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Mustaches are amazing things.  I’ve grown a few in my day and so has Giambi.  How about growing a mustache for a good cause?

You know, I have a routine, not that complicated, but not that simple either when I go skiing in the morning. I want to encourage some discussion here, so after I share mine, you need to leave a comment, write a blog post, send an email, rocks in the sand, someway, you need to share your story too.

Here is how it starts…
When I am leaving to go skiing in the morning, I pull all of my gear off of the floor heater that it has been sitting on since I went last time. The gear may have been there for one day, sometimes over a week. It gives my house that “I just went skiing” scent that all the ladies love. (Especially my wife.) All of that get tossed in the car and I head up to my favorite quick stop, the 7/11 on Bangerter near I-15.

Now, I have what many doctor describe as a “Rock Star Diet”. This includes drinking at least 150 oz. of Dr. Pepper a day, and following up with mostly fried foods. This diet is what makes me one of the best skiers/bloggers on this side of the Wasatch Front. You may look into this diet in training for the Wasatch Back, St. George Marathon, and the Olympics.

Follow up the Dr. Pepper with a couple Go-Go Taquitos, and I am set.

A little gas in the Ski Buggy, (btw, how many iterations of ski buggy license plates exist here in Utah? My neighbors have three, my cousins one, I see them on the freeway all the time… Blows my proverbial mind.) Gas was only $1.90 when I filled up the other day, some kind of a miracle. This can only really mean one thing too, more skiing.

With all of the gear in my Hybrid Escalade (Read: 93′ Subaru Impreza) It is up to the hills!

What is your routine?

Longtime champion of the ski industry, particularly skiing in Utah and more specific Park City, has passed away.

At 87 years old, Nick Badami, former owner of Park City Mountain Resort who purchased the resort in 1975, was a prominent figure in Utah Skiing.  Often remember for being a champaign in bringing World Cup racing to the resort while he and his son were at the helm.  He was on the Salt Lake Olympic Committee and had skiing and Utah skiing as a priority throughout his career.

On behalf of the Ski Utah Blog I want to pass along my condolences to the Badami family and say “Thank You fine sir” for the influence you had on the industry we love.

Salt Lake Tribune Story

Every time I think I’m “in the know” of who’s who in Utah skiing I see an article like the one on Brian Clark’s Snow Blog and realize I’ve got a long way to go.

That’s the beauty of the various ski resorts - each resort has their own crew of permanent fixtures who appear each fall with the snows and slip away with the melting snow into “other lives” until the smell of winter’s snow fills the air.

Jim Engle has been part of this routine at Solitude Mountain Resort for over 25 years - faithfully showing up at the season pass office to plunk down his hard earned cash in trade for hopes of powder days and sunny spring corn. The ROI must measure up as the following season he ponies up once again.

From the article Jim is says of Solitude:

“There is good out-of-bounds access here like other ski areas, but I really think the snow is better here,” said Engle, who moved from his native New Jersey to Utah in 1982.

“But because of the way Solitude is laid out on a north-facing ridge, the snow stays better here longer,” he said. “Alta and Snowbird are the most impressive resorts in Utah, but I think the snow stays better here longer.”

I’m sure every skier who calls him or herself a local at one of Utah’s resorts could quickly point out similar reasons they call their hill “home”. For Jim, it’s enough to keep him coming back and silently getting down to the business of skiing powder all season long.

– Check out the whole story of “Skiing with Solitude’s ‘Grizzly Adams’” on SignOnSanDiego.com

I remember one powder day at The Canyons where I kept lapping 9990 over and over due to the refills from a raging storm. As typical to the 9990 lift there wasn’t a lift line. Near the end of the day after a few Peak 5 runs and some Tombstone and Saddleback laps I realized that I had skied over 42,000 vertical feet in one day. Up until today I thought 42K in one day was pretty cool.

Enter JF Lanvers from the Go 11 Blog. For his 60th birthday JF set out to exceed 60,000 vertical feet in one day. From his blog:

For my 60th birthday, I had promised myself a very special present, one that was both simple and affordable; ski 60,000 vertical feet in the course of one day. In the past, I’ve tried hard to outdo myself in that department; five years ago, I piled up 46,787 feet near Banff and two years later, I logged 50,625 at Park City Mountain Resort….

He choose Deer Valley as the location to get his goal done, specifically the run “Perseverance”, which aside from being appropriately named for the occasion it’s a nice 1800′ run off of the Sultan Express Lift.

I stayed on “Perseverance” the one run that is the closest to the lift line and also happens to be the least crowded because it’s the steepest; the first third of that run consisted of bumpy crud while its remaining and largest section was perfectly groomed and allowed for maximum speed. Just before 2 pm, I had passed my 60,000 goal and decided to push on.

Kudos JF for pushing on to just over 84,000 vertical feet!

–Read the rest of the story on the Go 11 Blog.

I was out in the backcountry of Big Cottonwood Canyon yesterday with my buddy Dustin for some solitude (nope, not Solitude, solitude) and some untracked powder. The south facing slopes were primo, which isn’t too common considering Utah gets some amazing bluebird days following storms and the sun tends to crust up the snow on south facing slopes.

As we were enjoying some nice untracked powder in the midst of yet another storm I was thinking back to just a month ago when it looked like this:

What a difference a month can make. Everyone was fearful of how the winter was going to turn out and I’m sure the destination skiers living in New York, Florida, Chicago, et al were all wondering why oh why did we book Christmas vacation for Utah.  What a score if you did because now it’s looking a lot like this:

Last night the Cottonwoods got another 3-4″ with Powder Mountain and Snowbasin pulling in the lions share of this storm with 9″ and 8″ respectfully. They don’t call it Powder Mountain for nothing! I would recommend heading north for this weekend as those resorts have gotten more snow this week than anywhere else.

– If you want to check out the next *sick* day that Caroline (in both the images above) takes be sure to watch the Solitude Resort Blog.