Archive for the 'Announcements' Category

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Dawn Patrol Road Closures

Published on December 7, 2010 in Announcements. 5 Comments Tags: .

If you Dawn Patrol in the Wasatch, you need to sign up for LCC & BCC road closure text messaging information at:

http://updsl.org/services/canyonalerts

This is the best way to notified about when, where and how long LCC and BCC will be closed in the morning, even if you have already left the trail-head.

Over the past few years the expanding popularity of Dawn Patrolling in the Wasatch has grown into a point of contention and conflict between skiers and UDOT, especially in upper Little Cottonwood Canyon.   Alta at 5:00 am on a dark snowy morning is a  surreal mix of flashing lights, heavy equipment, delivery trucks, airport vans, resort security vehicles and eventually booming artillery. The avalanche gun crews may anticipate shooting the night before or early that morning, but they don’t actually know or start firing until first light and the last thing they want to see in their spotting scopes is a skin track and four headlamps on the slope they want to shoot.  The gun crews have no way of contacting a group thousands of feet up a slope and if they can’t shoot the paths that threaten the road, they can’t open the road, and if the road can’t open customers can’t get to the resorts. A seemingly harmless backcountry tour can shut down Alta, Snowbird and all of the LCC businesses for hours. Aside from the economic impact there is also the fundamental safety concern of mixing human beings, 105 howitzers and large avalanches.  Liam Fitzgerald, Mr. LCC UDOT, said that it has reached a point where if it doesn’t stop, “something is going to have to be done about it.”

If they are plowing, you should probably go elsewhere.

The first step to avoiding conflict is not skin up loaded avalanche slopes in the dark to begin with, regardless of how much fun it might be.  A second option would be to avoid places that get shot, like all of the south facing lines on Highway 210 (Tanners, Maybird, White Pine, Little Pine, Superior, Flagstaff, Emma Ridges, etc.) as well as the Alta perimeter in general.  I’ve never had a problem with DP’ing on Pink Pine out of the White Pine trailhead, but Snowbird or some  lame-ass heliskiing company might be bombing Scotties and take issue with that.  Coalpit #4 and The Y Couloir don’t see much bombing, but you probably shouldn’t be skiing those in conditions that warrant gun control anyway.  Big Cottonwood is a much safer bet although the same issues apply on lines like Argenta and Circle Awl/All.  Parking is almost as big a concern in BCC and the plow crews and UDOT will leave you a nasty note, or worse, if your vehicle keeps the plows from clearing the lots and pull-outs.

Dawn Patrolling in a storm - how to lose friends and alienate people in upper Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Mill D (Tom’s Hill, Powder Park, etc) and USA Bowl in Big Cottonwood, all of  Mill Creek and Mt. Aire in Parley’s are conflict free 99% of the time.

Road closure info can also be found on the Utah Avalanche Center website which can be Twittered to your phoneor subscribed to via RSS feed.  You can even go old school and call for a specific road closure message at 888-999-4019 option 8 to hear the soothing sounds of a human voice telling you the road is closed.

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Golden & Denver Slideshows

Published on October 12, 2010 in Announcements. 2 Comments

I will be in Colorado (a small, rectangular state to the east of Utah) over the next two days to present “The Alaska Family” slideshow.  If you happen to live in the area, I hope you can make it!

Wednesday, Oct 13 at Bent Gate Mountaineering in Golden Colorado
(303) 271-9382
The show starts at 8:00pm and there is a suggested $5.00 donation to the Access Fund at the door.

Thursday, Oct 14 at the Wilderness Exchange in Denver
(303) 964-0708
The show starts at 8:00pm and there will be prizes, a raffle and snacks

A Meeting of Mad Men – Aug 27th

Published on August 25, 2010 in Announcements. 4 Comments

Oh man have I been a bad little blogger..!  Nothing new for weeks, well OK, months.  We have been putting an addition on our house which was suppose to be quick and easy, but of course it spawned a whole slew of other upgrades that have consumed most of my summer.  Hopefully the end is in sight.

Before ever skiing in Valdez/Chugach I had heard so much glowing praise about it that I figured there was no way that it could possibly live up to all the hype.  This all changed the first time I actually skied there and I had to eat my all my sarcastic thoughts.  Valdez is one of those areas where all the components come together perfectly to create excellent backcountry skiing – the access, mountains, snowpack and logistics are all ideal.

This fact was lost on me, but not on 5-6 heliskiing operators, various snowmobile events and a few Valdez locals, including Matt Kinney.  Matt is putting on a presentation this Friday titled “Backcountry Skiing in Valdez – An Environmental Perspective” which should be interesting, and in the very least, it is being held in a cool outdoor location, the Storm Mountain Amphitheater in Big Cottonwood Canyon. As a long time Valdez local, Matt has seen an incredible amount of motorized development in the last two decades.

Matt has kindly donated the proceeds of this show to our own local snow wizard, Bob Athey, who injured his shoulder in an avalanche accident last season.

The show is Friday, August 27th from 7-9pm with an encouraged donation at the gate.

Backcountry Wedding

Published on June 23, 2010 in Announcements. 3 Comments Tags: .

I’ve never gotten bored with skiing as it seems like some new twist on the theme always shows up and keeps my interest alive (that plus it is just fun).  But, I don’t think I ever would have anticipated our trip to Iceberg Lake in the Wrangell-St.Elias Mountains to turn out quite the way it did.

We were out for a Claus “family day” of skiing, which involves loading ten or so people into a million-dollar bush plane and flying around until we found the tastiest looking place to ski, then setting down and doing a few laps.  In this case, we ended up at Iceberg Lake, the name of which later became apparent. Continue reading ‘Backcountry Wedding’

Wrangell-Saint Elias Steep Camp

Published on March 15, 2010 in Announcements. 18 Comments Tags: .

