Sun, snow, and Mt. Superior
With weather worthy of sandals and shorts in Salt Lake City, June 5th, to me, seemed like an excellent day for skiing. Lots of late-season snow and consistent melt/freeze cycles with little rain left considerable coverage on favorable aspects above 8,000 feet. And after more than 20 consecutive weekends of charging down the fall line, the idea of another Saturday without strapping sticks to my feet made me feel a little dead inside. It is an addiction, after all.
Hiking Baldy at Snowbird on May 1, 2010; Photo by Kris Saign
Assuming you’re in the northern hemisphere, you’re likely looking forward to summer’s arrival instead of backward to winter’s snowy days. Here in Utah, however, after a mediocre ski season, we still have snow on the brain. A 33-inch dump at Snowbird resort last weekend didn’t help any of us move on to our summer sport of choice.
As if we weren’t having enough trouble recovering from last weekend’s powder panic, while we sat at our desks yesterday and watched snowflakes fall outside our office windows, we stumbled onto Flaky Science. The Economist highlights the research of two scientists at the University of Utah who think they’ve determined what weather and temperature conditions make the best snow for skiing and riding. Read More …
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 …
I’m almost at the top, trying to avoid glancing down. The bootpack is so steep that my skis, strapped to my pack, brush the snow above my head. The guy in front of me is sporting jeans and somehow managing the climb with what must be a pair of at least 190s nonchalantly slung over his shoulder. Crushed cans of Coors Original rattle in the cargo pocket of my ski pants. This is New Hampshire. This is Tuckerman’s.
Having spent nearly a decade skiing the Rockies, I often and only half-jokingly espoused the virtues of my East coast roots. So it always bothered me that I had never skied the East coast’s premier test-piece – the headwall of Tuckerman’s Ravine on New Hampshire’s Mt. Washington. Read More …
As we savor the final weeks of ski season, we at Backcountry.com have noticed the usual seasonable influx of non-ironic denim and colorblock one-pieces on the spring-breaker-flooded resort slopes. Nobody enjoys a hearty point-and-laugh from the mid-mountain patio as much as we do, and we thank the tourists who film their exploits and post them on the interwebs so we can continue to gape vicariously online. Read More …
It’s time to quit driving around with your skis on the top of the car. Before you head for your first camping trip or bike ride, spend a few minutes putting your gear away so your expensive pair of skis or snowboard is still rideable next year. 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 …
Butter knives dull and worn from too much abuse in the park? Your seasoned pow planks suffering from case of dated artwork? We painted our boards and skis and put together a step-by-step guide. We also enlisted the help of the custom painting pros at TOWR13 Customs to show you how to do it yourself. Read More …
Skiing lost one of the all-time greats when CR Johnson passed away while riding at his home resort on February 24, 2010. Although he was somewhat out of the spotlight in recent years, we’d like to remind everyone of just how talented, influential and important CR was to our sport. Here’s our top-5, and we’d like to hear about your favorite CR Johnson moments. He will be missed. 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 |