So an old friend of mine, who used to live in Utah and was an instructor at Brighton for a while, was in town over the weekend and asked me to take him out into the backcountry to ride some pow. Well, it didn’t take a whole lot of arm twisting to get me on board and on Saturday morning we met up and headed out into the wilds. It was a gorgeous day with light winds and blue skies. Riding the lifts at Solitude it looked like there was plenty of great snow in bounds, but, we were looking for acres of untracked and when it hasn’t snowed in a couple of days there is only one place to get that. Out of Bounds.
First we went Evergreen, it’s a pretty easy hike and I wanted to see if Mike was still ripping after spending the last couple of years riding East Coast terrian parks. He sent the hike and we proceeded to a chute I know of called Brain Damage. The powder was good and Mike was holding his own on the steep and deep terrain back there.
After our quick trip down the backside of Evergreen I felt like Mike was ready to hang with the big boys, so we went up Fantasy Ridge. I didn’t want to freak Mike out too much, so, I didn’t really give him many details about the sketchier parts of the hike. Like the move where you have to grab a cable and a rock and hike up a 55 degree section with a rock strewn chute directly below you. In that particular section I showed Mike how to do it by going up first. He was about halfway up when he looked up at me and said “I don’t know about this” to which I replied “Well, you can’t go back down.” Anyway, he sacked up and pulled off the ascent in fine style. After about a two hour hike (normally it’s more like an hour, but, Mike isn’t used to the altitude and I was just having a great time enjoying the perfect weather and great views) we dropped into our first pitch, the East Bowl of Silverfork Canyon. The powder was perfect the sun was shining and we had a great run of about 1000 vertical feet of untracked snow. Then we did a short hike up to Flannegan’s Hill and found even more great powder on a shady aspect and a long run back to the quad a Solitude. Anyway, it was a great day hanging out with an old friend and riding perfect snow. Here are a couple more pictures.
Anway, I hope you make it out again soon Mike and we can ride some more. I took a little bit of video and I’ll try to post that up later.
I was really stoked to hear that a Big Mountain Freeride Snowboard Contest is finally coming to Utah. The North Face Masters rolls into Snowbird on February 8 – 11th with a $45,000 purse up for grabs for the riders that shred the hardest. Utah, and Snowbird especially, are known for their amazing freeriding and nothings better for hucking off of big cliffs than The Greatest Snow on Earth, so it only makes sense to have a contest of this caliber at the Bird.
The North Face Masters features a $45,000 cash prize purse and an opportunity for Big Mountain snowboarders to pit themselves against athlete and mountain alike. The North Face Masters kicks off at Snowbird, Utah, February 8 -10, where competitors look forward to the notoriously challenging Little Cottonwood Canyon terrain littered with chutes, cliff drops, and the legendary lake-effect Utah powder.
With the induction of the 2008 The North Face Masters comes the gathering of the Big Mountain snowboarding tribe from all over the world. All male and female snowboarding competitors over the age of 18 are welcomed to participate. http://www.snowbird.com/events/competitions/tnfmasters.html
I was beginning to think that the storm that rolled in last night was going to be a dud. Initial reports said that it would roll in yesterday afternoon, but, when I went to bed at midnight, the snow had yet to start falling.
So, when I got up at 7 this morning I was stoked to see it nuking outside my window. I live in downtown Salt Lake and there was a good 8 inches in my driveway that I had to shovel before heading to the office. (Unfortunately, Monday staff meetings trump fresh powder some days.) It kept up for most of the morning, and then I saw this:
That’s right, the Snowbird Snow Cam showed 15 inches piling up in just 6 hours. Now that’s impressive. What are you waiting for, get out there and ride!
There’s nothing like breaking in a new board on an epic day. It’s been dumping for a month straight here in Utah and the conditions are about as good as it gets right now. The holiday crowds are gone and the snow just keeps on falling. On Saturday, I pulled a new board out of the wrapper and took it for a few test runs at Solitude. Because of the deep powder conditions lately I’ve been riding my 158 Burton Malolo this whole month. But finally the temptation was too great and I pulled out the new Burton Custom X 160. Also, I tried out the new Idiom Speed Zone bindings for the first time too. On the first run I knew I was in love with this new setup. The Speed Zone bindings take some getting used to, but, I think once I get used to them, they’ll be super easy to get into. The board ripped in the powder, and the few times I did hit the groomer it would turn on a dime. I even landed a few spins and a couple of cliff drops on it. The Custom X really is a go anywhere do anything board.
Here’s another video that was shot by Luke, our intrepid Ski Utah intern. (We’re trying to come up with a new job title for him. Email suggestions.)
Just got back from Snowbasin, where we spent the morning riding in a driving snow storm. The snow was falling about as heavy as I’d ever seen it snow. I think the Lake Effect snow gun was pointed directly at Snowbasin this morning. We’d take a run, circle back to the same area 20 minutes later and our tracks were totally gone. It was unreal. Afterwards I treated myself to a burger at Earl’s Lodge which has some of the best resort food anywhere. The drive back to SLC was especially gnarly, the usual 45 minute trip ended up taking two hours, it was puking snow so hard that we were driving blind through a blizzard. There was about 17 inches of snow when we got to Snowbasin in the morning and it probably snowed another 8 inches while we were there.
If you’re getting out and about, keep in mind that the avalanche danger is high right now. Anytime you get snow like this it is going to add significant weight to the snow pack and increase the avalanche danger.
According to the National Weather Service, it doesn’t look like this storm pattern we’ve been in for the last month is going to let up. I know that everyone here in our offices hope that it never does. See you on the slopes.
Here’s the real video from yesterday’s action at Powder Mountain. The snow we’ve been getting has been unbelievable. If you haven’t been out riding yet, you better get on it.
What’s better than a powder day? A 2 foot powder day under blue skies that’s what. Today was one of those days. After a weekend of deep snow, today dawned cloudless and Piercey, Brian, and I charged up to Powder Mountain because they were reporting the highest 24 hour storm totals. Despite the fact that it’s kind of a long drive, an hour for us spoiled Salt Lakers, we weren’t disappointed. Here is a little proof and I’ll be working on a proper video tonight. Enjoy.
On New Years Day I got myself out of bed and went on my first backcountry excursion with my buddy Scott. We started at Solitude and hiked up over Fantasy Ridge (probably one of the gnarliest “in-bounds” hikes you’ll come across in the United States, to access Silverfork Canyon to the west of Solitude. The snow was fabulous and the sun was out. The avalanche danger was a little sketchy so we didn’t shoot a whole lot of footage of the “down” portions of the day, concentrating on crossing our t’s and dotting our i’s to make sure that we’d make it back to the truck that night. Also, Scott was on a new Burton split that wasn’t quite setup right making it hard to keep the nose up on it. We’ll make some tweaks and get that baby cool running. We even ran into some friends at the top of the last run.
As always, if you’re heading into the backcountry, even if it’s right next to a resort, ALWAYS carry a beacon, a shovel, and a probe and bring a buddy. Riding on top of untracked powder is a great experience, but, getting buried under is deadly.
Another big storm is on the way. The winds are howling, but, after they pass they’re should be several feet of snow coming our way. And it’s going to keep going into next week. Click here for the Brighton forecast.
