So I was invited to go skiing today and I said no thanks.  What was I thinking?  This is usually the time of year when I get a lot of skiing in, but I lost my motivation somehow.  That could all change tomorrow if the snow report looks good.  It rained down in Salt Lake, but the foothills got an inch or two.  Maybe its decent up at Snowbird, which is pretty much the only resort still open.  Its kind of a bummer because there is a lot of snow left.

I stopped by the new shop (which is still empty for now) this morning to try to get some ideas about layout.  The place is huge and I think it will be a lot busier than we are imagining.   It is a great location and the space is just cool.  As The Flight of the Concords would sing, “Conditions are perfect.”  Hopefully all of you that read this blog (besides Rich and Chris) can visit the new shop in about a month when it is up and running.

We are currently looking for someone to handle our video/photo editing to be uploaded to our website, so if you know someone, point them our way.

Oh yeah, go Jazz.  Rich and Chris get all excited because our local team made the playoffs again.  It is about time they won the whole thing, but Rich seems to think the Lakers are the top pick.  We’ll see.  As for me, I guess I am rooting for the Jazz, because they are local and seem to be the underdogs pretty frequently.

That is all for today.

Driving up to Powder Mountain, I thought it was strange that snow was falling. I brushed it off as just a random flurry or lake effect snow somehow reaching up to Huntsville. It wasn’t sticking to the road and it was pretty light, so I wasn’t getting my hopes up. As we drove on, the snow started to come down heavier and was sticking to the access road to the condo we had reserved. “Big deal,” I thought. An inch or two might actually worsen the skiing conditions, so I wasn’t too excited yet. As the night wore on, I realized this wasn’t going to be a spring, junk snow day. We woke up to 10″ of powder that had covered all the ice crust and crud below. Now I was excited.
Rich and I got a late start and expected to see hundreds of people ripping up the fresh snow before we could get to it. Well, we showed up to Paradise lift at 9:30 and started to notice that we were the only ones around, besides the lift operators. Oh, yeah, and the sun was out. We decided to take our first run down the nose and it was, well… untracked. On the next lift ride up, we saw another skier make some turns near ours, so we decided it was getting a little too tracked up for us. We dropped in to the skiers left at the first lift pole and got a hundred foot wide section to ourselves which was… untracked. We made our mark and went on. The rest of the day followed the same pattern, making a track each and moving on to the next area of untracked snow. It was beautiful.

By the end of the day the clouds started to move in and it started to snow again. The wind picked up and it blew and stormed all night. The snow report claimed only 3″, but with the wind, all of our tracks filled in. The mountain was untracked again! But it was pretty crowded on friday. There was at least one skier or snowboarder every 15 chairs, so I was a little disappointed. My secret stashes and favorite lines were untouched, so I had a blast skiing for a couple hours while Rich was babysitting.
So every time someone raves about heli skiing, I will just remember skiing at Powder Mountain and think, “I can get a season pass for the same price of one day of heli skiing!” I’ll take Powder Mountain, thank you.

Now I am down in Salt Lake where the temperature is 60 degrees and everyone is riding bikes and walking their dogs. It is hard to believe I had one of the best powder days of the season just hours ago.

Rumor has it that a bunch of resorts are scheduled to open here in Utah.  Even with the storm over the weekend, snow depths are pretty slim.  It looks like we will be skiing on a strip of snow next to patches of brown for a while.  I guess it is better than nothing, as long as this season turns out to be better than last season. 

All of the wives’ tales and farmers almanacs suggest this season will be awesome in Utah, but who knows if these things are actually true.  There is a rumored turtle that if he eats a lot of lettuce in the fall, the owner knows to order a lot of salt for salting the local roads.  If the turtle doesn’t eat much, it means less salt will be needed and it will be a lighter winter.  So hopefully the turtle is eating a lot right now. 

A bunch of our employees have been skiing already after the first big storm of the season.  I have been patiently working away, waiting for the real snow to fall.  I am pretty excited to rock the Ninthward skis and Look bindings.  They look like a lot of fun to ski and a bunch of my ski buddies are on the same setup this season.  I can’t use my skis as an excuse why I can’t keep up anymore.  Although, I am turning 31 this month, so that should be a good enough excuse.  I’ll ignore that Shane McConkie and Seth Morrison are in their mid to late 30’s as well.

This season we tried a new hiring practice.  We hired two sponsored skiers.  Shidasha Holmstead and Drew Tabke are working at Level Nine Sports!  It was actually just coincidence, but it is working out great.  I am hoping to get free lessons from them on how to charge like a pro.   Shidasha is a jibber and Drew is a big mountain king.  Feel free to come in for autographs at our location in Salt Lake City.