Ski Utah Blog - All Articles
Showing 10 articles out of 706.
More Utah Resorts Open
Posted by Jessica Kunzer - Communication Director on November 20, 2009
Have you gotten out to ski or snowboard yet? By the end of this week five Utah ski and snowboad resorts will have opened leaving snow enthusiasts no excuse not to get out and ride! Wolf Creek Utah, Solitude and Brighton have already opened for the season. Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort opened Friday, November 20 and Park City Mountain Resort and Brian Head will open Saturday, November 21.
So, brush the dust of your boards and get your ski legs on!
Happy skiers and boarders load the first chair of the season at Snowbird on Fri., Nov. 20, 2009.
Win a VIP Trip to the Dew Tour at Snowbasin
Posted by The Ski Utah Yeti on November 18, 2009
Enter to win a VIP Trip to Utah for the Dew Tour at Snowbasin January 15-17 from Ski Utah and Freeskier.
- 2 round-trip airline tickets to and from the Salt Lake International Airport from any major international airport within the lower 48 United States.
- 3 Nights of lodging at the Odgen Marriott. Full breakfast included
- 3 Days of lift tickets and ski or snowboard rentals for two, at the Snowbasin Resort
- Two VIP credentials for inside access at the Dew Tour
- Rental car from Hertz (up to $150)
Wolf Creek Utah to Open 8 Days Early!
Posted by The Ski Utah Yeti on November 17, 2009
Wolf Creek Utah, 30 minutes outside of Ogden, will open for the 2009-10 winter season this Thursday, November 19. Wolf Creek Utah is the perfect place to warm-up your ski or ride legs for the season; or give the beginner in your family a head start. For more information visit: www.wolfcreekutah.com/. Let it snow!
Deseret Ski School Deadline Fast Approaching!
Posted by The Ski Utah Yeti on November 16, 2009
The registration deadline for the Deseret News/KSL News Radio Ski School is fast approaching. Entries must be submitted and received no later than Wednesday, Nov. 18. For those interested in taking advantage of this unique opportunity, here’s the skinny:
When: Nov. 21, Dec. 5 and Dec. 12
Where: Two-hour lessons each week for skiers at Alta, snowboarders at Snowbird
Ages: First-time skiers or snowboarders 8 years old or older
Cost: $40
Registration: Deadline, Wednesday, Nov. 18. Interested skiers can register through the Deseret News or one of the three Canyon Sports locations.
Equipment: Canyon Sports is offering Deseret News students special rates and one-time pickup and return. Store locations are 1844 E. Fort Union Blvd. (7000 South), 517 S. 200 West or 45 W. 10600 South.
Cost: Cost for renting skis, boots, bindings and poles for the four weeks will be $34 for juniors and $39 for adults. And for a snowboard, bindings and boots, the cost for the four weeks will be $34 for juniors and $39 for adults.
Information: (801) 237-2135 or (801) 942-3100.
Update to Forecast of Tomorrow's Storm
Posted by The Ski Utah Yeti on November 13, 2009
Brian McInerney updates his forecast for tomorrow's storm. Cottonwoods are looking at getting another foot or more. See you on the slopes.
Secrets of "The Greatest Snow on Earth"
Posted by The Ski Utah Yeti on November 13, 2009
Big Storm on Tap for Saturday
Posted by The Ski Utah Yeti on November 12, 2009
Brian McInerney with the National Weather Service has produced another slide presentation about the approaching storm. You can view it here.
Right now there is a little bit of snow falling on Utah's mountains, we're expecting to see a much more powerful system move through the area on Saturday and Saturday night. Temperatures are going to drop with a high 22 and a low of 12 degrees on Saturday. This storm seems like it might be ripe for some lake effect action. Everyone do your snow dance and pray for some big numbers.
Tonight: Snow likely, mainly before 5am. Cloudy, with a low
around 20. Northwest wind between 5 and 8 mph. Chance of precipitation
is 70%. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.
Friday: A 40 percent chance of snow, mainly before 5pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 30. West northwest wind between 3 and 6 mph.
Friday Night: Snow, mainly after 5am. Low around 19. Calm wind becoming southeast between 4 and 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%.
Saturday: Snow showers. High near 22. East southeast wind 6 to 16 mph becoming northwest. Chance of precipitation is 80%.
Saturday Night: A 50 percent chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 12.
Sunday: A 20 percent chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 32.
Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 18.
Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 40.
