I went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming last weekend to see a buddy of mine ('sam' on matador) and to do some back country skiing. It seems Jackson Hole exclusively permits young, fun, athletic people who look good in puffy jackets to enter town limits. The 20 and 30 somethings live the life there, full of activities, parties, and rocky mountain goodness. I arrived to town (after driving 6 hours from Salt Lake City in a blizzard) and immediately met Sam at his Broomball game, where 14 people were running around an ice rink, smashing each other with sticks, falling un-gracefully to the ice, and trying to smack an orange ball past a goalie. This looked like as much fun as people could have with snowpants and knee pads on. I only caught the tail end of the game, as Sam and I had to dart off to play in a soccer game at the Town Rec Center. I play a decent amount of soccer, but I completely forgot that Jackson Hole is at 6,000 feet altitude, and I was sucking wind like a fat kid with asthma during Freeze Tag. It's not just that you're out of breath, but it also stings your throat and lungs at that altitude. Anyway, I put on a sea-level performance, and then, all sweaty and overheated, we went for beers at the Snake River Brewery, where we sat next to the crackling fire place and I continued to be overheated and sweaty. We woke up on the early side to ski Friday, which was a good decision, because it snowed 2 feet the night before. It was pretty spectacular. Jackson Hole is probably the best mountain I've ever skied. We did a good amount of hiking above the lifts, where again I huffed and puffed like a committed smoker. The hike sucked, but it was totally worth it to get fresh tracks in 3 feet of powder. I nearly choked on the snow when it was hitting hitting my face. We skied Saturday too. Since the deep powder had been skied off on most of the mountain, we hiked up to the top and skied an untouched back side chute my buddy knew of. The three of us were wearing the avalache beepers and tried to set off a slide before we dropped in so we wouldn't get caught up in one. Luckily, no avalanches. More first tracks in three feet of powder.. Absolutely phenomenal. I wish I took pictures, but I was too busy smiling. The smiling eventually dissipated at some point during the 1:15 minute traverse/hike out from the backside.. Anyway, Jackson Hole is fantastic. Highly recommend it. Mostly because you can wear cowboy hats and not look entirely stupid.