The Utah Adventure Journal Speaker Series is returning to Snowbird for its third year. The Wildflower Lounge at the Iron Blosam Lodge will once again play host for eight Thursdays this winter where you can hear inspiring tales of outdoor adventures from Utah’s most prolific outdoor athletes.
Check out this year’s lineup, get there early for good seats, enjoy a drink or two and get inspired! Here’s the full schedule:
12/19 Tyson Bradley: Tyson will talk about Chugach Ski Touring and will share stories and photos from his 10-day heli- assisted ski safari in the Chugach Mountains of Alaska near Valdez and Anchorage in April, 2013. Using single-drops from Valdez Heli Ski Guides, skins and boots, the team skied steep couloirs in great snow for the classic Valdez experience.
1/9 Noah Howell: Noah will present his favorite photos, stories and adventures from all the years spent exploring and touring the Wasatch as he made movies for Powderwhore Productions.
1/23 Chris Davenport: Chris will speak about Mount Everest and how he manages risk on the world’s highest peak. In 2011 Chris guided a successful and smooth climb of Mt. Everest, so his show will touch on important elements of risk management and goal setting while taking you on a guided tour of Mt. Everest.
2/6 Andrew McLean: If you don’t already know who Andrew McLean is, then you should. This Utah local will give a presentation about kite assisted steep skiing in Baffin Island and Patagonia.
He will highlight two of his favorite kite assisted trips to Baffin Island and the Southern Patagonia Ice Cap, as well as others.
2/20 Kevin Fedarko: Kevin will talk about his deepest connection: the river where he spent six years researching and writing The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon. His presentation of one of the fiercest floods in the modern history of the canyon—a surge that threatened to take out the Glen Canyon Dam while serving as a hydraulic catapult for a trio of intrepid oarsmen and a tiny wooden dory—opens a window into the remarkable and hidden world at the bottom of the most iconic landscape feature in North America.
3/6 Geoffrey Tabin: Dr. Tabin has cured blindness around the world and will speak about that along with his unrepeated first ascent of the East Face of Mt. Everest in 1983. Dr. Tabin spends a considerable part of the year working abroad, both in Nepal and throughout the Himalayas, as well as in Africa. His book Blind Corners was described by Sir Edmund Hillary as “an astonishing mixture of wild adventure and the overcoming of formidable challenges.”
3/20 Dennis Turville: Dennis knows Utah, especially her canyons. His presentation will focus on first descents, which they called “gorging,” in unexplored canyons. He’ll present photos, local canyon history and some colorful first descent tales, along with what the sudden upsurge in canyoneering notoriety, accidents and multiple rescues mean for the future of the sport.
4/3 Liam Fitzgerald: Liam is the Godfather of avalanche control in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The avalanche control program at Snowbird in the early days presented many formidable challenges for the newly opened resort. A vast amount of new terrain, 500” of snow each season, and a brand new ski area that very few people knew that much about, made for an interesting combination. This was the scenario in December 1971 when Snowbird opened. The area was big and untamed and with so few skiers the first few seasons it was like backcountry skiing than resort skiing. This made avalanche control work particularly challenging for the newly formed Snowbird Ski Patrol of which Liam found himself as the first director of Snow Safety for the resort. A long time Little Cottonwood Canyon avalanche professional since then, Liam will recount his tales of avalanche challenges and control.
You have to be 21 and over to attend. For more information, check out the Utah Adventure Journal online.