Westminster Students look to Crystal Ball to Predict Olympic Quotas
Posted by Jessica Kunzer - Communication Director on November 11, 2009
U.S. Snowboarding is a step ahead of the curve this Olympic season as a project in conjunction with its partnership with Westminster College has enabled officials to forecast how many athletes will be Vancouver Bound this year.
In the past, U.S. Snowboarding's athletes attended as many World Cup events as possible in order to ensure athlete qualification, as there was no data available to show which competitions were most advantageous to attend and which were not.
"We decided to create a model to help U.S. Snowboarding get rid of those educated guesses," Bonner explained.
While the U.S. Ski Team and U.S. Snowboarding has been a partner of Westminster College for nearly five years, U.S. Snowboarding first approached Westminster College in 2008 to ask for help with forecasting its athletes' competition schedules to maximize the U.S. team’s Olympic chances. With the team’s domination of the 2002 and 2006 Olympic Games, it hoped to continue a strong performance while balancing its athletes’ busy schedules. A key part of that is ensuring that U.S. athletes have strong results on the World Cup circuit which is used to determine national quotas for each of the three snowboarding Olympic events. The goal was to maximize the quota spots in as many events as possible.
Using a spreadsheet-based software suite for predictive modeling, forecasting and simulation called Crystal Ball, the students put together a program that could determine which athletes should compete and where they needed to compete to get maximum results while minimizing costs and interference to the athletes’ professional competition schedules. Since many snowboarders juggle their schedules with major events like World Cups, U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix, the U.S. Open and X-Games, it was essential to develop a system that could help them balance their season.
After working tireless hours in the library and seeking guidance from their professor, Dr. Alysse Morton, the students completed what they considered to be a “perfect” model for the team. The model is capable of taking the athletes’ previous, present and future predicted scores, as well as the scores from other competing athletes from around the world to predict whether the athletes would qualify for the Olympics or not.
"The model works by predicting a range that each athlete could score in a given competition based on their previous results in similar events, such as the World Cup," described Bonner. "Then this score is multiplied by either a one, if they attended the event, or a zero if they did not attend the event. Then all of the athletes are put in order based on their ranking in the raw scores. The rank received is assigned with corresponding points to the athlete."
While the program sounds relatively easy to understand, the duo had a few glitches along the way.
"The main problem we faced when working on this project was the actual gathering of the previous athlete data due to many of the athletes' short history competing at the World Cup level. Also, snowboarding halfpipe is a relatively new sport in the Olympic Games, which made it hard to gather good data. We had to predict the athletes’ average performance and calculate the possible range that they could achieve at their maximum and their minimum potential," said Gerner.
U.S. Snowboarding Program director Jeremy Forster believes the model was very useful in planning the upcoming competition season.
"The work that was done was a great help in planning our season and the athletes’ schedules," he said. "The initial forecasting was very useful and looks like it will be quite accurate once the final Olympic quota spots are determined on January 18, 2010."
When asked if any of the results surprised him, he noted, "In general, I think the results were expected but the model helped validate our initial thoughts."
All in all, the feedback the students received was very positive.
"Overall, I think they did a great job. Both Claire and Karl put a lot of time into understanding the goal of the project and researching the results of the athletes to make sure the data was as accurate as possible," said Forster.
"All the feedback we have received from USSA has been extremely positive," echoed Bonner. "I believe that they are truly stoked about being able to reduce their costs and have the ability to predict more accurately which athletes are going to qualify for the Olympics."
The students are continuing to refine the numbers throughout the 2009 season to ensure the model is as accurate as possible. In January, when the official Olympic team is finally selected, the students will find out just how accurate the model really is.
Brighton is Open!
Posted by The Ski Utah Yeti on November 11, 2009
Brighton opened today and good times were had by all. With two lifts and a few runs open it was good to be back on the snow. The Brighton terrain park crew did a great job getting a selection of jibs and rails out. Burton Snowboards was also there doing board demos. Itching to ride? Get on up to Brighton and take a few laps and butter some boxes.
The weather patterns look like they are improving and we should get some real snow tomorrow, Friday night, and Saturday. Pray for snow!
Classic Alta Powder Skiing Video
Posted by The Ski Utah Yeti on November 11, 2009
Those of you that follow the Ski Utah Blog religiously might recognize this blast from the past video. Somethings never change. One of those things is the fun and excitement of skiing Alta on a powder day. Still as great as it ever was.
