Ski gear designed and tested in Park City

Backcountry ski gear designed and tested in Park City & fully carbon offset for manufacturing,
manufacturing waste, and shipping.

Close up of a Moose

This guy was feeding feet away from my house last Sunday and enabled this close-up (click to enlarge):

More Snow on the Wasatch!

Here is a great snow forecast for the Wasatch that could yield up to three feet of snow between later today and Saturday morning, click here and scroll all the way down the page to view the video:

This video covers the Northern and Central Wasatch as well as Park City and the
Uintas. Central Wasatch starts at 2:30 min into the vid and Park City at 4:00 min.
Click the image and scroll down to near the bottom of the page for the video.

It's Winter in the Wasatch

So late November brought epic snowfalls in the Wasatch and ever since its full-on winter over here. Here are some pictures that were taken today (click to enlarge):

These poles are set at 130 cm - 4.3 feet. This picture
is taken at just 8,000 feet elevation.

Loki can barely see over my skin track.

What tracks four laps leave behind.

Later in the day.

This picture is out of sequence, it was taken the same day
in my yard but before touring.

Thanks Giving Snow in the Wasatch

This time of the season most skiers manically watch the weather forecasts in a mix of anticipation and anxiety at what the upcoming season may (or may not) be. Here in the Wasatch, we know that anything can go, from hardly enough snow to properly ski the backcountry to epic winters where pretty much every ski day is a powder day. That's a big range. Hence the mix of anticipation and anxiety...

So, it is quite the relief to see that the NOAA mountain forecast, as it stands right now, at 9,400' in Little Cottonwood Canyon (near to Alta) is really amazing. Here is the data (click to enlarge):

A snow forecast is rarely looking much better than this!

One of my favorite things to do on a good forecast:
Go down the days and add up all the minimums and
maximums expected an add them all up. Here we are
looking at 2 - 4 feet in three days! And we are still
only in November!

Boa at The Canyons

A couple of days ago, from the Murdock side of things, I saw that Boa had a compelling white cover, to see those pictures click here and scroll down to the last two pics. Now, from a distance, snow covers often look a heck of a lot better than up close. So, before I lug my skis all the way up there, I figured I invest in a hike and check it out up close. I hiked up under the lift and walked down Boa. And sure enough, it was a mixed bag. Although some parts were 1.5 feet deep others had very little snow. I decided to wait to ski it till next snowfall which hopefully is no more than a week or two out. Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

Had to take this one from the very bottom at a little past 7.

On Upper Boa: I obviously got beaten to it.

Looking up its clear that in this season aspect is everything.

Looking down towards Lower Boa.

This is where you end up if you ski down Renny's Ridge,
the white stuff at the very top.

Not all that bad but the snow is in pretty bad shape so
another shot of snow is required to make this fun.

Wasatch - Murdock Peak and Surrounding Ski terrain

Today I went to Murdock Peak to check out the snow situation on those slopes as well as North Bowl and surrounding areas. I found a bit more snow than expected. At the bottom of North Bowl and Todd's Bowls, there was about a foot - foot and a half on the north-facing. On the South Facing, on the other hand, mostly on or about zero snow. The "base" we now have on the north-facing is facetted and promises a long presence of the feared Wasatch deep-buried instability for months to come. In any case, here are a few pictures (click to enlarge):

Jupiter's West Face and, to the left, East Face needs a fair amount of
 more snow before being of any sort of use. 

Little Water Peak in Mill Creek is looking like it's on its way.

Cardiac Bowl is pretty well filled in as well as the Cardiac Shutes.

North Bowl holds about a foot - foot and a half in the
shaded areas. Below is the North Bowl ski-out.

Loki in the foreground and Canyons Resort's Upper Boa to the left...

...and Lower Boa.