UPDATE!  Due to the short notice on this trip, the price has been reduced to $6,750.  The dates are April 19-25th.

This sounds too good to be true – a week long steep skiing camp in the greatest mountains on earth, the Wrangell-Saint Elias range.  This is being put together by Eli Potter of Alaska Wild Alpine and will be based out of the Ultima Thule Lodge where we will be flying with Paul Claus in his Turbine Otter. In conjunction with Eli and the Ultima Thule crew, I’ll be guiding for the entire outing and space is limited to a small group. Continue reading ‘Wrangell-Saint Elias Steep Camp’

The Big LePowSki ~ Feb 25-27, Brighton

Published on February 12, 2010 in Announcements. 2 Comments

Mai oui, The Big LePowSki is rolling into Salt Lake City Feb 25-27 to set up pins and knock’em down until they go click at Brighton.  This is the second annual gathering of TBLP, and last year was a blast.  The format is pretty simple – ski/ride & party, but not necessarily in that order.  Starting on Thursday night with a Backcountry Film Festival, it then rolls on to a Friday night pre-registration at the BD retail store where you can mingle with the athletes/instructors.  Noah Howell will be signing left buttock cheeks, Forrest Shearer gets the right and Julian Carr will be sticking back layouts off of the BD clocktower onto a flat cement landing.

The actual skiing action takes place on Saturday from 9am – 4pm at Brighton and features morning and afternoon clinics on just about anything to do with skiing, riding and the backcountry.  I’ll be teaching clinics on steep skiing and backcountry terrain assessment, but if I wasn’t, I’d love to take a clinic on filming or park riding. The cost is $75 which includes a lift ticket, the clinics, lunch and a ticket to the Shoot Out Party that night at Club Elevate. Continue reading ‘The Big LePowSki ~ Feb 25-27, Brighton’

Scott Markewitz Photo Workshop

Published on January 29, 2010 in Announcements and Events. 2 Comments Tags: .

I recently attended a seminar at the Winter OR Show entitled “Print is Dead” which had a panel of outdoor writers and e-commerce people, including Steve Casimiro.  Steve has been one of my favorite skiing writers since his days at Powder, and the upshot of the seminar was that print isn’t really dying so much as becoming one of many other means of publishing.  People kept referring to Steve’s website, The Adventure Life, so I checked it out and discovered (among other things) that Scott Markewitz was giving a photo workshop at Snowbird.

I’ve known Scott since I moved back to Utah about 18 years ago, and knew of him before that through his photography.  As far as I know, Scott was the guy who invented the genre of skiing photography where you see a tight frame of a skier completely engulfed in a sea of raging powder, with perfectly lit up details and the person is calming looking through his/her goggles directly into the camera.  Photos like these are the embodiment of speed, action, details, nature and humanity all rolled into one, which is probably why Scott has had several hundred magazine cover shots.  And skiing is just one of many things that he shoots.  There’s a photo on his website of girls throwing snowballs at each other, that makes it look like such fun that I want to give it a try.

My personal photography style is best described as “Point & Chute” where I carry a small Point & Shoot camera set to full auto with the burst mode on, pull it out when things look interesting, fire off a bunch of shots and hope for the best.  This usually yields about a 1 in 1,000 ratio of good to crap, and from working with professional photographers, there’s no doubt that carefully setting up the shot is 90% of the game.  In that regard, I’m very psyched that Scott is teaching a clinic and willing to share some of his techniques.

The clinic is Feb 4-7 at Snowbird and for $1,250 includes food, lodging, ski tickets and the workshop, although there is also a locals deal available if you just want the workshop.  Contact Scott at scott@scottmarkewitz.com or book through Snowbird at 1.800.453.3000.  It should be fun.

OR Show through Sunday

Published on January 20, 2010 in Announcements. 1 Comment

The Outdoor Retailer Show is in Salt Lake City and the Sundance Film Festival is getting underway in Park City, so Utah is hopping at the moment.  A bit more snow would make it even better.

I’ll add some updates from the OR Show over the next day or so.

“Up There” Ski Film Fest – Bozeman, MT

Published on January 13, 2010 in Announcements. 0 Comments

The “Up There” Ski Film Fest is taking place on Jan 14-15 in Bozeman, MT.  It is being presented by the Yellowstone Club Community Foundation and benefits my all time favorite ski mountaineering organization, The Hans Sarri Memorial Fund (<– which happens to have a new website, check it out).  Not only are they showing two cool films, “Swift. Silent. Deep.” and “Skiing Everest,” but they are raffling off some killer prizes, like three days/two nights at Aspen, three days/two nights at Jackson, a men’s AT package, women’s AT package and a day with Scot Schmidt.  I suspect you can order raffle tickets through Drew Seessel (406.556.1275) and arrange something if you can’t be present at the actual event, but still win. Continue reading ‘“Up There” Ski Film Fest – Bozeman, MT’

Sun Valley Slideshow – Marley in the Mountains

Published on December 7, 2009 in Announcements. 2 Comments

I’ll be giving a slideshow on skiing Alaskan’s First Family (Denali, Hunter and Sultana) as part of the Marley in the Mountains kick off party on December 12th starting at about 8:00pm.  It is a fund raiser for the Sawtooth National Avalanche Center and with your $10 entry fee, you get FREE BEER!  I love going up to Sun Valley and it sounds like they are at least skiing at the resort  (come on snow…. come on).  I hope to see you there. Continue reading ‘Sun Valley Slideshow – Marley in the Mountains’