Just in from my newsletter shagging!
It’s a powder day- let the fun begin! Up to 7 inches of new snow reported yesterday at our resorts and more new snow today means fresh tracks and big powder- do what you have to do to be here now.
Don’t forget! The Counting Crows are coming to Vail on 12/9. Tickets are $35, but hurry because prices increase to $50 this Friday, 12/1! Buy now>>
Pic of the Day at Alta: 11.20.06- One of the best kept secrets in the World!
Yahoo look at the snow! But remember… no boards
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Great picture, great thought. Enjoy!
Farmer Dave Profile by William Deleo – added September 20, 2006Dave Van Dame is an Alta skier and a local legend because of his skiing technique. I first saw his unmistakable tracks in the backcountry in the winter of 1992 and thought, “What the hell made those?” It looked as if a snowmobile made about 40 turns side by side. It was not until we got closer that it became apparent the tracks were made by a skier. The snakey grooves were cut side by side and about a foot apart and took up an entire snowfield. I think I was with Matt West at the time and he said, “Oh, that’s the work of the snow farmer, he’s out here in the backcountry a lot.”
From that day on I saw a lot of his enigmatic work in the snow off the back of Supreme, but I saw little of the artist. His tracks were always side by side, every swath in the snow a reflection of the previous one. The tracks were always perfect, flawless; no craters where he lost balance and tipped over and no missed turns. Always off to one side there was a diagonal skin track zig-zagging back up to the top. This I thought, was his signature.
I always seemed to be a day or two behind him and it was not until 1997 I finally saw the man mid-farm. He was far away and looked rather meditative in his Zen-like approach to skiing. I was a little shocked seeing him out there because for so long he was more of a phantom than a real person.
For more, click here.
Ski Tour of Utah from Gravity Fed
A Tale of Two Utah Ski Tours by Alex Wellen – added October 21, 2006Many local ski tourers consider Broads Fork to be the crown jewel in the Wasatch Mountains. Home to some of the most spectacular and foreboding alpine terrain in Utah, it has been the location of some of the finest ski days in my long and storied backcountry career. This is the story of two ski tours that took place in Broads Fork.
The ski season got off to a somewhat slow start this year in Utah, so I did not do much ski touring in December. By mid-January the snowpack was building and my friends and I were chomping at the bit to head up Broads Fork and experience its magical terrain and unparalleled beauty. Phone calls were made and plans were laid out and I met Dan O,Connor and Bob Lamm at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon at 7:00 A.M. on a Monday. We climbed into Dan’s Honda and headed up the canyon to the Broads Fork trailhead. The snowpack was still thin, especially at lower elevations, so we put our skis and snowboards on our backpacks and started walking up the trail. After about the first mile the snow became more consistent and we were able to don climbing skins for the rest of the ascent. After climbing a total of about two miles and 2,100 vertical feet, we finally reached the basin. From there we decided to climb to the top of the basin and ascend to the top of Tanners notch, overlooking Tanners slide path in Little Cottonwood Canyon. After a leisurely 4.5-hour climb and about a 4,500-vertical-foot gain, we reached our destination. The view alone was reward enough for the suffering endured to obtain it. We skied a relatively short north face back into Broads Fork and decided to climb up the west face in order to scope a new line that Dan had heard about in Mill B Canyon. For more, click here.
America’s 2006 Olympic snowboard team, who won a record setting seven medals in Torino, look to lead the world’s best riders into this country’s greatest snowboard competition series: the 2006-07 Chevrolet U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix. The series kicks off in Breckenridge, home to standout U.S. Snowboarding rider and former X Games champion Steve Fisher, was voted the No. 1 halfpipe in the country for 2006 by readers of Transworld Snowboarding magazine. Teter, who won halfpipe gold in Torino, is going for a three-peat at Breckenridge after winning there the last two consecutive years. The event will also include a night-time exhibition, in-town under the lights – be sure not to miss it!
For more, click here.