Park City Skids » ski utah

Soul Poles: Locally-made Bamboo Ski Poles

admin — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:34:06 +0000

I recently met up with Bryon Friedman and Erik Schlopy, two Park City locals, ex-U.S. Ski Team members, and entrepreneurs. They have set up a little operation here in town with big ambitions to change the ski industry, one pole plant at a time. Here’s an excerpt from a story on the Ski Utah blog:

Have you ever had an idea for something that hit you at the strangest of times, only to persist until you have pursued it many years later? For ex-US Ski Team alpine racers Erik Schlopy and Bryon Friedman, Soul Poles is an idea whose time has come but has been many years in the making to get off the ground. For Schlopy, he had an epiphany while driving through Europe. He was on the homeward bound road, extracting himself from an illustrious World Cup and Olympic ski racing career that he literally retired from while mid-turn in a race in 2009. Perhaps it was thoughts about what comes next in life that filled his head, but for whatever reason, he asked himself “why isn’t anyone making bamboo ski poles?” Good question. Read the full article on the Ski Utah blog site.

Soul Poles are Bamboo ski poles made in Park City, Utah.

You can get Soul Poles at backcountry.com. Here’s the gratuitous affiliate banner:

Nordic Skids, Park City Style

admin — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 20:41:24 +0000

The nordic ski scene in the Park City area is blowing up, in a good way. Although part of me wishes Round Valley stayed a secret, it’s great to have the trail access and grooming in multiple places, not just the golf course and the Farm. Round Valley, Willow Creek, there are new trails popping up all over the place thanks to great early season snowpack, and the tireless efforts of Basin Recreation folks, Mountain Trails folks, and of course, Isaac and his gang at White Pine Touring. The Utah ski industry is starting to pay nordic a little more attention too. Here is a short video from a recent Ski Utah member ski day, which included track passes, demo equipment and lessons from White Pine staff.

Ski Utah Gold Pass

admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:00:43 +0000

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.

Deer Valley Lodging R.I.P.

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:45:05 +0000

There will be a major press release issued today in the newsmedia that Deer Valley Lodging is laying off its entire workforce save for a skeleton crew required to keep the lights on at certain select properties like the Lodges at Deer Valley. Looks like Deer Valley Resort will be getting into the property management business, which is a good thing for the town of Park City, in the long run. Curious to know what people think of this? There are some great people there who hopefully can hang on through the tough times, but there are also some pirates who should be made to walk the plank, in my humble opinion.

Backcountry Interconnect Tour

Ski Bum — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 04:12:56 +0000

Who would believe the amount of snow we have had here in April in Utah? Unbelievable. On Sunday, April 5th, a group of Skids and non-Skids, hard telling who was who, went on an all-day powder seeking adventure into the Utah backcountry. We didn’t have to look very hard, there was fresh snow everywhere. The problem would be avoiding south and southwest facing aspects. As the sun warmed all the fresh snow from a week’s worth of winter storms, these faces were forecasted to be trouble, with the Utah Avalanche Center forecast calling for Moderate to Considerable danger levels. Armed with Ski Utah Gold Passes (valid at all 13 Utah ski resorts), equipped with all the safety equipment including beacons, probes, and shovels, we departed Park City via the Town Lift. Staying safe and choosing north and northeast facing routes, we used lift power and leg power to get us from PCMR to Solitude to Alta to Snowbird, back to Alta, to Brighton, and back to PCMR. At the end of a long day, we squeezed out some last few long lazy turns to end up back at The Bridge for a few cold ones, after everyone was off the mountain except for a few groomers laying down the next day’s corduroy. If you ever want to experience a tour like this, check out Ski Utah’s Interconnect Tour.

Utah's Wasatch Backcountry

Tight lines near Wolverine Cirque

Dropping into Brighton Resort.