Alta Powder

Were you skiing in Utah the last few days? If not, HaHa Sucka! It has been mega epic in the Wasatch for the last 4 days with the deepest fluff flying on the 29th. I was too lazy to make a video, but luckily Nate Fillnow and his friends made a rocking 2:30 edit to showcase the goods at Alta.

Awesome crash into a tree at 1:50!

Check it and weep….for joy because you live here, or for sorrow because you don’t;)

Bring it on!

This is a Very solid season edit from Jarrett Smith. This edit reminds me of some top notch POV from Mr. Andrew Whiteford from last season in Jackson. Jarrett reps Alta, UT and is…. <gasp>… a liftie.  I am impressed by a a number of the moves in this edit as well as his choice in music.  I am going to go out on a limb and claim hard for Jarrett, I think he is the Best Liftie in LCC.  Nice work brother, I hope we get more snow next season too…

Highlights:

Music!

Actions starts at 0:35

Great Send and Stomp of Garbage Chute at 1:00

Wild 180 at 1:15

Big Send of the Tounge-Mi Double at 1:45

Double Backflip the Stadium Jump at 2:55

High Speed Stomps all the way to the end.

Jarrett’s Words:

With the hopes of another epic La Nina this season was pretty much a let down for most of us in LCC. With the lowest snowfall in recent memory, good days this year were few and far between. I can count on one hand the number of pow days I skied. I can count on several more hands the number of times I said to myself, “I hope there are no rocks under there.” Yet I still managed to have fun on low snow pack and variable conditions. This edit takes place in Alta, UT and it’s through the eyes of a lifty. This is me trying to make something from nothing.

A small group of skiers was lucky enough to get to sample the goods off the Wildcat Chair today at Alta. The skiing was super good all the way around! The snow has setup a little bit underneath and it is skiing nice and sponge-like under about 6-8 inches of pow. The rocks are more covered than they have been and lines like Punch Bowl and Warm Up were really nice. Westward Ho and the Wildcat Liftline were also dope, but a bit more rocky. Get stoked to the storm on Friday! Should be good pow on Saturday.

Yesterday was a very crazy day to be skiing in the Wasatch. There were more people than I have ever seen hiking around at Alta and the snow conditions were very unstable.  Ski legend Jamie Pierre was killed in a slide at Snowbird. This terrible news has shocked the local ski community and will take a long while to swallow.

Our crew stayed on the lower parts on the mountain and sessioned the Lone Pine zone at Alta for a couple hours. We heard that there were slides all over and saw one come down Stonecrusher first hand. Check out that video below. 

The Utah Avalanche Center is reporting at least 10 human triggered avalanches in Upper Little Cottonwood Canyon yesterday. Both Alta and Snowbird will be closed to up hill traffic until they open for the season. If you want to do some more hiking you will need to go elsewhere.  Check the avi report, bring your gear and  be careful out there.

There is a little pow left at Alta and we did our best to go find it today. Lucky for us your get to hit lots on rocks while searching for this pow. The turns in Westward Ho were a friendly mix of nice boot deep snow and grabby granite.  With lifts opening in about a week it might be a good idea to pump the breaks and wait for a little more snow before sending it too hard out there. Or…you can roll the dice…live life, taste death!

Getting out for some pre-season hiking at Alta is an early season ritual for many in the Wasatch. It seems like the number of skiers who get out and hike … Read More

There were loads of powder turns and butters at Alta today! I think there were more people than I have ever seen pre-season at Alta. There were kids jibbing at the bottom of the hill, skiers and riders all over the Baldy Shoulder and a few people even tried their luck at Snowbird. The snow was super good overall, but it was still thin as hell… I would guess that there was about 12″-15″ of new and if you stayed on top of the old snow you could dodge most of the rocks.

It would be worth it to go up and get some in the next few days….. just bring your rock skis.

The snow gods did not bring us more snow in the Wasatch last night, but that is ok because there was enough yesterday to make it happen again up at Alta this morning. A 7:15am start got us to the goods by 9:00. Baldy Shoulder near the Badnews Cliffs was bangin’ sometimes literally since rocks were still strewn about liberally. I have heard rumors of a warm up, so if you want to get some you better make it happen this weekend!

The first big snow of the year hit yesterday and last night up in Little Cottonwood Canyon. As a rule I figure the best Utah pre-season powder skiing is at Alta. There are plenty of grassy fields there that will go with anything more than a foot of snow. I went up this evening to do a little recon mission for tomorrows powder frenzy. I would put the snowfall total at 12-20″ depending on the location. I took one hot lap down from the top of Wildcat Chair and was stoked to get some legit pow and not hit any significant rocks. Winning! 

There were not too many other people up hiking around, maybe 15-20 other tracks around. I am thinking tomorrow will bring more powder skiers out to test the this snow pack. I will be back for sure!

June 3rd, 2011 was one sweet spring day. Even though Summer is only 17 days away the skiing at Snowbird in still EPIC! I got to ski Pipeline today for the first time ever. The video sucked so I didn’t put it in the edit. The best part of the day was skiing Mineral with Charlie, Crazy Ray, ERic Fabbri and Becky Hall. We sacked up and hit the Hoop Gap today which we have been looking at for weeks. It is a crazy little air through a steel triangle created by a lift tower and a support beam. Tim Normand deserves the credit for discovering the Hoop Gap earlier this year. Good Times!!!