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2010 Utah Resort Closing Dates

Alta: April 18 with possible additional weekends

Beaver Mountain: March 28

Brian Head: April 18th

Brighton: April 18 weather pending

The Canyons: April 11

Deer Valley: April 11

Park City Mountain Resort: April 11

Powder Mountain: April 11

Snowbasin: April 8 weather pending

Snowbird: Memorial Day Weekend

Solitude: April 18

Sundance: April 4

Wolf Creek Utah: Closed

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Can you beat the Pro?

SLUG Magazine teamed up with Park City Mountain Resort to host a Beat the Pro event, and the tricks were coming down hard. Check out this video courtesy of Park City Television.

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Slackcountry: Backcountry Terrain Within Resort Boundaries

A few weeks ago, when we had our last batch of major storms hit the Wasatch, I enrolled in a Level 1 Avalanche Certification class with the fine folks at Utah Mountain Adventures. The bad thing is I didn't get to ski much powder at my favorite resorts that weekend. The good thing is, we spent the time traipsing around the backcountry of Big Cottonwood Canyon, digging pits and studying what would become classic Wasatch slab avalanche conditions. Tons of new snow with a high moisture content on top of an old weak thin layer from early season. The recurring word I kept seeing on the avalanche forecasts from the Utah Avalanche Center was "persistent", meaning that weak layer wasn't healing, and even after the storms, human-triggered avalanches claimed at least one life, seriously injured a few more, and scared the Beejeezus out of a few backcountry skiers with many years of experience. Even though I was keen to get out there and practice some of the skills I learned in the Level 1 class, the dicey factor was keeping me in-bounds.

Last weekend, while skiing at Park City Mountain Resort, I decided to venture out to Pinecone Ridge and sample firsthand what some locals say is the best in-bounds backcountry skiing in the Park City area. You take the Jupiter chair up, hike up Scott's peak, skip right past the main bowl, scamper down the narrow ridge, and the gate to Pinecone is right in front of you. The hike is a steep bootpack that takes maybe 15 minutes. Once on top, you are treated to exceptional views all the way around. You can drop in to some southern facing wide open patches that take you back to Jupiter lift if you are doing laps. I did this once and had a funky sun crust to deal with. It wasn't horrible, but I knew there was better snow up there, so I did another roundtrip. At the Pinecone gate, I met up with two locals who knew where they were going, and followed them all the way out the ridge, past Full Moon, to the Homelight Bowl area.

Homelight Bowl was a no bueno place to ski on that particular day, because it had previously slid down to the dirt, most likely from all the extensive avalanche control work done by the PCMR snow safety folks. But just to skiers right, there was a long ridge of tight to medium spaced aspens with great untracked snow, opening up into what is marked as the Sam's Knob area. A few turns later, and we were on our way to the Motherlode lift. After two laps on Pinecone Ridge, I felt like there was still so much more terrain in there to get familiar with. Below are a few snaps from the iPhone.

A few weeks ago, when we had our battery of major storms hit the Wasatch, I was enrolled in a Level 1 Avalanche Certification class with the fine folks at Utah Mountain Adventures. The bad thing is I didn't get to ski much powder at my favorite resorts that weekend. The good thing is, we spent the time traipsing around the backcountry of Big Cottonwood Canyon, studying what would become classic Wasatch slab avalanche conditions. Tons of new snow with a high moisture content on top of an old thin layer from early season. The recurring word I kept seeing on the avalanche forecasts from the Utah Avalanche Center was "persistent", meaning that weak layer wasn't healing, and weeks after the storms, human-triggered avalanches claimed at least one life, and scared the Beejeezus out of backcountry skiers with many years of experience. This kept me in-bounds, even though I was keen to practice some of the skills I learned in the Level 1 class.
Last weekend, while skiing at Park City Mountain Resort, I decided to venture out to Pinecone Ridge, and sample some of the best in-bounds backcountry skiing there is in the Park City area. You take the Jupiter chair up, hike up Scott's peak, forego the bowl, scamper down the ridge, and the gate to Pinecone is right in front of you. The hike is a steep bootpack that took maybe 15 minutes. Once on top, you get treated to exceptional views all the way around. You can drop in to some south facing wide open patches that take you back to Jupiter lift if you are doing laps. I did this once and had a funky sun crust to deal with. It wasn't horrible, but I knew there was better snow up there, so I did another roundtrip. At the Pinecone gate, I met up with two locals who knew where they were going, and followed all the way out the ridge to the Homelight Bowl are

IMG_1415_pinecone_tiltshift

Rock Cairn On Top Of Old Pinecone

View of Pine Cone Ridge

The Long And Lonely Ridge

IMG_1425_pinecone_tiltshift

Clouds Hovering Over Full Moon Bowl 
 

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Park City Grand Prix 2010

Park City hosts the 2010 Grand Prix in their world class superpipe. Big crowds, snow, music, and more. This Olympic qualifying event was fun for all. Shaun White, already guaranteed a spot on the Olympic Team wins.

