Skiing the Backcountry in Utah

by Erik Olsen on

So if you’re heading to
Salt Lake or Park City in the near future, perhaps to check out Sundance, you will of course not forget that the state
is home to some of the finest skiiing in the world. Right there, you have Park City, Alta, Snowbird and so on. But that
means you’ll have to buy a ticket and deal with lift lines and all thta rot. Good stuff, but it can be a pain. Or you
can go back couuntry. As you likely know, back country skiiing has become big time popular, with gear sales going
through the roof…at least compared to years ago when rondenee skis were not in the average skiers vocab.

So for
backcountry fanatics, I offer a
couple of links from around the Web on the Utah backcountry scene. This one takes you to Lou Dawson’s backcountry blog, which is richly informative and nicely updated. A piece in Great Outdoors.com
discusses the state’s “Interconnect Adventure Tour” that takes skiers into the heart of the Wasatch
mountain wilderness. The tour covers 20 miles and ski between and through five different Utah resorts including Park
City, Solitude, Brighton, Alta and Snowbird. Along the way, you stop and do a few runs at each ski area and move
on.  Sweet. A great way to pass the day as an alternative to the glitz of Sundance.

Ski Deals with Frontier

by Erik Olsen on

I’ve been dreaming of snow lately. No, not the wet, heavy East Coast
kind that now  forms a freezing rime on my window, but the soft, fluffy stuff that is apparently blanketing the
West with layers of promising joy. Ah yes, it is time to ski. I am as passionate a skier today as I was when I started
on the boards some 20 years ago, when I was a wee lad on the slopes of Mammoth. And although I do not get out as much
as I’d like owing to the fact that I am a devoted runner in the rat race, I still pine for days when I can go out and
spend the day on the slopes.

So I keep an eye out for deals here and there, so that you, dear reader, can get out too. And here I think I found
something you’ll like. Frontier Airlines, the Denver-based mini carrier,
has announced a very cool program to get you on the slopes of Colorado’s best areas.

They have partnered with Copper Mountain and Winter Park and are offering  two-for-one lift tickets and other
special perks to people who travel on the airline. The reqs are this:  if you fly through February 28, 2006 you
can swap your Frontier Airlines boarding pass receipt for two-for-one lift tickets at either Winter Park/Mary Jane or
Copper Mountain resorts. Lift tickets can be redeemed through April 17, 2006. And there’s more:

Another sweet perk includes 5,000 bonus frequent flyer miles on Frontier to skiers who log 15 days or more on their
Rocky Mountain Super Pass.

2006 U.S. National Toboggan Championship

by Adrienne Wilson on

You don’t have to travel
far to encounter winter splendors or the spirit of the Olympic games. Every year Camden, Maine holds the U.S. National Toboggan Championship with this years event
scheduled for February 3-5, 2006. There is still time to register with openings in the 2-person, 3-person, 4-person,
family, and youth racing class. A good tip and advice section is included on the website for rookies competing this
year and include the following: wear old clothes, a helmet, keep your face covered and prepare to make an entire day of
the event. Basic stuff if you ask me. The toboggan chute is
open weekends and holidays from 9:00 AM-4:00 PM and should be fully exercised to prepare for the championships. The
most important thing to remember when speeding down the chute for the nationals or at any time of year is to keep it
fun and safe.

Super Ski Season

by Erik Olsen on

While
there is hardly a flake to be found here on the East Coast, when it comes to good coverage, things are doing very well
in the West. Or so say this piece in the LA
Times that sys certain areas are seeing consistently good snow coverage. In fact, ski conditions across the Western
U.S. are the "most consistent in years", and lots of our favoite places are getting blanketed in wonderful
white freshie. Particularly,  places in the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades and the central and northern Rockies.
Yeah, baby.

Skiing Yellow Snow

by Erik Olsen on

I’ve got two problems with this story.

1. What is it about mankind that
makes us want to do the seemingly impossible…even when the results are absurd? It’s one thing to want to climb
Everest. It is there after all. I understand the need and desire to climb the beast. But making snow in Arizona? What
is going on here?

2. Using wastewater to make said snow. Nuf said.

Now here’s the story.
According to this ABC News piece, the Navajo tribe in Arizona is protesting a recent decision by a US Federal judge
that will allow an Arizona ski resort to make artificial snow using reclaimed wastewater. Why are the Navajos upset?
Because the mountain upon which these ambitious developers want to built their sewage-based ski resort is one that is
sacred to several Native American tribes.

So drop the Native American complaint for a moment, which is
itself a whole different can of worms, and focus for a moment on the matter of using wastewater to make a ski resort in
Arizona. This resort, the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort confessedly does already exist, but apparently they don’t et
3enough of the white stuff to get by. And this solution, that is using wastewater, would seem to be quite creative. You
can almost salute the folks who are coming up with it for being so enterprising. But myself, I would have a problem
skiing on someone’s old sewage…treated or not. maybe that’s just me.