Archive for April, 2009
Friends of Flagstaff Letter Writing Suggestions
From the Friends of Flagstaff organization (www.friendsofflagstaff.com) Please take a moment to write Mayor Pollard (tjp@townofalta.com) expressing your opposition to construction of this lift. A simple statement stating you are opposed to this lift is fine, but more detail would be very helpful. Listed below are some useful talking points. 1. Skier compaction […]
Good Snow Hunting – Elevation
To go high, low or somewhere in between? That is the elevation question. Many of the backcountry huts I’ve been to are located right at tree line, which is ideal for keeping your elevation options open. If conditions are good, you can go up. If not, you have the option of skiing down in the […]
Good Snow Hunting – Angle
After forming a thesis on what kind of snow should be best for the given day and then deciding which aspect might have it, the next consideration is what slope angle to look for. Choosing the right slope angle is often a trade-off between optimum snow quality and safety. Steep, north facing slopes might have […]
Good Snow Hunting – Aspect
Before I started backcountry skiing, I would have been hard pressed to correctly identify which direction on the compass the sun came up on. There are four main options – north, south, east and west, so I probably would have gotten it eventually, but with backcountry skiing and good snow hunting, knowing your aspects (which direction […]
Good Snow Hunting – Part II Conditions Du Jour
Part of the reason I don’t care very much about a ski’s crud-busting characteristics is that I seldom ski crud. This could be because I live in Utah, the fluff-bunny capital of the snow world, but we have plenty of crud here as well if you really want it. Most people don’t. The hunt for […]
Good Snow Hunting – Part I
The best bit of backcountry skiing insight I’ve ever gotten came from a friend who I don’t think has backcountry skied a day in his life. Chris “GroFo” Grover is the Grand PoohBah of Sales at Black Diamond Equipment and has been quitting smoking for the last 15 years, which makes him wonderfully terse. The topic came about as […]
On-line Flagstaff Lift Presentation – How it Would Negatively Impact the Wasatch Backcountry
The photo gallery below is an on-line version of my presentation on how the Flagstaff lift would negatively impact the Wasatch backcountry. To see the photo captions, click on the photo, then click through the “Next” buttons. The maps are approximate and drawn from my memory. ___________________ Help support StraightChuter.com and get the best of […]
Friends of Flagstaff Meeting Update
From a Wasatch backcountry skier’s perspective, putting a chairlift up Flagstaff Mountain would be the equivalent of having an Exxon Valdez oil spill there once a year. It would be devastating beyond words and turn the Days/Silver/Mill D zone into extended slackcountry which would be completely undesirable from a touring point of view. Currently, it is […]
The Little Ship That Couldn’t
Although I barely know Marla, I wanted to make her something special for her birthday party, and what backcountry skier wouldn’t be thrilled to have his or her own A-Star helicopter?! Marla’s party happens to coincide with the annual Heli Free Wasatch party, which celebrates the end of the Wasatch Powderbird’s season of destruction in the […]
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