Ride Utah Blog

Just got this in the old email from Burton:

FREE LIFT TICKET AND LESSON!

Burton Snowboards is pleased to announce GO SNOWBOARDING, a collaborative effort with select North American partner resorts designed to introduce people to snowboarding. With the purchase of select Burton snowboards you can obtain a FREE lesson and lift ticket package. Better yet, the lesson and lift ticket package is fully tranfserable, so if you’re simply too rad for free stuff, then do us all a favor and hook a friend or family member up.

SOME THINGS TO REMEMBER:

Your LTR lesson and lift ticket package is fully transferable.

Blackout dates vary, so double check with the resort you want to visit ahead of time.

You have to call the resort at least 48 hours ahead of time so that they can plan for your arrival

Here are some photos sent in by RideUtah’s buddy Brock Butterfield.  Photos by Jake Lawlor.  Thanks guys. Got a photo or video of you getting ill in Utah?  Send it in.  I’ll probably post it.

Check out this video that Max Raymer, Ride Utah’s favorite mini shred and Burton rider, sent us.  Filmed in Utah and New Zealand, Max is holding it down.  I knew this kid could kill it in the park, but, now he’s holding it down in the powder too?  Look out for this kid.

This Saturday is the third annual Fat Flake Festival at the Gallivan Center in Salt Lake City.  We’ll be celebrating the beginning of winter with music, a ski boot race, DJ’s, a photo contest and more!

Courtesy of Bruce Kobernik.

This new snow excites us and will coax some people willing to sacrifice some p-tex into the backcountry for some early season bliss. Along with the fun we need to start thinking about avalanche safety as well. A quick review of the books Snow Sense by Fessler/Fredston or the freshly revised Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain by Bruce Tremper is always a good method of getting our brains thinking snow again. Do a thorough check of your rescue gear to make sure there wasn’t something broken or missing from last season. Make sure your probe and shovel assemble and disassemble properly. Put new batteries in your avalanche transceiver and make sure it’s both sending and receiving signals at both close and far distances.

Read the whole article here.  Don’t become a statistic just because you’re too stoked to be cautious.  Ski resorts that aren’t open yet need to be treated as backcountry terrain.  Ski Patrol isn’t yet doing avalanche work and resorts that are not open.

Brighton is getting ready to fire up the lifts this Wednesday.  Don’t miss out on what is sure to be an epic opener.  It’s snowing in the mountains AGAIN today.  So get ready.  I’ll update when I find out what lifts they are planning top open.  Also, Solitude opens on Friday.

In other news, Pika’s of the world watch out.  Ride Utah’s Josh Scheurman wants to be your friend.

Snowbird just announced that they will be opening on Friday.  I heard that they would be opening the Tram, Gad Zoom, and Mid Gad.  That may or maynot be true.  Either way wax up the boards, it’s time to go shred.

At some point this morning the Snowbird Snowcam just disappeared.  Here’s where it should be.

Snowbird Snowcam missing

Last night and this morning the snow was hammering down here in Utah.  I’ve heard up to 32 inches fell at Brighton.  Sounds like it might be time to take that rock board out and make some turns.  More snow for today and looks like another storm rolling through on Sunday – Monday.  Also, Solitude is scheduled to open in 8 days!

Check out these pictures that Dave March at the Canyons just sent over.

It is currently dumping rain in Salt Lake and nuking in the mountains.  Check out the Snow Cam at Snowbird, it’s already pushing over the one foot mark:

Snowbird Snow Cam

The current Cottonwood Canyons forecast is calling for  8 – 12 ” today and another 8 – 12″ tonight, with a 30% possiblilty of 13 – 16″ tonight.  Even more snow is on the way tomorrow.  At some point the rain in Salt Lake should be switching over to snow.  Hopefully it will be dumping on me while I’m sitting in the Hot Tub tonight.

If we end up with 3 feet or more I might have to go make my first tracks of the season.  I’ve got a little place that’s high altitude (so lots of snow), steep (for lots of speed), and grassy underneath (so I don’t have to worry about hurting my board or my butt on a rock).  Here are some shots from this undisclosed location taken on October 21st of last year.