Alta opened for the 2015/16 ski season on Friday, November 20, and conditions were much better than anyone anticipated. Ski Utah blogger, Matt Baydala, noted that he didn’t expect much, so didn’t bother to bring his good cameras. He was wrong to doubt the power of Alta. But at least he was able to put…
Avatech releases Avanet, the ultimate backcountry app
The backcountry just got a lot more high-tech. Avanet has been released and is available for download on your iPhone (Android version forthcoming). Avanet is brought to you by the same Park City-based geeks that built the Avatech SP1 – a probe pole that digitally reads and records snowpack data that cam be shared online….
Video: Brighton Resort first to open for 2015/16 season
It’s official! Ski and snowboard season has begun in Utah, and Brighton Resort is the first to open. The lifts started spinning on the morning of Wednesday, November 18th. Utah is having a good start to the snow year, as Brighton opened with a 22 inch base. Three lifts are running including Crest Express, Explorer,…
Superior Turns TUNE UP Camp at Alta
Longtime Alta skiers, Brant Moles and Jesse Weeks, have started up a new ski guide service in Utah. It’s called Superior Turns, and they aim to show the “serious leisure enthusiast” a damn good time. Their first venture this season will be TUNE UP Camp at Alta. On December 5-7, the camp will be an…
Salomon Mountain Academy ready to educate you
Ready to ski the backcountry? Better get educated first. A good place to start is the brand new Salomon Mountain Academy, which just went live this fall. The Mountain Academy is an online avalanche safety course designed to be a supplement to traditional, in-the-field courses that cost a lot more money. Designed in collaboration with Atomic and wePowder, Mountain…
Patience and the long wait for winter
Photos of people skiing at Alta flood my Facebook feed, and my heart quickens at the sight. A week before, a large storm dropped over a foot of snow in the high country, and the die-hards are getting after it on a Wednesday morning. I like to consider myself a die-hard, but not to the…
5 early-season backcountry ski tours in Utah
Backcountry skiers are an impatient lot. As soon as the first couple inches of autumn snow falls in Utah, die-hards risk knee-and-ski injuries just to eek out a few turns on barely-covered slopes. But you don’t have to destroy your rock skis to backcountry ski tour in Utah. There are several places you can ski…
2015 Utah ski resort opening dates
Ski season is only a few weeks away in Utah. Winter storms have dropped a good couple of feet in the mountains, and resorts have been blowing man-made snow in freezing temperatures. The countdown and anticipation has begun. Late November is generally when many Utah resorts start spinning chairs, while other wait until December. Below…
Dish & DU/ER “No Sweat” Pants review
Finding the perfect pair of pants, you know, pants you want to wear every day no matter where you are or what you are doing, is the ultimate challenge. For outdoors people, that challenge is even more difficult because we need pants that perform when we are throwing ourselves at the mountains. Well, Dish &…
Utah Avalanche Center produces “Know Before You Go” video
You gotta hand it to the Utah Avalanche Center – they just went HUGE in their brand new, “Know Before You Go” video. In conjunction with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, the UAC’s own Trent Meisenheimer, Bruce Tremper, Paul Diegel, and Craig Gordon took avalanche safety videos to the next level. The video is part…