In another two weeks I'll be heading back out to Utah again to make turns and video for the show in the awesome Wasatch.
Believe it or not, you can too.
My favorite clothing company, The North Face, has teamed up with the folks in the Little Cottonwood Canyon and Travelocityto send two lucky shredders to the stash for four days. The contest awards the winner and his or her guest a room at Snowbird's posh Cliff Lodge and spa treatments to go with it. Airfare and four days worth of skiing in the best powder on earth is also included.
The icing on the cake - Cryptic Collection outfits from The North Face for two. And you don't have to wolf down 127 hot dogs either. So how do you win? You simply have to enter and say prayers to the snow God.
But DON'T DELAY! The contest ends January 31. Just visit The North Face's website at
http://contests.thenorthface.com/gotothesnow and while you're there, check out the coolest tech clothing on the planet!
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
The Deep Freeze
Brrrrrrr................
With temperatures expected to hover in the singles this weekend, many of you are probably thinking about staying indoors.
Wussies.
Not me.
The deep freeze makes for awesome snow conditions, if you can keep yourself warm enough to enjoy. In fact, we are getting dusted just about every night with little lake effect clippers that love to hover over Elk Mountain and frost it in white. Not to mention that Elk's snow crew will be taking advantage of these great conditions and making tons of snow. And I expect some nice moguls on Tunkhannock for the weekend with no sketch in the troughs because its been groomed down and covered with fresh again.
The cold temperatures allow snowmakers to produce lighter and higher volume snow. When it's cold, less air is required to make snow, thus more of the good stuff comes out of the guns and lays on the slopes to be buffed out with the groomers.
I skied on Wednesday and found conditions to be excellent. There is absolutely no granulation, the snow surface everywhere is as good as it gets and at 8:30 AM I ripped turns on the softest corduroy you can imagine with my beefy Elan Speed Magic boards.
It was cold. So cold that Bob rode around in the plush new heated groomer with Snow Captain Chris and shot a story about grooming while I shredded.
More of this bitter Arctic freeze is expected. But don't despair. You CAN enjoy the snow and stay warm. Take if from me, I lived in Alaska and skied at below zero temps on a regular basis with no ill effects.
Janie Matthews of Idlewild Ski Shop on the access road to Elk is our show's newest sponsor. She tells us to dress in layers and cover every exposed bit of skin, including your face. Hot Chillys base layers are the first step, the tighter the better to wick out moisture and keep in body heat. On top, I have to recommend North Face's Summit Series technical clothing with sealed seams and windproof fabrics. PrimaLoft insulation in the gloves will keep your fingers safe and add a Hand Warmer to each glove. Trust me, your hands will never freeze.
Finally, Janie's staff is installing my new Hotronics - the latest technology in boot warmers- the heat pad is built into your liner and sits under the footbed, with a battery pack and control on the outside of the boot. You can get these, along with new Dalbello boots and custom footbeds, at Idlewild and also Country Ski and Sports.
I can't wait to try them.
Finally, here are a few additional tips from Bob De Luca at Elk:
1. Avoid frostbite damage. Keep every surface of skin covered and check your partner on every chairlift ride for grey or yellowish patch on the nose, ear, cheek or finger.
2. Drink hot fluids and NO alcohol until you are finished skiing or boarding.
3. Take frequent breaks
4. Use hand and foot warmers
And here's my advice:
Ski hard and tear it up - nothing keeps you warmer than firing muscles to the max!
With temperatures expected to hover in the singles this weekend, many of you are probably thinking about staying indoors.
Wussies.
Not me.
The deep freeze makes for awesome snow conditions, if you can keep yourself warm enough to enjoy. In fact, we are getting dusted just about every night with little lake effect clippers that love to hover over Elk Mountain and frost it in white. Not to mention that Elk's snow crew will be taking advantage of these great conditions and making tons of snow. And I expect some nice moguls on Tunkhannock for the weekend with no sketch in the troughs because its been groomed down and covered with fresh again.
The cold temperatures allow snowmakers to produce lighter and higher volume snow. When it's cold, less air is required to make snow, thus more of the good stuff comes out of the guns and lays on the slopes to be buffed out with the groomers.
I skied on Wednesday and found conditions to be excellent. There is absolutely no granulation, the snow surface everywhere is as good as it gets and at 8:30 AM I ripped turns on the softest corduroy you can imagine with my beefy Elan Speed Magic boards.
It was cold. So cold that Bob rode around in the plush new heated groomer with Snow Captain Chris and shot a story about grooming while I shredded.
More of this bitter Arctic freeze is expected. But don't despair. You CAN enjoy the snow and stay warm. Take if from me, I lived in Alaska and skied at below zero temps on a regular basis with no ill effects.
Janie Matthews of Idlewild Ski Shop on the access road to Elk is our show's newest sponsor. She tells us to dress in layers and cover every exposed bit of skin, including your face. Hot Chillys base layers are the first step, the tighter the better to wick out moisture and keep in body heat. On top, I have to recommend North Face's Summit Series technical clothing with sealed seams and windproof fabrics. PrimaLoft insulation in the gloves will keep your fingers safe and add a Hand Warmer to each glove. Trust me, your hands will never freeze.
Finally, Janie's staff is installing my new Hotronics - the latest technology in boot warmers- the heat pad is built into your liner and sits under the footbed, with a battery pack and control on the outside of the boot. You can get these, along with new Dalbello boots and custom footbeds, at Idlewild and also Country Ski and Sports.
I can't wait to try them.
Finally, here are a few additional tips from Bob De Luca at Elk:
1. Avoid frostbite damage. Keep every surface of skin covered and check your partner on every chairlift ride for grey or yellowish patch on the nose, ear, cheek or finger.
