Ride Utah Blog

Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort late last week opened its Eagle Superpipe, Pick ‘N Shovel and Jonesy’s terrain parks in time for the holiday season.

“The cold temperatures we’ve received over the last few weeks have been great for snowmaking, superpipe and terrain park building,” said Jeremy Cooper, Park City Mountain Resort’s new terrain park manager. “We’ve spent endless man hours building the pipe and park over the last few weeks to provide the best possible product for potential Olympians who will use our pipe as a training ground for the 2010 Winter Games.”

Park City Mountain Resort’s Eagle Superpipe is the first and largest Superpipe to open in Utah for the 2009-10 season. The historic pipe, where U.S. athletes swept the men’s podium and won gold in the women’s event during the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, will entertain the masses with Olympians again. The U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix makes its final stop at Park City Mountain Resort for back-to-back night competitions, Jan. 22-23, after which the winners will be crowned and the 2010 U.S. Snowboarding Olympic halfpipe team will be named.

Pick ‘N Shovel terrain park, located at the base of the resort, has intermediate to advanced features including five jumps ranging from 30 to 50 feet and up to ten jib features. Jonesy’s terrain park, located off the Bonanza lift, is suited for beginner to intermediate terrain park users and includes ten features.

The PayDay terrain park will remain open with jib features for the remainder of the season. Beginning Christmas Day the PayDay jib park will be lit for night skiing.

Solitude Mountain Resort in Big Cottonwood Canyon opened today, making it the first resort in Utah to bring the shred.  It’s only 2 runs on 2 different lifts with a 16 inch base, but hey, snowboarding is always better than not snowboarding. Get up there and start making some laps.

Here’s some footage from the Intelligent Design contest at PCMR.  Music is by Salt Lake’s own Tolchock Trio.  Check them out on TolchockTrio.net.

Also, here is some much better footage prepared by Park City Television.

Park City Mountain Resort has got it all.  Steeps, trees, and the best park around.  Here’s what another great day in the Park looks like.

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

We all know that the economy is rough right now.  And finding a job in a down economy can be hard.  Especially when you’re trying to find a job that you can balance with snowboarding.  If you’ve never thought about working at a resort, now is the time to consider this option.  Here’s why:

1) A FREE SEASON PASS – duh, do I even need to say this.

2) Lunch Breaks on the slopes.

3) A paycheck – usually not much of one, but hey you’ll be able to afford McDonalds.

4) A FREE SEASON PASS.

I’ve worked at the resorts for almost 8 years, you might even say I still work at the resorts.  But, that’s besides the point.  I’ve done everything from bumping chairs to managing a crew of kids.  Here’s what I’ve learned from some of the jobs I’ve done.

Lift Op/Ticket Checker – Not a bad job, but, you’ll have to get over all the dudes getting on the chair telling you how sick it is right now.  You’ll get yours, but, you’ll have to get patient.  Being a lift op usually results in quite a bit of riding time, hopefully getting some goods before the public, and being the first on the hill and the last off.  Another hidden benefit is the great views while working the top shack.  This is one job you don’t really do for the money, you do it because you love shredding pow.

Ticket Sales – Usually pays a little better and has the best ride breaks.  You’ll have to sit out a lot of first chairs for this job, but, if you’re off the clock by 10am or Noon, you’re loving it.  You can ride every single day or just powder days if you want to.  Also, you’re inside and warm.

Mountain Host – Doesn’t pay at all, but that’s not the point.  Minimal responsibilities and a free pass.  Does it get any better than this?

Management - One season I managed a crew of kids on the hill and it was the worst season of my life.  Too many headaches and too much of work intruding on my shred time.  There’s nothing like getting ready to drop into a sick run only to have your radio start squawking at you about how Billy hasn’t gotten his lunch break because Sally couldn’t make it up the canyon that day.  If I learned anything it’s that the less responsibility in your resort job the better.  You’re not going to get paid much regardless of your position so focus on the fun.

Well, you’re probably asking “How can I find one of these jobs?”  Well, that’s the easy part.  Right now all resorts are hiring for the upcoming season and are holding job fairs.  Check this page to get a hold of the individual resorts HR departments.  https://www.skiutah.com/company/employment/ Also, many resorts and other Ski Utah members are posting their listings on the brand new SkiUtahJobs.com.  Check it out and GET A JOB!  IF it’s a job that gets you on your board, you won’t regret it.

The first turns of the season went down on October 21st. I showed up at Solitude with Kristian and Andy on a cold morning after an additional foot had been dropped on top of the 2 feet we had throughout the week. While we were booting up Dibbs, Josh, and Ian also pulled up in the parking lot, I hadn’t seen them since the end of last season. High 5’s were exchanged. Our original crew hustled and started up the hill.

Preseason hiking can be kind of a slap in the face. I know that I spent a little too much time this summer in the backyard doing 12 ounce curls. And the first couple of hundred vertical feet make that abundantly clear. After a couple of stops we had made it to the mid mountain. There we considered our options. Boot straight up Diamond Lane or take the cat track across the bowl and then up the ridge. We opted for the later. This way was less steep and we walked quickly. Dibbs and crew were already starting to skin up Diamond Lane on their skis. We were just booting up.

Halfway up the hill we found a cute little snow wave and I had Kristian strap in and slash it on his Fish for a picture.

After some more huffing and puffing we ended up at the top of the Powder Horn Lift right behind Dibbs and company. Untracked snow on top of a mostly grassy surface lay beneath us. After a binding fiasco that required a little MacGyvering, we strapped in and hit it. It was good to be back on snow making turns and the snow was surprisingly bottomless. No base damage occured.

On the ride out the masses caught up to us as we must have passed 30 people hiking up. I even saw one guy carrying another guys board up the hill for him. That’s just unacceptable. Anyway, as always, the early bird gets the worm.