The Wizard. Photo by: Andrew McLean
If you’ve spent some time in the Wasatch backcountry, you probably have crossed paths with a grizzled dude with twinkle in his eye. That guy is the Wizard of the Wasatch, Bob Athey.
“I was going to be a lawyer, but I discovered powder snow,” Athey says. “So I went skiing instead, and have been working on a different education.”
Part of that education had been in tax law, apparently, as Athey now deducts work expenses from tax returns – meaning writes off new skis, poles, packs, hats, gloves and any other gear he needs to work. It’s a ski bum’s dream.
“It takes a long time to be a good ski bum,” Athey chuckles. “You have to have fairly low goals.”
His first ski tour was sometime around 1975, give or take a few years – he doesn’t exactly remember. In those early days, Athey split his time between sporadic class attendance at the University of Utah and less sporadic backcountry skiing. The erstwhile sociology major earned his degree in 1981, 10 years after enrolling in his first college class.
But it’s not his book smarts that has made him famous along Salt Lake’s Wasatch Front.
Decades of 100+ day ski seasons have created a legend of the mellow 57-year-old with an old school look. His blond, white and red hair frays out from under a DAKINE beanie and down past his shoulders; his swirling winter beard nips the collar of a plaid half-zip flannel shirt.
Athey spends at least five days a week, six months out of the year touring in the Wasatch mountains and analyzing its snowpack. But even when pressed, Athey can’t nail down a favorite slope or touring area.
“People are so fussy about snow,” Athey says. “If there isn’t a 100-inch base at Alta, no one goes skiing.”
He’s not picky about inch depths, and groans whenever people complain about a below-average season (luckily this year isn’t one of those).
In the ’70s, Athey started touring on telemark skis because that was his only option in those days. Now he rotates among 10 different setups, from randonnee to telemark to even a split snowboard.
Did skiers flock to the backcountry because the gear improved, or did the gear improve because skiers demanded it? Either way, Athey has noticed the significant increase in backcountry traffic.
He claims that he’s mellowed considerably in his relatively old age, but he still quickens his speech and peppers it with more obscenity than usual when he mentions helicopter skiing operations and high-marking snowmobiles (case in point: just check out the last photo of this avalanche report. Yikes.)
But a few seconds later, he’s back to his affable twang.
Rather than maintain any anger toward ‘bilers or heli-skiers, Athey simply retreats farther into the canyons, or he’ll just ski the terrain before the helicopters set down.
Besides, even though he thinks snowmobiles are noisy and stinky, he realizes that “some people would say that about me, too.”
Lately his nights have been occupied by fiddling with his computer, bought at a recent close-out sale. He decided to plunge into technology to better communicate with people about snow and to post photos of slides. He publishes daily reports and photos on his Website: http://www.wowasatch.com.
Bob Athey Photo - Taken January 11, 2011
Athey’s observations help others determine daily snow stability or instability. But he rarely avoids touring when avalanche danger is high. Rather, he relishes it because there are fewer people. Also, “the best days to learn about avalanches are when avalanches are happening,” Athey says.
He has deliberately and safely triggered many avalanches by kicking cornices off the tops of ridges, but he’s only been unintentionally caught in a few small slides, including a very close-call last February that wrapped him around an aspen tree.
Athey took a fifteen hundred vertical foot ride down the face of Gobblers Knob, dislocating his shoulder which resulted in surgery for massive rotator cuff tear. It’s been a long recovery, but he’s back out there again this season.
Athey claims that he’s too jaded to describe a perfect day of skiing, and he doesn’t use hyperbole to describe the good times.
It’s simple and straightforward to him: “Easy trail breaking, face-shot powder, and you make it home to ski another day.”
Retiring is nowhere in his plans. A few weeks ago, Athey ran into a friend on the approach to Red Baldy southeast of Salt Lake.
“There were about 10 people skiing up there, and me and old George were the only ones who made it to the top of Red Baldy, and he’s 80,” Athey says. “If I’m 80 and I still get to do what George is doing, I won’t need to retire. He still enjoys skiing, and he’s been skiing far longer than I have.”
Athey also hopes to continue studying avalanches, yet he realizes that the more time he spends in the backcountry, the more likely he will become a victim of one.
But he has a strategy for that concern, too. He calls it the Dirty Harry principle.
“When you stand at the top of the hill and you’ve done all your stability analysis and you’re getting ready to ski, the last thing you ask yourself before you head down the hill is, ‘do I feel lucky?’” Athey says.
So far, so good.
More on Bob Athey:
- From Andrew McLean: http://straightchuter.com/2008/10/1437/
- Article on Wowasatch.com: http://www.wowasatch.com/Snow-whisperer/Snow-whisperer.html
The Alta Tele Rando race is feb 25th 26th 2012. This is going to be a great event for all backcountry skiers to get together meet / greet / and compete. Please reply to this request with your interest level and wether you think my event will appeal to the local a.t. and telemark siers in the wasatch.
Joel at us telemark.
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