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Another blue bird pow day! Today I met up with a group of journalists at Snowbird. Their mission was to ski Utah like a local. After breakfast at the Forklift we loaded the tram. On the way up we watched people nuking down Baldy. I could see it was going to be another ridiculously sick day. We started with a lap down the front side. Everyone was giggling over the powder as they ripped the best snow they have ever skied. Then we rode the new Peruvian Express lift up to the Peruvian tunnel, which takes skiers into Mineral Basin on a magic carpet ride.
We skied right down the middle in the soft chopped up pow before heading towards the Bookends for some untouched turns. Then we broke off into smaller groups, and I was stoked to end up skiing with the guy that wanted to rip the most pow possible. We headed over to the Cirque and skied one of the middle chutes. After a few turns up top I told Nathan just to point it the rest of the way. Then I laid down my figure 11’s and turned around to watch Nathan do the same thing. I love watching people point lines they normally wouldn’t. Especially when you’re not sure if they’re going to hang on. He hung on and skied up to me with a pow-eating grin on his face. Then we skied Road to Pow, officially known as Road to Provo. We traversed until we saw some untracked and hit it up right. There was no point in making too many turns on that one either. When it’s that deep it’s good to just let gravity do it’s thing and bring it down the hill. After that we cruised down to the Atrium in the Cliff Lodge to inhale some food at the buffet. With Nathan itching for more we got back after it and got rid of that last little bit of energy. Then it was time to call it sick and drink a few beers while thinking about how awesome the day was and how awesome tomorrow is going to be. By the way, it’s snowing again!
Today Leam, Jared, Dave and I skied Solitude for the best day of the year so far. I kept hearing about all the snow Utah was getting while I was on the road. Then on the drive back it started to dump as we got close to Salt Lake. With it snowing that hard in the city, I knew it was puking in the mountains. Solitude got 22 inches of new snow on top of all the snow from earlier in the week. The next morning I woke up to see a blue sky. I couldn’t wait to get started. We loaded up Powderhorn and traversed skiers right from the top. Then we dropped in for the deepest turns of the year. With face shots on every turn, we had perma grins glued to our faces for the rest of the day. It was so sick that Webster doesn’t have a word to describe it. We were in heaven. At that point, we knew we needed to jump off some rocks. We traversed out the backcountry gate from the top of Summit chair to go hit a cliff that Leam had seen earlier in the year. The landing was a little flat but with so much snow it didn’t matter. I over-rotated and landed on my back from about forty feet and didn’t feel a thing. I just got up laughing, wanting to do it again. We took a few untred laps right off the Summit chair before patrol opened up Honeycomb. When Honeycomb opened it was so deep you had to stick to steeper lines and point it just to keep your speed up. Right now the skiing couldn’t be any better. It’s supposed to snow all week too which means it’s going to stay sick. I decided to skip the next event in Taos and stay in Utah to ski Pow this week. I would highly recommend blowing off any other activity to go ski right now. Skip school, call in sick, do what you got to do. Just make sure that you get out there and ski!
Today I skied Powder Mountain for the first time after the resort reported 6-inches of snow overnight. I met up with Hilary Reiter and Paul DeLong, a Powder Mountain guide, and we got to it. We loaded the Sundown chair and headed over to the snow cat that takes skiers and riders up Lightning Ridge. We rode up in the new cabin (until this season passengers were pulled behind it by ropes). Not only was this to be my first time cat skiing, but we got the first ride of the day which made it even better. When we arrived at the top Paul brought us over to several lines that didn’t have a single track in them and told us to take our pick. I skied a line called Middle Chute that Paul mentioned had maybe only been skied once all year. It was sick. The snow was light and fluffy, and there were plenty of rocks to jump off as well. On my way down I wondered, “Why haven’t I skied here before?” Check out this photo Hilary took of the snow covered cat.
Then Paul took us over to the Paradise chair for some wide-open Pow right off the lift on a run called Tomahawk. Paul showed us lines that we can ski in every direction. At Pow Mow, as the locals refer to it, the options are endless - you can ski the lifts, go cat skiing, heli-ski, and ski the Powder Country area down to the road and catch a ride back to the resort on the shuttle bus (which we also did). I was told that to experience the best of Powder, I needed a guide which I found to be very true. If it’s your first time at Powder, a guide is the best way to go to really get the goods. There is so much terrain (5,500 acres worth) that you wouldn’t know where to start without one. They offer group deals for whatever kind of skiing you’re interested in. Here’s a picture Hilary shot of me and Paul, our guide extraordinaire.
