“Jackson has been dry for weeks, but we are holding the goods, man. Get up here,” touts Brenden Cronin, A.K.A. “Shoveler.”

Shoveler explains to me that during the drought winter of 06/07 he repeatedly tried to get his friends complaining about the weak snow in Jackson to take a trip up to Togwotee to check out the terrain on Angle Mountain. Head guide up at the Togwotee Snowcat operation, Jamie Weeks, has also been offering to give me a tour of their backyard for a few seasons, and last week I finally took him up on it.

Flashback to my first Snowcat experience on Copper Mountain in Colorado probably seven years ago:

The cat picks up a crew of us and we are thinking, ‘this is cool riding in a snowcat.’ This was the first season Copper had started experimenting with a snowcat and they offered the ride to anyone willing to wait their turn in an hour - or more - long line. The cat then took us for a 10 minute ride up a gully, dropped us off near the top of a ridge several hundred feet higher than when we started and left us to bootpack the rest of the way to access moderate side-country terrain.

The Copper image stuck with me through the years and I often shrugged off Snowcat opportunities. Let’s just say the boys at Togwotee offered a bit more of a more exciting ride up and down; think high school ball vs. NBA.

Cloudveil ambassadors Nick DeVore, JK, and Lisa Watson joined us for the ride and we were all more than shocked to find perfect powder holding in the north facing terrain with chutes, couloirs, and cliffs to play on all afternoon.

As Shovler put it, “When my friends were too lazy to drive up and check out the skiing we had to offer, it just meant more laps for me.”

Angle Mountain also boasts plenty of moderate terrain and fun glades to explore for all levels of skiers. Jamie Weeks and crew are sitting on a virtually untapped stash of Jackson-steep terrain that they have developed over the past few years and have opened to all through a short Snowcat ride away.

You really have to see it and ski it to believe it. But hey, it’s fine if you don’t want to. Take my word for it- the crew will shrug and head out for another lap of “work” in their backyard.