Jackson’s grey line

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

By Sam Petri

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-The name, the questionable legality of skiing it, the view of town you get from the top, and the view town has of your tracks all make Taco Bell Couloir a coveted and controversial line for Jackson skiers and snowboarders.

In the past seven days, two different parties carved down the gully located in town just behind Taco Bell on Saddle Butte. The first, a lone snowboarder, bootpacked up the line on Jan. 15 at 8 p.m. and skied down around 9 p.m., causing an avalanche that flowed all the way to Flat Creek.

The second party, a group of three snowboarders and one skier, rode the line on Jan. 21, also around 9 p.m. This party chose to be shuttled to the top of the line by driving up Saddle Butte Drive.

The private road “pretty much takes you right to it,” one of the snowboarders told The Planet. “We traversed over to the couloir and it was like, ‘awwww yeah!’ It’s a wide-open pow field. It was so good.”

The snowboarder said they skied 4-6 inches of fresh powder and made 40 or so turns down the slope. They were able to cross a snow bridge over Flat Creek that had formed because of the triggered slide earlier that week. He also said that there was a “ton of deer up there.”

Skiing this line must be thrilling, but is it legal and are you disturbing wildlife? It is commonly thought that the land is part of a winter closure area to protect mule deer.
“It’s not the ski tracks, it’s the people,” said Louise Lasley, Public Lands Director for the Jackson Hole Conservation alliance. “The deer might not go into or cross that area for a while. … It has a lasting impact.”

She went on to say that the presence of humans in that area causes anxiety for the animals and changes their grazing and sleep behavior.
But according to Game and Fish, the state of Wyoming owns two separate parcels of land on the butte. Taco Bell Couloir is located on one of the two parcels of state and neither one has a winter closure restriction. Bill Long, a North Jackson Game Warden said that “there is no winter range closure on those two state land sections unless so defined by State Lands in Cheyenne. To my knowledge there is no restriction.”

However, that doesn’t make skiing the line completely legal. Private land exists at both the top and the bottom of Taco Bell Couloir, according to the Sheriff’s Department. Skiers and snowboarders are trespassing by entering at either the top or the bottom. If you can find a legal way to access the land with out trespassing on private property, the law is on your side. But before you drop in, study a map and your ethics, closely.
PERMALINK:
Jackson’s grey line | Planet JH News Article: Sports & Recreation

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