Archive for category Mountains
Truckstop Slackcountry Ski Tour
Well, the crowds arrived for Dead Presidents’ Week, which made it a perfect time to go for a little slackcountry tour. Slackcountry is like backcountry touring, only the goal is to expend as little energy as possible to get to the goods. This video goes out to Chad and Ed, who must have been driving by this shot on the highway one day, and decided it would be a good place to ski. I had to add some Megadeth to spice it up a little. Shot with a GoPro Hero HD, and edited in less than 20 minutes using iMovie.
Backcountry Sledding. Say What???
Posted by Snow Chicken in Mountains on February 10th, 2010
So early last week the wife and I headed out for some “new school” sledding, or what I commonly refer to as backcountry sledding. So what the heck are these sleds? You’ve maybe heard of them referred to as Swiss Bobs. I think we’ve had our arsenal of sleds for about three years now, and I have to be honest, my wife uses them way more than I do – I’d consider her a veteran Bobber. She and her girlfriends typically go a couple times a month.
A Sled is Really all you Need.
Finding optimal locations for Bobbing is the first challenge, the best spots are gully type trails with a good steady decline to them – these things haul a#@ when pointed downhill, so you don’t want it too steep. The other key element would be that you choose a trial that gets good winter use, and single track is always better than wide open. One of the best locations in the Park City area is the Iron Canyon/Mountain Trail. It fits all the above criteria and can be ridden from the top, what I would believe to be at least a 1.5 mile decent. A killer 1.5 miles I might add. If you’ve not tried it, you must.
Snow Chicken in the House!
Posted by Snow Chicken in Mountains on December 27th, 2009
Ahhh yes, what the hell is a Snow Chicken anyway. So I started this marketing advising company, one-man shop, back in July. I was having trouble coming up with a name, I’m out on a mountain bike ride and get accosted by a strange bird. I go home and research said bird to find it is a Ptarmigan, often called Snow Chickens in Europe. The feisty little thing was about as intimidating as a kitten, but its persistence was truly inspiring. All things come together in this story to create Snow Chicken Stategic Mktg Communications. Anyone knowing me and my affinity for snowsports would know I immediately fell for the slang name of the Ptarmigan, and the tenacity the little bird displayed stayed with me for days. And so…Snow Chicken was born with a desire to create big brand voices (the Ptarmigan’s attitude) for company’s not packing huge budgets (the Ptarmigan’s physical stature).
So why do I fall into the “skid” classification? Paramount, I’ve not paid full retail for a mountain toy since I started living in Jackson Hole back in the day, and back in the day was 1993. Additionally, and I feel most importantly, I’ve always put lifestyle in front of career. I mean really, we are only here for a short time, why spend everyday tied to a chair all in the name of a few more bucks? Get out and play for crying out loud, the work will come.
In the name of getting out to play in the snow, I’ve been switching gears to winter sports the last few weeks. Just hung up the cyclocross bike after a cleaning last weekend and then threw a coat of wax on all the skate skis. So here is a piece of “Skid” advice for all Nordic skiers I’d like to give – ski in Round Valley this year. My wife and I deliberated over buying Whitepine Nordic passes this year for quite some time, and please – I’m not trying to take anything away from the Whitepine Nordic Center, they do a great job. Here are three reasons why Round Valley is a solid choice. First of all…it’s free. Second, you can take your dogs (don’t be a poop, pick up your dogs shit). Last, a new Piston-Bully grooming machine was purchased this year – with a little more snow we should see it out on the trails soon. Did I mention Round Valley is a very peaceful place in the winter?
See you in Round Valley.
The Snow Chicken Is Coming
I am happy to announce we will have some new contributors to parkcityskids.com this winter. Introducing the Snow Chicken, AKA Jay Burke (@jride13 on twitter). I was going to introduce him as someone who totally has a grasp on the Skids lifestyle, and really cares about what is important and essential to the core of living in a mountain town and partaking of the bounty of the mountains, but I thought it would be better to have him do that himself. Plus, I need to somehow con him into writing his first post. So check back for the first post by Snow Chicken.
