Last Friday night, the Jackson Hole tram unveiling was AWESOME!! Laura and I had to work, but as soon as we got off we rushed down the the lower tram terminal to join in on the celebration. The resort had a live DJ, Nick Wilson’s was exploding at the doors with 24-ounce PBRs, and tram fever was in the air more than ever before! Going into this party I didn’t really know what to expect, but man did JHMR ever put in some work!
I heard from a co-worker that this unveiling party was going to cost the resort 50 grand, I think (mainly because it wasn’t my money) that it was worth every penny! The resort had a slide show and movie about the tram’s lifelong history, and the events leading up to tonight. The movie was so exciting, it gave me goose bumps haha, and it made me realize that I moved here at the perfect time, and this tram was the icon and pinnacle of this part of my life. The unveiling party was like the culmination of all the events I have gone through in the past 6 months, and everyone there was so excited to finally be arriving at this moment!!
After the movie, everyone turned around and stared as the tram descended from tower one, with a large white sheet over it. I would probably compare this moment to my college graduation…so proud, so excited, so stuck in disbelief that this moment has finally come. The sheet dropped and everyone went crazy! I think the tram itself would have been enough to please us all, but then they shot fireworks off the top and Santa Claus repelled out of the bottom! hahaha
Afterward, everyone threw snowballs at the tram in a traditional christening which I hear is usually reserved for the last tram of the season, but I think everyone was just expressing their new-found love and acceptance of the re-born Big Red. After the tram parked, it was a full on stampede to the Mangy Moose! On the way everyone made a pit stop at Teton Village Sports where they gave away free buffalo wings… it was pretty much a feeding frenzy…but at least I didn’t have to buy any dinner that night! That night the moose was packed, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many smiling and jolly faces…I’m pretty sure Christmas came early this year for A LOT of people!
Being a liftie, I heard a lot of gossip about whether or not people would actually be able to ski off the tram on opening day since the snow cover on Rendezvous Bowl was so skimpy. The resort let ski patrol mark the bigger rocks and then let the public have at it…some people were weary about the conditions, but the die hard tram lovers got their laps in for the day. I think mother nature wasn’t going to allow Big Red to have a haphazard opening weekend, in fact I’m pretty sure destiny wouldn’t allow it! Sunday night, we had the first big snow storm of the year, and in the blink of an eye we had over 11 inches of fluffy dry powder at our feet!!
My friend Laura and I thought we were on Cloud 9 already, riding up the tram, the snow still coming down hard…then we look over and nobody other than the world famous snowboarder Jeremy Jones was riding the tram with us!!! Talk about a first tram we would never forget for the rest of our lives!! When we got off at the top, we talked to Jeremy and took a picture (yeah we felt a little bad for harassing him, but it was worth it in the end!) and then made our decent down the mountain. It was the explanation point on a day we would surely talk about for the rest of our lives.