Most recent news articles at the top.
This article was written by John McKellar on Wednesday, March 18.
As of Monday, March 16, Grand Targhee Resort closed for the rest of the 2019-2020 season. Everything closed: hotels, restaraunts, and most importantly, the lifts and the whole hill is closed! This is likely a massive dissapointment for especially those with season passes, but also to tourists who were staying there and those who had planned trips there. My last ski day was a somewhat good one. March 14. It is dissapointing for sure, but a very good move. There are hundreds of people there each and every day, and in the restaraunts, there is lots of people confined into a small space, making an ideal place to spread viruses. On the hill itself, it is not as much of a problem, although on the chairlifts, there is certainly something you don't want sitting on the chair you're about to board. But, it is still a massive disspaointment. I wanted to go skiing a lot more this season, and I had plans to do some pretty epic things, but now I have to wait a whole year to do this. Overall, I think it was a good idea to close Targhee in light of the COVID-19 arriving in Teton Valley, but I am still dissapointed that Targhee is closed.
This article was written by John McKellar on Friday, March 13, 2020.
Ever since late last year, the new Coronavirus, or COVID-19, has swept the world. The virus started in Wuhan, China. It is suspected and widely believed that it originated in a food market in Wuhan. Ever since then, the virus has spread around the world. As of today, March 13, 2020, Italy is on complete lockdown, all flights to the U.S. from Europe (except Great Britain) and vice versa have been cancelled for 31 days, and schools, businesses and other things around the globe are closing. Italy has taken an extreme approach to stopping the spread of the virus. The new laws are no one is allowed outside their homes after curfew, you are not allowed to leave your home except to get groceries and other supplies at certain times with only a certain amount of people. Any breaking of these laws results in a three-month jail time. I think that this is a very smart idea. One interesting thing: if you search COVID-19 or Coronavirus on Google, you can send an SOS alert about the Coronavirus. Needless to say, I have not tried it, or even had a use to. One of the biggest impacts the Coronavirus has had on our world is the aviation industry. Lufthansa has grounded its entire A380 fleet indefinetly, Cathay Pacific has grounded most of their fleet in Hong Kong, U.S. airlines are seeing a big downturn in domestic flights and a nosedive in passengers for international flights. As I have said before, as of today, all flights to Europe from the U.S. and vice versa are cancelled for 31 days. Airline staff are getting furloughed, asked to go on half-time work for half-time pay and go on unpaid leave. The Coronavirus has definetly made a huge impact on the aviation world. And there is actually one major problem with stopping it: its incubation period. SARS, the Coronavirus that showed itself in the early 2000s, only became contagions once symptoms started. With the COVID-19, there is a 2-4 week incubation period, during which you are contagious. The only way to tell you have it is if you are tested. After those two to four weeks, the awful symptoms start. The symptoms are like the flu on steroids. Very acute respiratory problems, high fevers, the like. But, that is only for some people. Some people only have a mild cough, some don't have symptoms at all. That is a problem. The Coronavirus mainly is deadly to elderly people, but people with weaker immune systems are also vulnerable. Recently, the World Health Organization declared the Coronavirus a pandemic. This is very bad. So, the Coronavirus needs to be stopped. The current solution, since we don't have vaccines developed for the virus, and they likely won't be developed for a long time, is to stop the spread of the virus. Practice good hygeine. Wash your hands. Don't touch your face. Avoid gatherings with large amounts of people (chances are, these are cancelled). One note: please don't buy face masks unless you do have the virus. It won't stop you from getting sick, but it will help stop you from getting someone else sick. Because so many people are buying these face masks, actual doctors who need to use them every day for their work, are struggling to find them. But, other than that, practice good hygeine, and stay safe.
This article was written by John McKellar on Thursday, January 2, 2019.
Grand Targhee Resort has had a rough start on its ski season. Starting on opening day with just Shoshone lift, the shortest and slowest, open. Later, Dreamcatcher, Sacajawea, and Blackfoot followed suit, once snow was sufficient. Still, there are a lot of rocks, tree roots, and plants are still sticking up through the snow. A lot of the rocks have been covered up by the recent downfall of a lot of snow. There are still a decent amount of rocks poking up, but a lot of them are now buried. As I have mentioned, there has been a lot of snowfall recently, creating amazing powder conditions, the report of which you can see at the Grand Targhee Resort website. There is a link at the start of the article. Back to the snow: the powder has been spectactular! I really enjoyed skiing in it on New Years Day, the day following a night of massive snowfall. The snow up at Targhee really has been spectactular, with snow falling almost constantly, which brings us to the other part of the Ghee report: the visibility.
The visibility has been awful. On the day this was written, January 2, you could probably see 20 feet in front of you, and that is if you were looking for a tree or a fellow skiier. You could barely distinguish what the snow in front of you was like, making it very difficult to ski. Other than that, the skiing has been awesome!
By John McKellar, written on Tuesday December 17, 2019.
As of this week, all lifts at the Grand Targhee Resort in Alta, Wyoming are open and running! The snow conditions are getting better by the day. At the start of Grand Targhee Resort's 2019-2020 season, only the Shoshone lift was running. Over the last two weeks, the other three lifts have followed suit, opening up their wonders to the mountain. I myself plan to be up on the hill soon. The snow early in the season wasn't great. But now, the snow is getting close to the best part of the season. Can't wait to see you up on the mountain!
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