Skids Job Opportunity In Park City
It kind of defeats the purpose, if you are a true Skid, to be looking for a job when you could be unemployed for the winter. The idea of being unemployed with Season Pass already secured is the stuff dreams are made of, harder to actually pull off because of those nagging obligations like rent, car payment, food, ski passes, putting food on the table. So then a true Skid without a winning lottery ticket or a rich uncle who lives in Palm Springs must look for a suitable job that fits their lifestyle. Here is an opportunity you might want to check out: the Marmot Store on Main Street is looking for a responsible full-time employee. If you know retail, can be nice to people that are not always nice to you (think Sundance folks looks for black down puffy jackets in sizes you are sold out of), and have a passion for a legit outdoor bluechip brand like Marmot, you might want to give Eric a call or email and see if you are the right fit for a job this winter. Best way to contact him is 435-655-3032 or ericl@jans.com.
Locals Links
Here are 2 new sites for you to check out: Yellow Snow Ice Cream, and Park City Crash Pads. These are 2 locally-owned Park City businesses, and we want to give them a shout out.
Yellow Snow is an ice cream and coffee house located in Prospector, next to another locals’ fave, Fuego (right next to the old Prospector liquor-teria, which is no longer open to the public, but serves as a booze dispensary for the town’s restaurants). Yellow Snow is open crazy hours, something like 6 am to 11 pm. Kids love the ice cream, it’s all homemade, and they come up with some original flavors.
Park City Crash Pads is a new take on resort property management, started by an industry veteran who lost his job when one of the other outfits in town sucked all the money from their condo owners last season, and then blamed the misfortune on the economy (even though Utah skier visits were down only 3% from the prior year, what the hell). Crash Pads is not the same old same old. Their angle is to take on properties that are “mature”, a nice way of saying older and not Deer Valley, but still cozy, and reinvent the ski trip experience. Their new website tells the story way better than we can here, so check them out. They are also building up a nice little following on Facebook.
Day 1 Is In The Books
What’s up, Skids? Are you ready for the ski season? I am. I didn’t make it to opening day of the season at PCMR on Saturday, but went up on Sunday. Felt good to be back on snow. I took my 5 year old up for her first turns of the season. We parked down in the lower lot, and the little ticket booth was closed. Damn. Didn’t want to hike all the way up to the Plaza to get a free ticket for the little one, that would have been a bad start. The ticket checker folks solved the problem, as a nice young lady named Steph had some tickets with her (they are free for the little ones, under 6, I believe). She even offered to clip off the bouquet of last year’s tickets that were dangling from my daughter’s jacket. It made her smile, and that’s why we do it, isn’t it? The conditions were what you should expect for a pre-Thanksgiving opening, so no complaints. After a few runs on First Time, my daughter was starting to pick up where she left off from last season. Worth it. What about you? Did you get out there this weekend?
Cold Weather, Check. New Boots, Check. Edge of Never DVD, Check.
Rites of passage from fall to winter. Decide what gear you want. Weasel pro deals. Get snow tires on car before the second storm of the year, because nobody in Utah is ready for the first. Get daughter new ski gear. Make sure sure it is girly, pink, and comes with a sticker kit. Decide where we will have passes this year as a family. Gather friends for an in-home screening of The Edge of Never. Trick or Treat in the snow. It could happen.
If you missed the run of screenings of The Edge of Never here in the Park City area, you can get your hands on the DVD. The Edge of Never folks have an excellent online store where you can purchase the DVD, the book that started it all, even a genuine movie poster that would be suitable for framing (or hanging on the wall over the waxing bench in the garage).
For compliance with a new FCC law that requires bloggers to disclose whether they have received compensation for reviews, etc., etc., blah, blah: I bought my ticket to the screening at The Egyptian Theater, and then I bought a copy of the DVD. I also downloaded some MIchael Franti music from iTunes, after seeing the film. Do I need to disclose that too? Seriously. The DVD and book would make great holiday gifts for the skiers in your life.
