January is Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month, and it’s a time for first-timers to get onto local ski slopes and learn how to ski or snowboard from a professional instructor for a minimal cost. It’s all meant to encourage more people to take up the sport. Well, organizers of the January Learn to Ski…
Category: Skiing
Escape from Black Friday: skiing above the madness on Red Top Mountain
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the biggest shopping day of the year, is memorable for images of frenzied shoppers practically rioting in pre-dawn madness just to score some deals on stuff. Well, there’s another pre-dawn tradition on the day after Thanksgiving, and that’s backcountry touring into the Wasatch Mountains to burn off those…
The Patroller Z Chronicles: Opening Weekend
There is something special about the opening day at your home mountain. “How was your summer?” is often the question of the day and it is reminiscent of the first day of school. Catching up with your pals and showing off your latest threads is exciting. Standing in the lift line, the anticipation is tangible….
Utah Avalanche Center Women’s Series
The backcountry can be an ugly place. Grizzled, bearded men populate the canyons and mountainsides of the Wasatch, with fewer of the fair sex getting after it. Our mountains would be more charismatic and probably be safer with more women ripping skins and making turns. Females are far more less likely to die in an…
Friday Video: “Oh the Quality!”
When I’m skiing amazing powder, I’m generally not prone to whooping it up like many people. For some reason, using the brain power to think about something to say whilst getting hammered with face shots is energy misspent. I’d rather be focusing on the sensations and internalizing it all instead of releasing it in a…
The Patroller Z Chronicles: Instant Winter
Prologue: Instant winter. A furious and prolonged storm has descended upon our Range. Snowfall totals cresting 50” have been reported in favored terrain and riding conditions have proven excellent over the last five days. Locals from around the valley are preparing for their season and Facebook is about to implode from all the powdery footage….
Brighton first Utah ski resort to open for 2012/13 season
In the race to see who can claim bragging rights as the first Utah ski resort open for the 2012/2013 ski season, Brighton wins. The Big Cottonwood Canyon resort fired up the lifts early on Tuesday morning, November 13th, to the cheers of excited skiers and snowboarders. Over four feet of snow fell in the…
Skiing the blower from Brutus
So the Weather Channel recently decided to start naming large winter storms, much in the same way tropical storms and hurricanes are awarded an epic-sounding name when they develop off some coastal region. Well, the first of these storms, Winter Storm Brutus, slammed into the Wasatch Front, dropping over three feet of snow (even more…
Friday Video: 2011-2012 Utah Backcountry Review
Who knew the Utah Avalanche Center could make a ski movie as good as any other adrenaline-fueled tomfoolery currently on tour in mountain towns? For this week’s Friday Video, we’re featuring the UAC’s “2011-2012 Utah Backcountry Review,” an educational recap about last season’s snowpack and avalanche accident season. If you think that may sound like…
Wasatch Splitboard Speaker Series
Are you a Splitboarder? Aspiring splitboarder? Or maybe you’re just a history buff with a fetish for snow. Either way, you’ll love the Wasatch Splitboarder Speaker Series, being organized by the Splitboard Education Company. The first event of the 2012 series happens on Thursday, November 8th, and is about “The Early Years.” Brett “Cowboy” Kobernik,…