Posts Tagged park city skids
Bag The Crest Now Or Wait Until Next July
Posted by admin in Bike Skids on September 9th, 2010
So there I was, heading into Labor Day weekend, and I had yet to bag the Wasatch Crest trail for the the 2010 season. A few reasons conspired to keeping me at lower elevations throughout the summer. A resurgent love for the road bike (getting a new Specialized Tarmac SL3 kindled that fire), the long recovery from a sprained ankle, a ho-hum attitude towards my current mountain bike. I got a call from a neighbor who was heading up to bag the Crest the day after the PCP2P race (Park City Point-to-Point), and I thought to myself that I’d rather rub poo in my hair than ride up chewed and spit out single track after hundreds of riders skidded around and left their GU packets all over the trail. But I went. The trails were in great shape, and I don’t think I saw a single discarded GU packet from Spiro to Mid-Mountain. There was a chill in the wind that reminded me summer was close to being done. When we climbed past the Jupiter chairlift on the way to Shadow Lake, I started to think about the coming ski season. The terrain always looks so different up there. Hard to imagine Shadow Lake all filled in with snow, but it’s only a few months away. The climb up Mofo Hill was not as hard as I remembered, but the air was cold at the top and sliced right through my jersey, reminding me that indeed, I did break a sweat on the way up. We scooted past a group of freeriders all padded up like Mad Max post-apocalypse trail bandits, and the single track was as good as it always is. Not sure I’ll get it again this fall, but if you have a chance in the next week or so, you should try. Next July is a long way from now.
Soon Shadow Lake will fill in with snow, but right now it's a peaceful spot to stop for a Cliff Bar.
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.
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.
Happy Mothers Day to Skids Moms
Posted by in Uncategorized on May 11th, 2009
What a great Mothers’ Day in Park City: my wife got out for a morning road bike ride with another neighborhood mom, then family brunch at Windy Ridge, then the neighborhood dads went for a Round Valley mountain bike ride in the afternoon and saw lots of moms out there riding bikes today. Speaking of Windy Ridge: they have $2 Taco Tuesdays with a whole menu of $2 items, including $2 cervezas. We’re going to give it a try and if it passes the test, I’ll post more info on Skid$ Deal$.
Missing Park City Bigtime
I’m out here is Keystone, Colorado attending the MTS conference. Our posse skied Keystone Resort today, producing a very different vibe from what we are used to back home in Utah. We ate lunch in a local coffee shop/sandwich shop/full bar. Killer selection of single-malt whiskeys. This provided me with a sense of mountain culture shock, since you wouldn’t see a bar like that in Utah. The skiing at Keystone was pretty good, and once you got up into the upper reaches of the resort, you felt like you were really in the mountains. I’d say the base depth here is about half of what we currently have in Park City. The resorts here along the I-70 corridor rise up from the freeway like roadside attractions. I had an argument about this with a Utah native. On the one hand, it’s kind of lame when you see a sign for a resort town that says “Vail: next 3 exits.” Exits and onramps don’t really drive home the mountain town feeling. Slopeside lodging here means you are at the base, but you are a stone’s throw from the freeway. Good thing or bad thing? It certainly is impressive when driving by to see lifts and runs right there, whereas in Utah, at least the Cottonwood resorts are tucked away, up long and windy canyons. No eye candy. Meanwhile, back home in PC, it’s dumping lions and wolves, and all of my Skids correspondents are killing me with reports of 9″ here, 10″ there. We’ll ski Breck tomorrow and maybe Copper on Friday, then we’ll be Utah bound.