Driggs for Retirement

[smpliving]

Isn’t Driggs near the Grand Targhee Resort? My brother and his wife have been flying into Jackson Hole from Colorado and skiing at GTR the past couple of winters. Its less crowded and they seem to like the area a lot. I think they spend some time in Driggs too.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by smpliving

Isn’t Driggs near the Grand Targhee Resort? My brother and his wife have been flying into Jackson Hole from Colorado and skiing at GTR the past couple of winters. Its less crowded and they seem to like the area a lot. I think they spend some time in Driggs too.

Yup. Like Jackson, Driggs lies at the foot of a ski mountain. Grand Targhee gets the most snow of them all, and with it's big bald top, has an enormous amount of ski terrain.
Grand Targhee actually has 3 mountains in the resort: Fred's Mountain (9862 feet), Peaked Mountain (9830 feet), and Mary's Nipple {9920 feet).
Fred's is the largest, but all get loaded with deep powder every winter. 500" of snow is a typical winter. Each is different skiing terrain.

[smpliving]

Originally Posted by banjomike

Yup. Like Jackson, Driggs lies at the foot of a ski mountain. Grand Targhee gets the most snow of them all, and with it's big bald top, has an enormous amount of ski terrain.
Grand Targhee actually has 3 mountains in the resort: Fred's Mountain (9862 feet), Peaked Mountain (9830 feet), and Mary's Nipple {9920 feet).
Fred's is the largest, but all get loaded with deep powder every winter. 500" of snow is a typical winter. Each is different skiing terrain.

Thanks for the info!

[snowave]

Not to nitpick BanjoMike, but the size numbers are a little misleading on Grand Targhee.

It is a decent sized mountain at around 2600 acres, however, Mary's is not lift served, and Peaked mtn has 600 of those acres that is for their snowcat operation only. A large flat-ish gladed area that is mostly not skiable takes up another ~150 acres... and then much of peaked north face is either expert chutes, or closed altogether. So, for most people, the skiable acreage is probably closer to 1500 acres. Not bad, but not enormous. However, there are plans for expansion in the future.

I lived in the area for a year back in 2014/15, and I loved Targhee. The snow quality/quantity/consistency is about as good as it gets anywhere, and it was indeed rarely crowded. However, It has gotten busier the last year with the Ikon Pass now being accepted. Lift tickets are also over $100 a day, which seems crazy as it was only ~ $75 when I lived there.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by snowave

Not to nitpick BanjoMike, but the size numbers are a little misleading on Grand Targhee.

It is a decent sized mountain at around 2600 acres, however, Mary's is not lift served, and Peaked mtn has 600 of those acres that is for their snowcat operation only. A large flat-ish gladed area that is mostly not skiable takes up another ~150 acres... and then much of peaked north face is either expert chutes, or closed altogether. So, for most people, the skiable acreage is probably closer to 1500 acres. Not bad, but not enormous. However, there are plans for expansion in the future.

I lived in the area for a year back in 2014/15, and I loved Targhee. The snow quality/quantity/consistency is about as good as it gets anywhere, and it was indeed rarely crowded. However, It has gotten busier the last year with the Ikon Pass now being accepted. Lift tickets are also over $100 a day, which seems crazy as it was only ~ $75 when I lived there.

Thanks for the corrections, snowave.

I knew some of that stuff, but my posts tend to get complicated when trying to explain everything in good detail.

It's hard to describe Targhee. Most ski mountains are only one mountain. Or only one side of one mountain.
For someone who's never been there, that detail tends to make that person confused. And as a general question, I try to answer the question as simply as I can, and leave details out if they're not necessary.

But I always hope someone like you will pick up the loose thread and fill in the details. And so far, neither of us have given a full picture of what Targhee is really like.

Like much of Idaho, a person just has to be here and experience things in person. There's very little here that is actually resembles what outsider folks presume it to be. Targhee might be unique, but not so much here in Idaho.

The Arco Desert, for example, isn't really a desert, but it's not exactly a high altitude steppe either.
Parts of it are either one, and some parts are both at once.
And other parts are not at all like a desert or a high steppe, except on one side of the mountain.

That's how it is here. Trying to answer simple questions on this forum often twists my mind up in tight knots trying to find the right words.

[nowhereman427]

https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/idah...ent=nlbuttonB1