Industry News
Jackson Hole will begin construction on a new lift this summer that will be ready for the 2015/16 ski season. The lift will be named the Teton Lift and will move skiers 1,600-vertical-feet up the mountain and drop them off very near the entrance to Granite Canyon at the Northern boundary of the ski resort. Granite Canyon is within the Grand Teton National Park and it holds some killer terrain. Almost too killer sometimes.
This past winter, TGR’s supervising producer Greg Epstein was seriously injured and nearly lost his life in an avalanche in Granite Canyon.
“It’s going to be a whole new area for our skiers to enjoy. The terrain is very steep, and it’s easy to get cliffed out in an avalanche, but it’s a nice area for advanced skiers who now won’t have to hike to get there.” – Anna Cole, communications manager at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.
The location of this chair has sparked more than just a little controversy. The hike to drop into Granite Canyon will be 10-minutes once the Teton Lift is completed opposed to the 25-minute hike it is now.
From the top of this new lift, it’s a 3,000-vertical-foot shot straight down the the base area. The run is steep and long and named Kemmerer’s Run after the resort’s owner. One of Jackson Hole’s major goals is to acquire a World Cup ski event. This may be their ticket to the World Cup.
“It’s so crowded out there already its crazy. Feed the monkey!” – Jason Tattersal, former pro skier and long time Jackson Hole local
Wait…How does shortening the hike from 25 to 10 minutes really change anything? If someone is going to hike the 15 minutes doesn’t mean a damn thing.
It makes a lot more in-bounds terrain accessible. This is very good terrain that doesn’t get a lot of traffic. As for making access to Granite Canyon easier, you’re right in that the people that hike in will continue to do so. But now its that much closer to the group of people that would otherwise not consider it.