What Is The Jackson Hole Tram And Where Is It?
The Jackson Hole tram, affectionately known as “Big Red” is one of the most iconic ski lifts in North America along with the Snowbird Tram in Utah. Anyone who has skied the steep, challenging terrain at Jackson Hole will immediately recognize this tram car. It will trigger fond memories of skiing expert terrain in the Teton Mountain range of Jackson, Wyoming. The tram runs during the summer and takes hikers and sightseers up to the top of Rendezvous Mountain.
The tram rises 4,000 feet over a length of 12,463 or 2.36 miles. It takes about 9 minutes to get to the top of Rendezvous Peak and is the longest ski lift in North America. The Jackson Hole Tram has a capacity of 100 people. To ride it in the winter you’ll need to buy a Jackson Hold lift ticket with an absurd price of around $200. Alternatively you can buy an Ikon Ski Pass that includes Jackson Hole. If you visit during the summer months you can take the tram up for around $45.
What Is It Like To Travel To Jackson Hole And Photograph The Jackson Hole Tram?
Jackson Hole ski resort where the Jackson Hole Tram is located is located in Teton Village out by the town of Jackson Wyoming. It is a fairly remote location but a very popular one. Jackson Hole is a world class ski resort and may be the single most challenging ski resort in the US and potentially in North America. If you’re not taking a road trip and decide to fly out to Jackson Hole, you’ll probably want to fly into the Jackson Hole Airport or the Idaho Falls airport about 100 miles or two hours away.
If you fly into the Jackson Hole airport you can probably get away without a rental car but you’ll need to find transportation to the town of Jackson or Teton Village where the Jackson Hole Ski Resort is located. Like Snowbird Ski Resort, there are buses that go between the local town (Jackson, Wyoming) so you can say in town or at the resort. If you stay at the resort you’ll pay a premium price for everything and there is no grocery store there. If you stay in town you’ll have to catch a bus or drive to the resort every day but you’ll have much easier access to grocery and other stores that offer more reasonable prices.
When you head out to Jackson Hole, there are some cheaper hotels like Motel 6 out in town. If you stay in Teton Village you’ll pay a premium. If you are traveling on a budget, the best place to stay for a low price is the Teton Hostel where you can get a bunk for somewhere around $50/night depending on the time of year and COVID protocols. While Jackson Hole is an expensive place, so far it is much more affordable than Aspen Colorado.
Once you’ve got your transportation and lodging lines up, you’ll need to get Jackson Hole lift tickets. If you plan early you can buy an Ikon Ski pass that will include Jackson Hole. Even with an Ikon Pass you will probably have to make reservations to use it. Even with an Ikon pass you may not be ale to ski Jackson Hole if the reservations are full. To go to Jackson Hole and actually, you’ll probably need to do some serious planning ahead. Merely winging it may be difficult especially on storm or powder days.
In order to photograph the Jackson Hole tram you’ll need to be a pretty good skier if you want to catch it somewhere mid mountain. If you are a novice skier you’ll be able to photograph the Jackson Hole tram from the base or the summit at Rendezvous Peak.
What Does It Take To Get A Wall Art Quality Photo Of The Jackson Hole Tram?
Like many other places, the most challenging part of getting wall art quality photos of the Jackson Hole Tram is the expense and logistics of getting there. Once you are there and have the skills to ski Jackson Hole and the lift ticket, you’ve done a lot of the work already.
Once you get your ticket and head out on the slopes, you’ll want to head out on the slopes, hop on the Jackson Hole Tram and head up to Rendezvous Peak. The views on the way up are pretty awesome. If you can manage to stand by the windows of the tram car you’ll get be able to take in some of those views and maybe snap a few photos if their are any open or clean windows to shoot through.
At the top of Rendezvous Peak from the upper tram platform you’ll be able to get some photos of the tram. These will be closeup shots with lower mountain peaks off in the distance. As the tram descends down and away heading back to the base station, the tram will shrink and the landscape will fill more of the frame. Once the tram gets pretty small you can head off to the slopes and seek out more perspective to photograph the Jackson Hole Tram.
Unlike the Snowbird Tram, the Jackson Hole Tram tends to stay higher above the slopes. To be sure the Snowbird Tram stay pretty high above the ground for most of the climb to Hidden Peak but there are some ridges that bring you much closer to the tram than at Jackson Hole Ski Resort. Within Jackson Hole, there was nowhere I could find to get any tall mountains in the background of the tram. At Snowbird, the resort resided on one side of Little Cottonwood Canyon. Since it is a canyon, there are large mountains opposite the mountains that make up Snowbird Ski Resort.
Once you leave the top of Rendezvous Peak at Jackson Hole your views of the tram and the photos available make the tram look pretty small. While I’m a pretty high level skier, I don’t jump cliffs and haven’t skied Corbet’s at Jackson. There may be some better view of the tram I didn’t or wasn’t able to access without putting myself at risk. There may be more distant viewpoints farther away from the tram line that would make good photos with a longer lens than I had. When photographing the tram I was limited to a zoom length of about 100mm that limited any long range photos.