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Learn to Ski or Snowboard for $25!

Utah residents – If you don’t know how, StartNOW! Learn to ski or snowboard at one of the country’s premier winter resorts, Park City Mountain Resort, for only $25.  StartNOW gives first-time skiers and riders the skills you need to experience the Greatest Snow on Earth® and includes:

•    Afternoon ski or snowboard lesson and lift access (1:00 – 4:00 pm)
•    Ski or Snowboard equipment rental

Plus, with the StartNOW bounceback offer, you can return four additional times during the season for only $25 per day (your choice of afternoon lesson, lift access, equipment rentals or any combination of the three).

Utah residents, ages six and older, who are first-time skiers or riders only. Blackout dates and restrictions apply.

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So you think you can "Thriller" dance?

It is no secret that Michael Jackson can dance, but trying to imitate his moves really illustrates what talent he had. Today, I gathered with hundreds of my friends at the base of Park City Mountain Resort's Town Lift to perform a "Thriller" snow-dance. We did not succeed in our goal of breaking the Guiness Book of World Records for a simultaneous "Thriller" dance but a great time was had by all. I have no doubt that Mother Nature will take note of this effort and gift Utah with another incredible winter.  We plan to attempt to break the record again next year. I hope to see you there! Check out the below footage of the event shot LIVE by Fox 13.

 

 

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3 Ways to Do Park City in Summer: In the Air, Through the Woods, and Under Water

dscn3663 (dscn3663)

Ready for the Luxist's point of view on how to do Park City in the summer?  Here is their list - Freestyle skiing at Utah Olympic Park, mountain biking at Deer Valley, and scuba diving at the Homestead Crater.

As the comments suggest, don't forget Park City's Alpine Coaster!

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The Grand Prix Comes Back to PCMR!

ussnowboarding (ussnowboarding)

After being absent for a few years the Grand Prix of Snowboarding is coming back to Park City Mountain Resort and the Eagle Superpipe. Glad to see the Olympic halfpipe hosting an Olympic qualifier event. Date is set as Jan 22-23, 2010. I can't wait to watch America's best duel it out for slots on the Olympic team. Here's an excerpt from the press release.

The historic pipe where U.S. athletes swept the men's podium and won gold in the women's event during the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002 will entertain the masses with Olympians again. The Grand Prix makes its final stop at Park City Mountain Resort for back to back night competitions, after which the winners will be crowned and the 2010 Olympic halfpipe team will be named.

Among the athletes stoked to hit the Park City pipe is White who, after having dinner with PCMR owner John Cummings, took to his Twitter page to spread the good news.

"Had dinner with John Cummings," White wrote. "Super nice guy, he told me Park City is having Olympic qualis mid Jan! booyeah!"

A reduced field comprised of the highest scoring athletes from previous tour stops will throw down the best tricks in their bag in an attempt to be one of the few named to the Olympic halfpipe team when the event is over.

"It's the perfect place to close the story of the Olympic team selection," Clark said. "The pipe has the tradition of being one of the best in North America. They put a tremendous amount of pride and energy into their venue. They are very excited to have this here."

In addition to hosting the Olympic halfpipe competition in 2002, Park City also held a Grand Prix the following December in which the Olympic medalists all returned for competition in their glory stomping ground.

With well over 100 national athletes expected to compete for a shot at the Olympic team, the 2010 Grand Prix series will be the hottest series of halfpipe competitions across the U.S.

The whole story is available here: http://ussnowboarding.com/news?storyId=1883

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Bye, bye PCMR

...until next season.  Closing day highlights from PC-TV.

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Spring Skiing at Park City Mountain Resort

What's your favorite part of spring skiing?  PCMR is open for a few more days.  Hurry on up.

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