeff did fall down, probably the first time in 5 years 
. Evil of me to say, but we all enjoyed that fall and brought it back to mind through the week.
Some of the potential runs, and their are literally these type of slopes everywhere you look. Of course the only way to get their is still the old fashioned way, that’s why the place isn’t any busier
The following day, we loaded up the truck and headed out. After a few hours skinning up the valley or draw? we came to the Yurt, doesn’t look like much, but it is sweet. The Yurt is what makes these trips so much better! to come back from a long day in the mountains to a warm yurt, cocktails , hordeovres! Because this is a national park, every spring they have to take down the Yurt and reassemble it in the fall.
the one problem we had , were blisters, I have never seen so many blisters. definitely need to start with your feet wrapped in duct tape, for those long 4 hour ups.
This is the inside , as you can see , plenty of room, off to the right side is the wood stove with the snow melting pot . Water is the biggest continuous activity, probably the best source of water as well. What a happy looking crew, although by the end of the trip it was getting a little ripe.
One of the nice aspects to this yurt are the views, Actually their are so many great views, after awhile it’s “ho hum oh another sheer cliff, another beautiful ski run speckled with pine trees, more blue skies , another sunset, yawwwn yawwn.
One of the important safety concerns, are avalanches, I have heard, this area tends to have less, snow pack is more stable than many other areas, predominantly because of less temp swings. 
But the rule is any slope can slide at any time, so treat it accordingly. That is one of the main reasons for having a guide (plus their jokes), the other precaution is to wear avalanche beacons. At the beginning of the trip they always have a little beacon training. Note Jay looking for the buried skier, no , I mean the buried beacon.
Here is Parker , going through more Beacon instruction. One of the activities, as we head out, is that the Guide will stop about 100′ ahead of the group with the beacon on receive, than as each person skis past him, he will hear that the beacon is sending a signal .
We had heard rumours of trees jumping out in front of skiers. Not sure who this is, I had the same thing happen to me , skiing along happy as a clam, and the next thing you know a spruce has you in a bear hug.
One of the skills one develops in the back country is economy of motion, their are continuous activities of taking your pack off, changing gloves /hats/ helmet, taking skins off, putting skins on ( Skins are something you stick to the bottom of your skis that allow you to travel uphill). So if you can combine 2-3 activities together it is faster and less tiring, its all about conserving energy ( economy of Motion) but more importantly you don’t have 4 people ready to go, giving you the hairy eyeball. So, here is an intrepid skier combining a rest break with a pee break, now that is a thinking man. Usually you will see this when some one is so drunk they need that 2 point contact to stay upright while they concentrate.
This is Jay with Driggs Idaho in the valley , and I think that is Dan to the right?I do have an exorbitant amount of Jay pictures, the reason, is that we broke into a couple of groups, I tended to follow or be followed by Jay for most of the week.
I did have energy problems , just came off of a 1 month Singapore bronchial thing a ma jig, so sucking wind.
This is on top of Zimbabwe, hey that is Africa! so the story goes: A guy( Many years ago) camped at the bottom of this north facing slope for a week , enjoying the powder and solitude, at the end of the week as he was skiing out, he ran into a group of acquaintances who asked him ” where have you been skiing?” not wanting to disclose his newly found stash he said “Zimbabwe”!
This was probably one of the best slopes, as I write this I would like to go back and ski this a few more time, try a couple of different lines.
Here we are all heading back to the yurt , after a hard, extremely satisfying day in the mountains
Hi,
Almost to the end now! This is the view of a sunset from the Yurt, pretty marvelous, don’t you think?
The trip out is always exciting, normally like a luge run, this time a little powder, a little luge, a smattering of breakable crust, and of course open water as a closer.
Here we are , a few pounds lighter, and a tiny bit wiser!
On another note: Rebecca had mentioned that she was heading to Hong Kong? somewhere in Asia the end of Feb. So I never mentioned that I was going Skiing with Rendezvous on my birthday Feb 25, ( Turned the big 6—0 ) At any rate, their where some e-mails back and forth, and Rebecca mentioned that she had organized a trip with Rendezvous in Feb, ?? I than told her that I was doing the same in Feb. Quite funny, I think her group went in the week before us. It would have been quite funny to run into her on the trail as I was skiing up. I wonder what Diane and Jeff though about this, because they saw all of this transpiring. When i got to the Yurt Jeff gave me a nice note from Rebecca ( Always a classy lady!).
Well hope you liked this, i do apologize for not having many pictures of the other members jumping off cornice’s , helicopters, 780′s?? Well maybe the next trip.
