Gold and I skied Solitude! No new snow. We hung around waiting for the patrol to open Honeycomb for the first time since it snowed five feet. It never opened, but we skied some good runs on Summit Chair. I even jumped my first legit cliff of the year… with my skis on this time!
A year ago, Sam and I hiked Pinecone Ridge at Park City Mountain Resort. We wandered beyond the area boundary to check out some of the bowls that connect PCMR to Canyons and Solitude. We ran into some PCMR ski patrollers skiing laps out of bounds. The patrollers said we were trespassing and suspended our passes for a couple weeks. The whole thing was pretty silly.
The suspension wound up being a blessing in disguise as Sam and I were forced to ski Canyons instead of Park City. A couple days later Liz and I discovered Square Top, Corn Bowl, Cinder Chutes, and the rest of Canyons sidecountry skiing. I have only skied PCMR a handful of times since. I didn’t even consider getting a pass to Park City this season. I am now a pretty big fan of Canyons, inbounds and sidecountry. Thank you PCMR patrollers!
Sam and I got in trouble for taking pictures on the cattrack at the top of Pinecone Ridge. I lost my Park City pass for two weeks. The illegal picture is below:
It started snowing late Monday night and I went to sleep anticipating an awesome pow day at Solitude. The snow stopped unexpectedly in the night so Liz, Sam, and I settled for skiiing Canyons on Tuesday morning. It snowed 4″ overnight which resulted in a lot of dust on crust. We ripped some pretty good groomers though.
Liz and I skied Brighton on Monday Funday! Little Cottonwood was closed until 1:30 or so on Sunday, sending a lot of traffic over to Big Cottonwood. The 27″ of new snow was pretty tracked by Monday morning. We found some good turns in the trees. Brighton is fun.
It snowed 20″ over 24 hours and we skied some powder at Canyons. We stood in line next to Red Pine Lodge waiting for the patrol to drop the rope to Tombstone. Following a pretty intense Chinese Downhill, we skied some great powder runs under Tombstone. We nearly called it a day after a pretty good run on Deshutes, but we stuck it out just long enough for the patrol to open 9990. We lapped skiers left of the lift for the rest of the day. Best powder day of the year so far! Edit coming soon.
Music: E-dubble – “Loosen Up”
Holy cow! What a natural avalanche cycle!! Deep fracture lines litter the landscape out there on a variety of aspects but most predominantly on west through north through east facing slopes. A handful of human triggered avalanches were also reported including a very close call in the Brighton sidecountry where four people were caught in the same slide, all taking the ride and two ending up partly buried. Amazingly, they walked away unscathed except for their messed shorts. (Pic of crown below) Check CURRENT CONDITIONS where there is an amazing amount of avalanche activity detailed since Thursday.
Click to see list of recent avalanche activity
Sam and I skied Canyons in a blizzard for a couple hours. A lot of snow coming down as we skied our first runs of the season on Ninety Nine Ninety. A complete shit show leaving the parking lot and around Park City all night long.
Liz, BDP, and I skied Canyons with about 9″ of snow from the latest storm. We desperately needed something at Canyons, and this latest round of wet snow should be a huge help. We actually found some pretty good snow in the trees under Tombstone. We even joined Powderhound Matt and The Mongoose for a completely legal run on Cloud 9. Good day.
2011-2012 Ski Days: 30
Brighton: 2
Canyons: 19
PCMR: 1
Solitude: 8
(Powder Days: 1)
It finally snowed! Gold and I skied Solitude with 9″ of new snow that settled to half of that by noon. I was a little overzealous about the new snow, jumping, or attempting to jump off every cliff and shrub on Powderhorn. A few close class, but we made it through a pretty full day unscathed.
Skip ahead to 1:50 for my first cliff of the year!
Sarah Burke Dies From Injuries - Powder Magazine
Sarah Burke. Photo:Sarah Burke collection via PowderMag.com
Heartbreaking news today: Canadian freeskier Sarah Burke died this morning at a Salt Lake City hospital, according to a statement from one of Burke’s publicists emailed to Powder.com.
Here’s the statement:
January 19, 2012
Groundbreaking Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke passed away at 9:22 a.m., January 19, 2012, at the University of Utah Hospital from injuries sustained in an accident on the Eagle Superpipe at Park City Mountain Resort on Tuesday, January 10, 2012. She was training for upcoming winter events.As the result of Sarah’s fall, she suffered a ruptured vertebral artery, one of the four major arteries supplying blood to the brain. The rupture of this artery led to a severe intracranial hemorrhage, which caused Sarah to go into cardiac arrest on the scene. Emergency personnel responded and CPR was administered on the scene during which time she remained without a pulse or spontaneous breathing. Studies in the University of Utah Hospital Emergency Department indicated that she retained brainstem function. She was placed on life support and a protocol of therapeutic hypothermia was initiated to protect her brain. An angiogram indicated the site of arterial bleeding, and on Wednesday, January 11 the injured artery was successfully repaired.
After the operation, numerous neurological examinations, electrodiagnostic tests and imaging studies revealed that Sarah sustained severe irreversible damage to her brain due to lack of oxygen and blood after cardiac arrest, resulting in hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. Sarah passed away peacefully surrounded by those she loved. In accordance with Sarah’s wishes, her organs and tissues were donated to save the lives of others.
