If you want to book ahead, I would buy a ticket to SLC. Skyline is already open and with a couple more storms it will be solid. Strawberry still needs more snow as there is sage brush to cover there. Sometimes, it opens early like last year, most years it is not ready until Christmas.

You are still early enough in the season, that you can get a hotel in SLC without a prior reservation. I would wing it and book each night according to the weather. If it looks good at Skyline for a couple days, book a hotel down in Mount Pleasant. If not, stay in Sandy near the 106th South exit. This will leave you close to Alta/Snowbird and 90 minutes from Skyline or 75 from Strawberry.

As far as kites go, we typically fly large kites because the winds tend to be light. That being said, it can still nuke every so often. So the bigger the quiver the better.

Bighorns are awesome, but I agree that you might be biting off too much if you have not snow kited before.

Best time to come out west is in February. That is when Strawberry is sweet and you can also road trip to lots of other awesome spots in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. That being said Skyline should give up some excellent riding in December.

Welp, for better or worse the plan is to fly into SLC and then drive over to Jackson. Nowhere is looking great except for the Big Horns, but we'll be happy with some scrappy stuff to learn on if we can find it. At least we'll have some decent snowboarding if its too bad for kiting. We're from VA, so we're used to awful snow conditions.

So as far as the kiting is concerned, we're mainly interested in some park and ride spots just to get a feel for this. Bondo seems easy enough to find, but would appreciate any landmarks for the other spots...I don't want to piss off any landowners, etc.

It seems that much of Togwotee is only accessible by mobile, but other reports on here indicate is a park and ride type spot somewhere...any specifics on where?

We're also thinking of Bondo and Tetonia/Ririe in ID.

Are these the main park and ride spots for snow nooblets?

A couple of you have been kind enough to give me your phone numbers, so look out for phone calls from the 540 area code!

You might find Bondo, Ririe, Tetonia to be thin. Backup plan might be Island Park: Soft snow and easy access.

Thanks for the tip, Noah. Island Park was one of the main sites I was initially interested in when we were deciding where to try, but the snotel reports there are only showing like 13 inches vs 20-28 inches around the Jackson sensors. Not sure how much faith to put in the sensors, but they seem to generally agree with each other when in the same area.

Would you still recommend checking out Island Park, with only a foot of coverage because it is grassland? Is that all it needs up there?

Thanks!

IP has been kitable for a few weeks at some of the launches: Hungry Bear Market, Corrals (Red Rock Road park lot). Yes, its all grass under and about 1.5 - 2 feet deep as of today. Very beginner friendly and reliable.

That's awesome news, Noah! When you say "reliable", do you mean in terms of wind? Is there a certain time of day that it usually turns on? What are the most accurate sources for wind conditions/forecasts for your area?

I'm coming from the Outer Banks, where we are spoiled with 5 o'clock winds and ikitesurf meters everywhere.

Stoked!

pm'ed ya.

Henry's Lake wind meter: http://mesowest.utah.edu/cgi-bin/droman/meso_table_mesowest_m.cgi?stn=ITD55&year1=2011&month1=1&day1=25&hour1=09&time=GMT&past=0

More info here (I wrote this in '06 so it's a bit outdated): http://montanakitesports.com/node/193

Raynolds Pass: http://rwis.mdt.mt.gov/scanweb/RPUStatus.asp?Pageid=RPUStatus&Units=English&Groupid=564000&Siteid=564000&Senid=&Wxid=&Mapid=&DisplayClass=Java&SenType=All&HEndDate=&Zoneid=&Mode=&Sprayerid=&CD=12%2F29%2F2005+10%3A44%3A46+AM

Raynolds Pass kiting is done on the Idaho side only. Private on MT side. Lots more sage brush here and less snowfall so it takes more time to get into prime kite condition than IP. Still, lots of fun!

Noah

Towgotee pass was good today! Plenty of nice fluffy snow! Angle mt, sublette peak, and the roadside spot are good to go. Would be worth a stop before going to island park. I would hit up all the spots!

Thanks Noah!

Good call Wayne! I'll be giving you a call for some specifics about the Tog roadside spot for sure.

Island park is about two hours away it would be fun to check out on a day trip from jh after riding towgs a couple days. Magic wind up at island park.