Paul knew I wanted to get into some hairy stuff. He took us back on the cat and brought us to a run called Hair Raiser. It was a narrow chute with rocks to play on and a nice wide open run out at the bottom. I was smiling for the rest of the day after that.
We wrapped up the day with some low angle, glade skiing off the Sunrise poma lift. This year the SKI magzine readers poll ranked the resort #1 for Best Snow, and now I know why. Powder Mountain diehards say you can find lots of fresh snow several days following a storm. As the photo below illustrates, there was plenty of untracked powder even late in the afternoon.
Next I hit the road for the U.S. Extreme Skiing Championships. With it dumping hard as we left, I was bummed that it was time to leave. The skiing in Utah is awesome now, and more snow is on the way with a big storm due to hit toward the end of this week. I’ll be back in a week to get waist deep!
After it dumped while I was gone for the second week in a row, I knew I had to hurry back and ski some pow. So we cruised up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Brighton to do just that. We started out with some nice and soft tree bumps down Hard Coin. Then we decided to head over to Great Western for some freshies. We hiked up from the top of Great Western where we could see the town of Park City on our left and the top of the Snowbird tram on the right. We took in the 360 degree view for a couple of minutes before doing what we were there for. We dropped in where there was not a single track in sight. The top was smooth and wind affected. Then it rolled over into some really soft snow that was protected from the wind. We skied the cream back down into Great Western were we hit up some more Pow bumps. Then we skied some spaced out fall line bumps off Snake Creek on our way to the terrain park. The park had more features than I knew what to do with. They added quite a bit since the last time I saw it. Then we grabbed a bite and headed over to Millicent. From the chair we saw some kids looking at this rock, so we decided to join them in checking it out. As we arrived, we saw the first kid jump off into a Pow landing. Not needing anymore information we sent it ourselves. Broege stomped his landing and then ate it, but would later redeem himself. We cruised a couple more laps, enjoying soft snow with plenty of features to play on. When I asked Broege what to do next, he replied, “I don’t care as long as we huck something.” We cruised around for one last lap. He skied off the rock with speed and was able to hold on to his landing to redeem himself. Pumping his fist celebrating he skied up to me and said, “On that note I think we should call it day.” Check out the photos Aaron took.
After skiing hard pack and sugar snow during the first stop of the U.S Freesking Tour in Telluride this week, I was happy to hear it started dumping in Utah. A couple of feet in a couple of days made for some awesome skiing at Solitude for the annual Freeskier Magazine big mountain ski test. We skied Pow laps off the Summit chair, switching skis between runs. Although everything feels good in untracked Pow, Tom Winter of Freeskier instructed us to be picky in order to get a detailed evaluation of the skis. We mixed in some chopped up pow and a little groomer action to see how they did in those conditions as well. After getting our share on the front side, we decided to ski the back of Evergreen for some more untracked snow. It was creamy pow deluxe! Craving more and hearing rumors of Honeycomb Canyon opening, we headed back up Summit chair. Then we traversed towards Black Forest and dropped in on some more untracked lines. Untracked Pow was the perfect cure for the shin bang I got competing over the weekend. There were few people on the mountain, one of Solitude’s greatest attributes. The abundant fresh snow, also what the resort is known for, had us happy and hungry. We cruised down to Creekside, Solitude’s full-service lunch spot, where I found that the calamari is so good that it will be gone before you arrive… if your friends get there first. Now I’m off to the next stop on the Freeskiing Tour. I’ll be back in Utah skiing the pow in a few days!
The three photos above were shot by Chris Pearson.
Today we decided to ski Park City. We started by skiing the trees skier’s right of McConkey’s bowl. There we found some skied up Pow with a few freshies in the tighter shots towards the bottom. Then we decided to cruise over to the Jonesy’s Park. The jumps look big. However as Conan pointed out, “Once you get the speed of the first one, the rest fall right in to place.” It’s always a rush to try new tricks and spend some time in the air. It’s good for you too. Jason admitted, “I used to get scared, then I remembered that I’m a wild stallion.” He also said that it was one of the “best days of the year” even though he landed on the back of his head after over-rotating on the last kicker. After a good laugh, we made sure he was OK and then we took a few cruisers before calling it a day.
Now I’m headed to the first stop on the Freeskiing Tour. With my dad coming to watch, I hope to log the W. I’ll be back in about a week to ski some Pow. I hear it’s going to snow. Yeah snow!