2. Drink hot fluids and NO alcohol until you are finished skiing or boarding.
3. Take frequent breaks
4. Use hand and foot warmers
And here's my advice:
Ski hard and tear it up - nothing keeps you warmer than firing muscles to the max!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
09
Wow.
Right back where we started.
In a 9th floor spa room at the Cliff Lodge and freshies at Snowbird about to be had.
How did we get here again you ask?
Well, last year we were hunting mountain lions. For nine days we scoured drainages and draws, thick evergreen forests, rocky ridges and steep snowcovered hills deep in the White Cloud range of Central Idaho searching for lion tracks. We spent days on horseback, at times leading the animals around cliffs and gnarly terrain. On the 9th day, Ryno's mount Casper lost his footing on a slippery shale slope in crisp snow up to his hocks and fell onto his side, nearly tumbling down the mountainside on a 45 degree pitch. His legs struggled to gain a hold as he rolled, and in the process, he crushed the sights on Ryno's bow as it lay in its saddlebag on the sturdy horse's haunch. The good news is that he righted himself in time to save his life and Ryno, who was leading him, managed to keep his footing on the steep traverse.
It was time to call it a day. The hunt was over for now.
Mike Scott told us in 25 years of hunting this range, he'd never gone this long without finding the track of a big male cougar. Even in the worst of conditions, we should have still found a giant tom for all the time and effort we put in. It was rough. It snowed and snowed, the temperatures were in the single digits and below zero at night and first thing in the morning, and nearby mountain passes were avalanching onto roadways and into ski areas, taking lives.
But we persisted. We saw more wildlife than you could ever believe, rocky mountain sheep, mule deer and elk, and we found the tracks of females and smaller, younger toms that prey upon these creatures. We could have taken one, but Ryno didn't want to just kill any lion. He wanted a trophy cat and nothing else. We also found many wolf tracks and the remnants of their kills in this great big lion territory. It made us wonder if there was a correllation between the lack of lions and the abundance of these canine predators sadly still considered "endangered" in three states. What we learned in all this time was that it's time to argue for delisting the wolves before they increase their numbers and packs any further, on their way to disturbing the delicate ecosystem balance that has existed in these parts for as long as the local ranchers and guides can remember, long before the so called environmentalists got the idea to breed more wolves here.
So we dusted off our Elan powder boards, packed up the truck and headed down the road to my favorite state.
We spent New Year's Eve at the Sidecar in Park City, Utah listening to the greatest ski town on the planet's mayor as he channeled Jerry Garcia and strummed his custom birdseye maple guitar, signed by the famous departed songster himself.
We skied Park City Mountain resort, visited with our friends from the city government and even made turns at Deer Valley with the city's environmental staffers, who tore it up with us.
Now we're at Snowbird and 12 inches have fallen overnight. We're waiting for the tram to open and listening to the bombs going off as control work is completed.
Hope your start to 09 is as good as mine!
Right back where we started.
In a 9th floor spa room at the Cliff Lodge and freshies at Snowbird about to be had.
How did we get here again you ask?
Well, last year we were hunting mountain lions. For nine days we scoured drainages and draws, thick evergreen forests, rocky ridges and steep snowcovered hills deep in the White Cloud range of Central Idaho searching for lion tracks. We spent days on horseback, at times leading the animals around cliffs and gnarly terrain. On the 9th day, Ryno's mount Casper lost his footing on a slippery shale slope in crisp snow up to his hocks and fell onto his side, nearly tumbling down the mountainside on a 45 degree pitch. His legs struggled to gain a hold as he rolled, and in the process, he crushed the sights on Ryno's bow as it lay in its saddlebag on the sturdy horse's haunch. The good news is that he righted himself in time to save his life and Ryno, who was leading him, managed to keep his footing on the steep traverse.
It was time to call it a day. The hunt was over for now.
Mike Scott told us in 25 years of hunting this range, he'd never gone this long without finding the track of a big male cougar. Even in the worst of conditions, we should have still found a giant tom for all the time and effort we put in. It was rough. It snowed and snowed, the temperatures were in the single digits and below zero at night and first thing in the morning, and nearby mountain passes were avalanching onto roadways and into ski areas, taking lives.
But we persisted. We saw more wildlife than you could ever believe, rocky mountain sheep, mule deer and elk, and we found the tracks of females and smaller, younger toms that prey upon these creatures. We could have taken one, but Ryno didn't want to just kill any lion. He wanted a trophy cat and nothing else. We also found many wolf tracks and the remnants of their kills in this great big lion territory. It made us wonder if there was a correllation between the lack of lions and the abundance of these canine predators sadly still considered "endangered" in three states. What we learned in all this time was that it's time to argue for delisting the wolves before they increase their numbers and packs any further, on their way to disturbing the delicate ecosystem balance that has existed in these parts for as long as the local ranchers and guides can remember, long before the so called environmentalists got the idea to breed more wolves here.
So we dusted off our Elan powder boards, packed up the truck and headed down the road to my favorite state.
We spent New Year's Eve at the Sidecar in Park City, Utah listening to the greatest ski town on the planet's mayor as he channeled Jerry Garcia and strummed his custom birdseye maple guitar, signed by the famous departed songster himself.
We skied Park City Mountain resort, visited with our friends from the city government and even made turns at Deer Valley with the city's environmental staffers, who tore it up with us.
Now we're at Snowbird and 12 inches have fallen overnight. We're waiting for the tram to open and listening to the bombs going off as control work is completed.
Hope your start to 09 is as good as mine!
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