Just got back Mon. night after 3 days of riding in West. They could really use some fresh in town and most of the common riding areas. They have plenty to groom, but most places are tracked up pretty good. Lower Tepee was tracked up the worst I have ever seen, although we did find a few places that were not as bad. We spent 2 hours on Sat. in there and had some fun on a few medium sized hills that had no tracks on them. Friday was the usual Lionshead tracked up as usual. We did find a few spots to put our own marks on the hill and found some untouched powder in the trees. Sunday was the best day by far. We took a nice trail ride down the S. Plateau and over to Island Park, went back up the trail along Hwy 20 it was beat badly near Valley View. Went up Targhee Creek and found some really nice powder on the flats near the creek and on a few nice hills to the south of the creek. We went up the one rut to the giant canyon by Targhee Peak and found excellent snow and far steeper hills than I wanted a part of. We played for a couple hours back there before lunch and never saw another sled. Seems odd as it was by far the best place we found, with a nice combo of crazy vertical stuff and much tamer flatlander friendly hills. We ate lunch and rode the forest road along Hebgen and went up past the landing strip to the small play area and did some carving and jumping. After that we shot over to Red Canyon and went up the right trailhead, very steep and lots of rocks and logs sticking out once up top saw that it was all tracked up. Went back down to the trailhead and went up the canyon on the other side where we found a little good snow and mostly tracked down spots to highmark. After getting one of our guys out of the trees way up top we decided to cut our losses and head down. As far as West goes the town seems like a ghost town compared to years past with very few people around. On Sun. night I think there was maybe 15-20 sleds at the Yellowstone Lodge. That's all I've got for you.

anybody know how it is now days?

They had a bunch of snow over the last few weeks. Don't know anyone thats been out there first hand but it should be good riding just watch out for avalanches everwere out west the danger is high. The snow had setup from the lack of snow and now with all this fresh on top its starting to slide.

No joke about the slides. I know for a fact that in Lionshead...its gonna slide. It always does. That is prolly the worst place to be when there are slide conditions. I have family that goes down there quite a bit so if i hear anything new, ill post it.

We are leaving for West Yellowstone the 15th and will be out tilll the 20th. Any news on the conditions?

guy was killed on hebgen lake either today or yesterday...................

i just got back from there the snow was tracked up and the only good snow we found was south of south plateau. but the high temps are killing the snow there its getting almost impossible to ride around town the expo should be fun though

heres about 50 pics of 3 days ago....its sweet

http://www.hardcoresledder.com/forums/inde...howtopic=231352

How are the current snow conditions? What can we expect come Friday?

Went riding Tuesday. The trails going South were OK in the morning. By the time we headed back to West Yellowstone late in the afternoon the trail were terrible. Lots of moguls, bare spots and water.

We will give it another try today, but I does not look hopeful. The Island Park area has lots of mud and water. Temps have been in the 50's in the mountains and much warmer in town. Last night at 10 PM the temps were still in the mid 40's here. It did just get below freezing last night and is expected to be a bit cooler for the next couple of days before warming up again.

My advice: Stay home.

We went riding again on Wednesday. Good news was the overnight lows dropped below freezing. Bad news was the groomers have not been out since Monday night.

We headed south again on the South Plateau Trail. The further south we went the better the snow got, however it was icy and hard. The skis barely left a track in the off trail snow. By early afternoon the temps were above freezing and the off trail snow became soft and mushy like it was on Tuesday. As we headed back to town on the main trail we encountered many areas of standing water and a few areas of bare ground. I have enclosed a few pics. The snow is town is completely gone from the streets and most parking lots.

We last rode Monday and the trails out of town were bad. Much like the pictures above and when you got a bit futher out where there was snow it was washboard to the extreme. After you fought through that you could get to some snow. We found a couple of very experienced riders who had been riding around lionshead for nearly 30 years and they showed us some awesome back country areas. With extreme avalanche conditions I would normally have stayed away, but these guys knew where to and where not to go. We got stock about 5-10 times each and there was plenty of snow waaay up. It was like a slushy ice on top of sugary snow, but it was still an absolute blast.

If you are going to ride, i would definately say trailer up as high as you can get and get way out of town.

Headed out next Tuesday (west yellowstone area) still pretty excited but seeing those trail pics a little discouraged! Just checking there is still plenty of off trail riding to be had correct??? Thanks for whatever info you guys have!

I was out there last week and getting to the backcountry was an adventure (lack of snow on the trails). The snow pretty much sucked, but there was some deep snow to be had.