Our patience finally paid off today and the powder arrived at Snowbird. Gad 2 was a super good as was Silver Fox and the rest of P-Gulch. We received about a foot of nice groppley costal snow that is just what the doctor ordered. The Tram didn’t get rocking until about 10:30, but it was walk ons for almost the whole day after that. I love weekday pow! The rocks were more covered and the landing were softer than they have been all year. I am so psyched that the season is finally here. More snow on the way!!!!

Salomon Freeski TV just dropped their latest episode in their on-going web series of clips. Episode 8 takes a look at the ski culture and passion of Alta locals. Featuring rippers Leo Ahrens, Jamey Parks, Carston Oliver, and other area locals shredding Alta’a famous pow, trees, and steeps both in bounds and in the expansive backcountry.

One of North America’s Pow skiing meccas, Alta is a true classic and a rare experience in the skiing world.

This clip was produced along with Sweetgrass Productions, featuring their soulful vibe and unique camera work. Very artsy…very awesome! The following is taken from Salomon Freeski TV:

“Alta, Utah has almost a cult-like following of devoted powder skiers. Leo Ahrens, Jamey Parks, and the many generations of Alta shredders show us the soul of skiing is alive and well in one of the best powder skiing spots on earth.”

Witt Foster looking like a longtime local...

Leo Ahrens getting deep in his backyard

Jamey Parks assigned to dawn patrol

After about a week of wondering and guessing when the Snowbird Tram would open for the season, it looks like it will be good to go on this Thursday. (AKA … Read More

There was a good dose of new powder at Alta this weekend. This video was shot in the Ho in the late afternoon. There was still a ton of soft stuff and faceshots were still possible until last chair. This beat the hell out of skiing the White Ribbon of death at Snowbird. There were several severe injuries at Snowbird this weekend due to thin cover and poor choices.

The below video was shot by Matt from Ski Utah and will give you a feel for what the morning was like. It was like really really good!

skiutah.com

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

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!

The people have spoken and Snowbird has listened….What!?!? In the first time in my memory Snowbird has reversed course on a decision due to a small uprising of local skiers. … Read More

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!!!

Many of us have heard of and use Yelp on a regular basis. For those of you not familiar with Yelp, it is a very useful and handy resource that … Read More

Getting up early usually sucks, but today it was not all that bad. Not being hungover helped a lot. I met my old buddy Jason France up at Alta at 6:55am and we got to hiking. The snow where we dropped in, Nipple to Hidden Chute, was fresh and strange. It was a super fun ride down, but it was a balancing act to not break through the weird layer that was under the top couple inches of cream pow. I got a ski under it in the last few feet of the runout to the rope tow and it did not work out well. Enjoy…