Socked in

http://www.wyoroad.info/highway/webcameras/WYO22TetonPass/WYO22TetonPass.html

I wish you could have seen pics of the Teton Pass precisely when we attempted to drive it this morning. After about 3 hours of trying to dig out of our driveway to get Phil to work, we finally hit the road around 9:00. He had woken up extra early this morning to catch the bus because the roads were quite icy yesterday and today was seeing the effects of high winds and 12" of snow in 24 hours. We hit black ice yesterday on a straight, flat road, and were wary to drive today. Soon after leaving to catch the bus, Phil returned. We neglected to notice that the bus only runs Monday through Friday.

Phil mentioned that it had been difficult to get the Jeep out of the driveway, but we both preferred that he take the Subaru because it is less affected by high winds. I could hear the wind chimes about to rip off the back porch from my cozy spot in the bed. Soon after trying to leave in the Subaru, it was stuck halfway out of our driveway. Although it is great to be nearly the first street in Victor proper on Main Street, we seem to be a magnet for massive snow banks coming off the snow plows. Apparently they dump our part of the street quite considerably, which makes getting out of the driveway a challenge, despite the freshly plowed street on the other side. The wheels were clear, but the body was stuck on snow.

After helplessly watching from the window while Phil tried to dig out the Sub amidst wind and snow and near white out conditions, he got the car unstuck. In the middle of digging, a tow truck stopped and asked if he was the stuck Subaru. It was disheartening to say no, and he was off to pick up a stuck Forrester. We went back and forth on whether or not it was worth it to head over The Pass. Phil was already about 2 hours late and the snow kept dumping. We still headed over The Pass together. I wanted to do phase 2 of church shopping, then snowboard at the resort. We kept saying we could turn around if needed.

We passed the best place to turn around down low, and the conditions got ridiculous. Nearly no visibility and snow banks over the car on both sides. We decided to turn around, but couldn't do so until we got to the top, which seemed like an eternity. We pulled into a popular parking area for backcountry skiing, which had several cars as usual, and promptly got stuck. Thanks to two skiiers' help plus Phil, we got unstuck and timidly started back down. Somehow the conditions got worse. What had been maybe 10-20% visibility became 0%. I started sticking my head halfway out the window amidst pelting winds and snow so I could tell Phil if he was headed into the snowbank. We used orange poles on the side of the road to try to figure out where the road might be. Phil pulled over to get ice off the wipers and we had no idea what side of the road we were on, cringing at the thought of another car coming down the road, unable to see that we had stopped.

A snow plow got behind us and we were really wishing we were behind it. We crept on and even passed a police officer in a Durango going the opposite way-- stuck in the snow. Eventually we couldn't see the snowplow behind us, and somehow we made it low enough down the mountain to see again. If we had eaten a bigger breakfast, we would have lost it out the window. That was awfully harrowing. It felt like a smack in the face to see the sun peeking out as we got to Victor. There are still mean looking grey clouds in the Jackson direction and blizzard warnings for the rest of the day. Still, I can currently see a bit of blue sky and am starting to itch to hit the slopes. Yesterday was an incredible day of deep powder-- like snowboarding on marshmallows. I don't know if either one of us will volunteer to drive today. We feel pretty smacked down by THE PASS.