January 31, 2016

Two Shades of Solitude


Andrea is all smiles after an exhausting storm-skiing powder day

The final weekend of January was the FOURTH straight legitimate powder skiing weekend. What a month and start to 2016!

With a big storm forecasted to be blasting all day on Saturday (Jan 30) we opted to ride the lifts at Solitude Mountain Resort and take advantage of the free refills. We skied first chair to last chair and had a really fun day. We got in a TON of powder skiing. Solitude is a great place to ski on a storm day.

On Sunday (Jan 31st) we headed back to Mill D for backcountry skiing in the short swing area. We found solitude in the trees - it was quiet, calm, and peaceful... and the skiing was great, again! 

I love a good lift-served powder day, but nothing tops floating through completely untouched snow after earning every turn... and then putting the skins back on and doing it again, and again, and again...

Jan 30th - Solitude Mountain Resort





Jan 31st - Mill D, Big Cottonwood Canyon





January 24, 2016

Aspen(s) Extreme

Skiing aspen trees in Big Cottonwood Canyon (Short Swing) on January 24th

The avalanche danger was elevated today (Sunday, Jan 24th) so we decided to stick to lower angle tree skiing in middle BCC (Mill D, Short Swing). This area is AWESOME on a powder day when skiing on steeper terrain is a no-go. The aspen trees are perfectly spaced and a lot of fun. We didn't take many photos because the skiing was so damn good! Light, bottomless powder in a safe zone. It doesn't get much better than this!







Andrea is crushing it this winter. On Saturday she ran her longest run since summer 2012, and then followed it up on Sunday with her biggest climbing day of backcountry skiing since sometime in spring 2011. Those dates are not in error!


We used an "off" day (from skiing) on Saturday to do a long run and do some honeymoon adventure planning. 

January 17, 2016

Another Weekend in Powtown!


We thought last weekend was great (and it was), but MLK weekend took us to another level of Wasatch POWTOWN. Our mountains picked up around 2.5 feet of snow over the latter part of the week and over the weekend, which created sensational backcountry skiing conditions. With avalanche danger slightly elevated, we stuck to sensible terrain in Silver Fork both days this weekend and ended up having some of our best days in years. Saturday was overcast but the snow was light, and then the clouds parted on Sunday (after an overnight refresher storm).

Needless to say, our stoke level is through the roof right now!

Here's the snow report summary of the past two weeks that I screen-grabbed this morning, followed by photos from the weekend...


Saturday January 16th






Sunday January 17th














January 10, 2016

Grizzly Gulch, GO!

Those trees!!!

BACKCOUNTRY POWDER SKIING IS THE BEST!!!

After our trip to Sun Valley we spent the week in the usual fashion: working, running, and skinning uphill evening laps at Brighton with hopes of some weekend powder skiing. It didn't snow a ton during the week, but enough accumulated over the course of the week to create prime backcountry conditions. The snow was light, the views (the trees!) were beautiful, and it felt good to be floating through pow turns all weekend on the fat planks instead of carving hardpack on rando racing skis. "Greatest Snow on Earth" was not an overstatement this weekend.

Photos...

Saturday Jan 9th - Lapping the northern section of Grizzly Gulch...











Sunday Jan 10th - Started from Grizzly Gulch again, then skied 4 laps in Silver Fork's East Bowl before heading back out via the south-facing slopes in Grizzly...