Posts Tagged Park City
From Winter To Summer In a Week
Posted by admin in Bike Skids, Mountains on June 7th, 2010
It’s amazing how quick we go from winter to summer here in the mountains of Park City. Memorial Day weekend was unsettled, with some cold rain and chance of snow. This past weekend hit the 80s and felt like summer. Just like that. There is still plenty of snow up high. I rode my road bike to the top of Bald Mountain Pass in the Uintas, and there were still 4 to 5 foot snow walls, but then again, that was at about 10,795 feet. How about you? Did anyone ride the mountain bike trails here in Park City this weekend? How high up did you get?
Snow Is Back To PC
This morning, May 24th, I woke up to snow covered rooftops in the hood, and a good 4 or 5 inches on the car. The drive up and over Parleys Summit was just like a midwinter commute. UDOT trucks were out plowing the road, semis with their flashers on, single file all the way down to Mountain Dell. Rumor has it, last Saturday was a legit powder day at The Bird, and no doubt today would be great, but they are only open on weekends from here on out. Below is a video from an early April powder day at PCMR, not previously shared for some odd reason.
Powder Easter
Nothing like hiding Easter eggs in the snow for the kids. While they are running around looking for eggs, the avalanche bombs are going off all along the Wasatch Back. 14″ of fresh reported by PCMR this morning, but I wasn’t in line when the ropes dropped for Jupiter. Instead, I kicked back with an extra cup of joe, and let the kids have their fun. I finally made it to the hill with the little girl in tow, just a daddy daughter day at PCMR. No fighting for a parking spot on Easter Sunday. We had our fair share of kiddie pow, and managed to burn through Detonator, my daughter’s favorite run, when it’s not icy. Today it was all filled in with fresh snow, and my little ripper had a blast. We made our way down to the bottom as things were starting to warm up and get heavy, and made a stop for ice cream at Yellow Snow, where my daughter had “Peeps” ice cream. That’s right, ice cream with those little technicolor marshmallow birds mixed in. Happy Easter.
Detonator at Park City Mountain Resort
Round Valley Skate Ski
Posted by admin in Nordic Skids on February 19th, 2010
I have been trying to squeeze in a few early morning nordic ski laps in the Round Valley trail system, before heading off to work in the big city. I find that if I time it just right, I usually meet up with the groomer making his rounds. Then I get a magic carpet ride on fresh corduroy. Thanks to Eric L. for dragging my ass out this morning.
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.
Say Yes to Wildlife and No to Stoneridge
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on January 12th, 2010
For the Silver Summit, Trailside, and Old Ranch Road neighbors, this is much more than a case of NIMBY: Not In My Backyard. Development in the Snyderville Basin is inevitable, and we all knew Nadine would sell her land at some point, but allowing a high-density affordable housing project under what is called a CORE B Rezone to go in this open space is a bad idea for all neighbors, including this group of neighbors who won’t get a chance to speak up at tonight’s Public Input session. Check it out:
Round Valley Skate Skiing
Posted by admin in Nordic Skids on January 4th, 2010
On the first Saturday of 2010, I took advantage of sun, snow, and skate skis, to check out some of the Round Valley multi-use trails. I wanted to ski somewhere where I could dial up some good music on the iPod and go off the grid for a little while. Off the grid, right out my back door. Hey people, I’m all for taking your dogs out on the trails, but when they gnaw off big hunks of sagebrush and drop them in the middle of the track, do us all a favor and kick it off to the side. I had to stop a few times to do this for the benefit of other skiers out there. The ticket in Round Valley is to time your ski shortly after the groomer makes his pass, and before the masses of walkers get out there to avoid the lumpy footprints. I haven’t figured out exactly when this magical time is yet. Or you could just ski it on a shitty day when nobody else is out, but that’s no fun. I took a digger on the backside of the loop when I was stepping around a downhill turn and hooked a tip on the soft side of the trail. Went down in a heap. Wanted to blame it on a stick left on the trail, but I couldn’t find one. I also explored a new section that went under the highway, out towards Richardson Flats, and connecting to the Rail Trail. Here are some iPhone stills, after experimenting with some basic iPhoto filters:
Groomed trail out towards Richardson Flats.
Undulating terrain all the way out to Rail Trail.
The view heading back towards Park City.
Playing around with a little color boost in iPhoto.
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.
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.