Like Snowbird, when you go out to photograph the Jackson Hole Tram, you’ll want to avoid storm days when the visibility may be bad and the skiing will be awesome. It will be hard to get a shot and keep the snow from hitting the camera lens.
What Is The Best Gear For Photographing The Jackson Hole Tram At Jackson Hole Ski Resort?
When you’re photographing the Jackson Hole Tram, you’ll want to have a decent DSLR camera or mirrorless camera. A mirrorless setup will probably be better because it will be smaller and easier to ski with at Jackson. You’ll want a fairly long lens. A 24mm-105mm lens will work fairly well but if you have something longer you might want to bring it. Many of the views of the Jackson Hole tram are from a distance if you are not standing near the top tram platform.
There is no need for a tripod since you’ll be shooting mid day and the landscape will be covered with right white snow. It would be a pain to carry and use a tripod when skiing anyway. The one accessory you may want to have is a circular polarizer. It can help make the skies a deeper blue and cut down on glare on the tram while bringing out better colors in other areas of the photo.
What Is The Story Behind This Photo Print Of The Jackson Hole Tram?
For the 2019 ski season I got the Ikon Ski Pass that was good for lift tickets at ski resorts all over the US and Canada. Jackson Hole was one of those ski resorts. I’d never skied Jackson before and couldn’t want to hit the slopes there. Anytime I’d been out there in the past in the winter, the really expensive lift tickets kept me off the slopes and out in the National Elk Refuge photographing Bighorn Sheep or photographing the Teton Mountain Range.
Withe the Ikon Ski Pass in hand, it was not affordable to ski Jackson Hole for the first time. The original plan was to ski Utah first and then head up to Jackson. That plan had to change since Jackson Hole closed for skiing a lot earlier than I realized. Utah got pushed back and replace with Jackson in late March of 2019.
On every trip out to the Jackson/Teton area in the past I’d either slept in my car in National Forest land or stayed at the Teton Hostel. This time around I planned to stay at the Teton Hostel. The rooms are clean but cramped and sometimes came with wild roommates on house arrest but i never had a bad experience there. From the Teton Hostel you can walk to the ski slopes. I can’t remember exactly what the cost of a bunk was at the time but am pretty sure it was less than $40/night. That’s a crazy awesome deal for ski in/ski out lodging at any resort! A dorm bunk includes a parking spot and just the parking spot was $20 to park for a day of skiing.
I booked 8 nights at the Teton Hostel and set out to ski the slopes of Jackson and photograph the Jackson Hole Tram. Since it was spring, the slopes of Jackson Hole were a bit variable. I’m not a timid skier at any ski resort from Snowbird to Lake Louise but Jackson Hole is fucking steep and I did find myself a bit more timid skiing the slopes of Jackson especially with a DSLR in a backpack on my back.
There were snowy days, cloudy days and partly sunny days. Anytime the forecast called for partly cloudy skies or better, I took the camera in the backpack out with me. Surprisingly, the slopes weren’t that crowded and the lift lines were scant even for the tram after the first run.
I ended up skiing 7 out of 8 days and getting lots of photos all over the mountain including the Jackson Hole Tram, the Bridger Gondola and numerous mountain scenes from all over the mountain. Once I was done skiing at Jackson, the next stop was Deer Valley in Park City for the last few days of their ski season. Home there was the Park City Hostel, another incredible near slope side Hostel at another world class ridiculously priced ski resort, aside from the hostel there. After Deer Valley, it was onto Snowbird Ski Resort.
What Formats Is This Jackson Hole Tram Wall Art Print Available?
This Jackson Hole Tram print is available in sizes up to 40×60 inches on paper, canvas, metal, acrylic, and wood. If you will be hanging the print in an area with diffused lighting, any material with any finish will look great. Matte canvas and paper prints will have a more classic, refined look. Anything else with a glossy or metallic finish will have a brighter, more vibrant look. If it will hang in an area with brighter direct lighting, a print with a matte finish will look best and not reflect the brighter light like a print with a shiny finish will.
If you’d like to give your bathroom a Jackson Hole theme, a shower curtain makes and excellent choice and can be paired with matching bath towels to complete the look. If you’re thinking more along the lines of the living room or bedroom, a Sherpa fleece blanket makes a great choice. They look great and are great for curling up under on a chilly winter day. Matching throw pillows can make a nice compliment to a big Sherpa fleece blanket.
Now that plastic shopping bags are being phased out you can solve that problem with one or more canvas tote bags that show off the Jackson Hole Tram. They come in a variety of sizes and the large ones are big enough to be nice beach bags. If you’d like something a little smaller, why not get a case for your new Apple or Samsung phone. It will keep your phone safe and show off your love for skiing Jackson Hole at the same time.
If you like jigsaw puzzles, you can piece together the Jackson Hole Tram in the form of a 500 or 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. The puzzles come in a cardboard box with the image on the outside of the box for reference. They are quite popular especially around the holidays!
Leave a Reply