Team Surma, including Laura, Deanna, Claudette and Ron, with Laura's friend Dan, all flew down to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for a few days of skiing. We took a United flight out of SFO on Dec 29th, 2010. After one try at landing at the Jackson Hole airport, the pilot announced that there was not enough gas to try again so we would land at Idaho Falls, Idaho instead. From there, the airline got us a big bus for the 60 mile drive to Jackson Hole. The Jeep Cherokee Claudette rented from Budget was not going to be easy to get so we rented a huge Yukon from Hertz.
Jackson Hole is actually a region of Wyoming, that includes the town of Jackson and a few other towns. Our hotel was called the White Buffalo and was very upscale. Laura and Dan had their own room, Deanna stayed in a room with Claudette and Ron. In between the rooms was a very large bar which contained two flat screen TVs. We were in easy walking distance of many breakfast restaurants. On the second day, Chelsea Clinton was sitting at the next table from us at the Cafe Genevieve. So I walked over and talked to her a bit about seeing her at a Stanford womens volleyball game about 8 years ago.
Deanna met up with her friend Sean from Cornell, so she skiied with him some of the time. Sean's parents have a place in Jackson and also in Los Altos Hills.
The first day of skiing, the airport had lost track of Laura and Dan's skis, so Claudette, Deanna and I had to go out ourselves. The weather was -10 to as high as 4 degrees every day we were there. On Ron's first trip up to the very top of the hill, after losing track of Claudette, the weather was horrible and he could not see any other skiers for several minutes. Then Ron got trapped for a bit near a run that was closed, ungroomed, and very flat with 2 feet of powder. Cell signals were very good on the mountain so I called Claudette and told her to see if she could get the ski patrol out to find me. After about 10 minutes some skiers came about 500 feet from me and I managed to find the run they went down.
On a day we didn't ski we went out to explore an elk refuge. The big horn sheep were out there but we only saw about a dozen of them. Never saw an elk but there were hundreds of buffalo all snoots to the snow trying to find food under it. It was awful cold but we did get out of the car at one point to take some pictures. One New Year's Eve we all at a very fancy dinner at the White Buffalo. We left on Jan 3, 2011 from the Jackson Hole airport in cold but clear weather, with no mishaps this time!