Ski Utah Gold Pass
So, let’s say you just won the lottery and you had some money to spend. Forget about that, let’s just say you wanted to take advantage of Utah’s winter bounty, and afford yourself the convenience of skiing where you damn want when you damn want. Ski Utah is once again offering up the Gold Pass for a cool $3,400. Say you plan on skiing 100 days plus this year. Wouldn’t it be great to chase the best snow? Most people struggle with scraping together enough jack just to get a local’s pass at one resort. If you are going to ski a lot, this thing makes sense. Plus, it’s direct-to-lift at the following: PCMR (includes Fast Tracks access), The Canyons, Snowbird, Alta, Solitude, Snowbasin, and Sundance. At the others, you just show it at the window and they give you a ticket. Ski Utah usually sells out of these. They are also transferable, so companies looking to provide ski privileges to employees could buy a couple Gold Passes and let employees sign them out. Get the whole skinny on this fat pass. And if $3,400 is out of your range, there is always the $2,300 Silver Pass, which gets you up to 30 days at all 13 Utah resorts. That’s what I’ll be rolling this season. Only bummer is this one is not transferable.
Edge of Never Film at Redstone Theaters
I had planned to collect my thoughts after seeing the screening of The Edge of Never last night, and write a serious review of the film, for all those who missed a great gathering of the big mountain skiing tribe. A few hundred Parkites gathered at the Egyptian, and highlights of the evening included massive giveaways from Dynastar and Rossignol, and a surprise announcement that everyone who entered the prize raffle was also being entered into a contest for a 7-day trip for 2 to Chamonix. I didn’t haul in any prizes, so I am still holding out hope for that one. But then I received this release today that the Edge of Never will be running at Redstone Theaters, in Kimball Junction. I urge everyone out there who couldn’t make the film tour stop at the Egyptian, to get out to Redstone and see this film. Details of the release below:
Due to the enormous success of its Sept. 24th Park City showing at the Egyptian Theater on Main Street Park City, The Edge of Never has been booked for its theatrical debut at Park City’s Redstone Theater. Screenings are slated to begin on Sept. 25th and run through at least October 1, 2009.
“We are thrilled and deeply grateful for the opportunity that Metropolitan Theaters has presented us by booking us into its Redstone Theater in Park City,” said Edge of Never producer Peter Schweitzer. “The early response to the film on our tour has been incredibly positive and this is the next step. Starting a theatrical run is a great leap forward in our efforts to bring the film to a wide audience.”
The film has been a web sensation, with more than 13,000 YouTube views for its trailer in a month.
A documentary feature film set in the world of big mountain skiing, The Edge of Never is a real-life coming of age saga about the tribe of skiers who challenge the biggest, most dangerous mountains in the world. In 1996 extreme-skiing legend Trevor Petersen was killed in Chamonix, France. Nine years later, skiing icon Glen Plake decides it’s time for Trevor’s 15-year-old son, Kye, to ski the route that killed his father and join the tribe of big-mountain skiers. In this thrilling film, three generations of skiers mentor Kye as he attempts to finish his father’s final run. A ripping adventure tale of a young man coming of age, The Edge of Never is also a rich and subtle portrait of men and women who live big in the face of their greatest fears. Written and directed by William A. Kerig, produced by Peter Schweitzer, based on the book of the same title written by Kerig, The Edge of Never was shot on location in Chamonix, France.
CBS4 Denver Critic Greg Moody said, “This is a powerful story and just a great film. The story is told in a gripping and spellbinding way. It’s a film that calls to skiers for its dramatic moments on one of the world’s most dangerous slopes, but also to families for what it says about the strong and lasting tie between a son and a father he barely knew.”
What Riding Giants was for surfing, what A River Runs Through It was for fly-fishing, The Edge of Never is skiing’s film.
The movie is beautifully shot on film and HD by Peter Pilafian, the Director of Photography who did Riding Giants and Dogtown and Z-Boys.
The Edge of Never features the music of San Francisco reggae artist Michael Franti and Spearhead (his single “Say Hey (I Love You)” is a Top 40 hit).
In the same way that Rocky is not just a film about boxing, and Rudy not just about college football, The Edge of Never has universal appeal. It’s a story of family; of life and death; of searching for what counts in life; of confronting your fears and fulfilling your dreams.
Get out there and see the film!