Today was a day that most people stayed away from the mountain. Most people made a mistake. There was top quality Rain Pow to be had at Snowbird today and that delicious liquid cream type of snow made for many a good time. The High Speed Double seemed to be the move of the day since the upper mountain was often covered in a thick fog bank. Silver Fox was also killer in the early afternoon. I bet it was even better in the morning. Don’t give up on winter yet friends….it was snowing when I took off at about 2:45pm. See you tomorrow.

The snow machine is fully turned on in Little Cottonwood Canyon for the first time this season. Three top notch powder days in a row were putting a smile on even the crustiest locals’ faces. Faceshots could be found just about anywhere from the top to the tram to the bottom of the bypass road. Baldy, Silver Fox, Mach Schnell, and Tower 3 were stupid creamy and deep. If you caught Mineral right when it opened you are likely still stoked on the smoothness.

Check out the forecast of 8-18″ tonight!

Today and yesterday were likely the best two days of the season so far at Snowbird. After a rugged first couple of months the season looks like it is finally getting itself on track. Skiing on Baldy the last two days could only be described as epic. A female snowboarder friend of mine stated loudly in the tram line yesterday that she loves Baldy more than she does her her long time boyfriend. I completely understand that claim and think that if you were there either of the last two days you do too.

The wind was howling today and the Snowbird lifts department did a hell of a job keeping the tram running. Mineral was closed all day and patrol shut down the Baldy hike at about 1:00pm today due to massive amounts of wind loading. Tower 3 was also a bit unstable, with myself and several other kicking off significant slides in that area. Silver Fox was more buffed out than it has been since sometime last year. All in all it was the kind of storm day that we have been sorely missing thus far in 2012. It started dumping again at about 5:00pm today and the forecast is calling for up to 2 feet of new by the end of the day tomorrow. 

Game on!!!

Last Friday I got the call from Photographer Jay Dash to come up for early trams at Snowbird with he and local snowboard shredder Jeremy Tidwell. How can you say … Read More

Powder conditions ruled today at The Snowbird with left over snow from yesterday still in full effect. There was deep snow in the Mid Cirque and Hanging Bowl all day long and the trams were once again walk on. The word is that there is still loads of pow up on Baldy if you can hunt it down. Skies were sunny almost the whole day and even Mineral was sweet as hell.

I think there are a number of advantages to the smaller pow day, which I will now list in no particular order:

1) No canyon jam in the morning.

2) Walk on trams all day.

3) No powder panic on the hill.

4) Can get sandwich at Grits in about 3 minutes.

5) Nobody hiking Baldy.

6) Fresh lines every run.

7) No canyon jam on the way down.

Stoke is high and is not hindered by lift lines. (Kinda like #2, but I think this is worth 2 mentions….or is it 3.)

Both Solitude and Brighton are opening tomorrow for the season! To kick things off even earlier Solitude had a media day today where certain highly influential members of the media got to shred some sweet groomers. Luckily I was also invited. I like skiing Solitude.

When you have not gotten to ski rock free snow in a long while some mellow groomers are pretty awesome! I would anticipate the slopes being kinda crowded tomorrow since there are only like two runs that are skiable. If you have a pass or are really itching to ride lifts it would be a good idea to do some Skiing at  Solitude tomorrow.

When you can smell the snow coming it is a good time to get out on your mountain bike one or two more times. This was the case last weekend when a few SLC skiers teamed up to ride the Little Cottonwood Canyon Trail (LCC).  The riding is awesome now with a carpet of yellow leaves on the ground and some of their brothers still hanging in the trees. The snow came in on Monday night and that might be it for the LCC trail until next year. More snow is forecast for later this week and I suspect that it is only going to get deeper after that….

Bring it on!!!

Are you ready to hang up your bike and get to Winter snow riding?

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!

This edit is from yesterday’s canyoneering adventure in Zion NP with Nick Como of Solitude in the BCC.  We took on two canyons that day, the first being Echo Canyon. We started the approach hike in the mid-morning after being yelled at by a grey hair on the park shuttle bus for talking on the bus.  I guess talking on the bus is not allowed wherever they are from. Anyway, the temps on the hike up were kinda hot but it all cooled down when we took a dip in the canyon.

The water was cold and pretty gross in general. This is a great canyon to check out and I think anyone could knock this one out in about 3-4 hours round trip from the Weeping Rock shuttle stop.

There were some casual bets thrown around last month as to when the Wasatch Crest trail would be ridable this year. Many people thought it would be at least August. Those folks, myself included, were wrong. The Crest is in Super Prime condition right now! So stop making excuses and get on up there this holiday weekend. (For all non Utah readers this next Monday is a made up holiday here called Pioneer Day.) 
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