Rita: Karl, can you tell us what you see?
Photo by Sean Kerrick Sullivan, Courtesy of The Canyons Resort
Karl: There appears to be a crowd amassed around a large pond high up at the resort. The pond looks to be about 100-feet long and considering it is early spring, we can only assume that the water would cause major shrinkage and serious high-beams. The pilot is going to attempt to land near the site so I can get a closer look at this strange event. Read More …
It’s not like die-hard skiers needed to adjust their resort spending habits due when the economy turned south—we were poor long before that. But sometimes, the lure of hot chili cheese fries and a cold beer is just too much to pass up. You’re cold, you’re wet, you want something warm in your stomach, and you crave a tasty beverage to wash it down.
So around here, we dedicate ourselves to innovatively sidestepping the $6.50 PBR tallboy (these exist in real life) and the $11 cheese fries available at the resort restaurant and bring some delicacies ourselves. On our menu? Deliciousness. Read More …
Around noon on Tuesday, December 22, 2009, a pair of skiers triggered an avalanche that ran 20 meters flank-to-flank by 300 meters crown-to-toe on the Col de Mottets at France’s Valmorel ski area. The slide left one skier stuck waist deep in snow and his sister buried under 1.5 meters of hardened avalanche debris. Neither skier carried avalanche gear of any sort. Their father alerted ski patrol with a cell phone.
At first glance this scenario might sound like a recipe for a body recovery and easily could have been. But the incident ended up the first successful RECCO rescue recorded in the 2009-2010 winter season. The lucky victim was dug out within 20-30 minutes of burial and escaped with only a mild case of hypothermia. Read More …
Saturday, February 27 marked the second annual Big LePowSki, and you missed it. You idiot.
$75 got you a Brighton lift ticket, lunch, free demos and free instruction from pros like Andy Jacobsen, Kim Havell, Jamey Parks, Andrew McLean, and Jenn Berg.
Showing up late as usual, we dropped into Jamey and Andy’s advanced freeride clinic to pick up some cliff-dropping and steep skiing pointers. Read More …
Move out
We had hoped that a super-dump of lake-effect Utah powder would bless this experience, but that’s not how it goes tonight—no fresh, just overcast skies. Ty pokes a few buttons on the smart phone that’s connected to the entertainment system, and the cats roll out one-by-one to a soundtrack courtesy of the brothers Allman. Read More …
So what does it take to turn bumpy resort runs into smooth, white goodness reminiscent of sweet, buttery cake frosting? Before resort lifts can propel ski patrol up to deem the mountain “safe” and ready to open, key areas need to be groomed. It takes a specific machine, a snow cat, a confident person to operate it, and every available minute to achieve success. Read More …
A second full season of snowboarding is under way at Taos Ski Valley (TSV). Up until the 08/09 season, TSV was one of only four resorts across the country that didn’t allow snowboarders. Has hell frozen over? Are pigs circling overhead? We took some runs with a couple TSV officials to find out. Before catching up with Alejandro “Hanno” Blake, TSV Events Coordinator and grandson of TSV founder Ernie Blake, we got a chance to speak with Ski School Director Jean Mayer and local snowboarder and jeweler Scott Plumlee. Read More …
In an effort to make everyone’s shred experience a little better, here’s a jaded list of things that irk us. Enjoy!
This isn’t equestrian school. If we had a free foot, we’d kick you as we rode past.
One of the best things about snowboarding or skiing is getting out of the city and up on the mountain. Hearing some slack-jawed yokel yak about how many beers he shotgunned last night before he passed out in the bathtub kind of ruins the mood. If you really need your phone (like, if you’re an E.R. doctor), at least put your phone on vibrate so we don’t have to listen to your Fergie ringtone. Side note: if you are an E.R. doctor with a Fergie ringtone, please don’t operate on me. I’ll just pop some Advil and take my chances. Read More …
Shoes to packs, hit the trails.
Backcountry house-hunting, simplified.
Stay dry out there.
Snowbird Must Have More Lobbyists
By: JGW | July 9th, 2010No Comments »
Remember our article about Alta’s recently hoped-for expansion plans?
Well, there have been some interesting ski-world developments here in the Mothership (an affectionate outsider’s term for our salty state, Utah).
Apparently local government wasn’t too keen on the idea of Alta (and Wasatch-neighbor Solitude Ski Resort) expanding into Salt Lake City’s watershed areas Read More …
Tags: environment, resorts, skiing, wasatch mountains
Posted in Commentary |