Ski Bum Poet

Just another killer MP3 in the AltaCam Podcast series for the 2007-08 ski season. AltaCam is releasing these interviews every two weeks all season, and then the out takes during the summer months o 2008! JB is fine tuning his interview skills with each new release. From old time legends to the most popular skiers in the industry right now, Johnny knows how to get the info you want to hear/read!

From the digg submission: “Another AltaCam exclusive MP3 interview and transcript. This time Johnny B interviews Sage at his home at the base of Little Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch mountains of Utah. Read about Sage’s journey from Alta, Wyoming to the Alta Peruvian Lodge dish pit in Alta, Utah to international ski fame!”

Here’s a quote from the directly from the interview transcript itself:

Sage: Well I grew up at Targhee. I was on the ski team right away. I went to school and our school had a program that brought us skiing once a week. And so that was the original.

When I first started going out on skis, my mom took me out and the school is taking me out. And then I was on the ski team by 5th grade or so. And so the coach at the ski team really taught me the fundamentals of skiing. But Targhee wasn’t a really good race hill because we get so much pow similar to Alta, Utah and Alta, Wyoming. It’s same thing. Gets dumped on a lot.

After a while, after learning the fundamentals of skiing, it was really fun to get racing. It was like am I really going to slip this four inches of powder off the soft groomer so that I can race gaits or am I going to go ski around. My favorite memory is just once I started. I had that knowledge of ski fundamentals. And then it was just cruising around, skiing powder, jumping off stuff. And there was lots of good stuff to jump off at Targhee.

Read/listen to the full MP3 interview or digg this story. There is also a thread started on this interview in the Alta Ski Forum: Sage Cattabriga-Alosa Interview & Podcast.

I posted Episode 1 of Ellie’s first road trip, but as can be expected I am a little frazzled what with the drive across country, two dogs, a baby and one ice storm so I’m a bit behind on the trip reports! I do plan to catch up, though. Lots to report, but so far so good. Danette has picked up on the trip on Peas & Love…so in the meantime have a read there: Dodging Storms

So for now, over and out from a La Quinta in Indiana (at least we’re officially out of “Ill-annoying”!)

The 3rd in many this winter, this AltaCam exclusive is one you should definitely check out. Talk about some inspirational stories and classic times! Johnny B does a great job talkin’ life and powder skiing in Little Cottonwood Canyon with Alan Engen. Can you imagine charging untracked powder all day in the 50s and 60s when you were 16 years old? If that’s not enough to imagine, now think about following around Alf, Sverre and Corey Engen all day. Like I said, a classic interview that will go down in the legends of archived Alta Skiing web content.

Here’s a snippet from the interview transcript…

Alan Engen: You can see when the three of them would go out and ski powder, Sverre and Alf were always…they were skiing fools in the powder. Corey was struggling a little bit until it got all hard-packed and then Corey was just phenomenal in what he could do too. He was an Olympian and everything else.

Read/listen to the full MP3 interview or digg this story. There is also a thread started on this interview in the Alta Ski Forum: Alan Engen Interview & Podcast

A timeless photos from the Alan Engen Ski History Collection (Photo of Alf & Alan Engen making a double jump in front of the Alta Lodge. Photo circa January, 1949. Alan was 8 years old at the time)

Well it’s on. Our cross country road trip has begun, and the plan is to stay with the Marcoccia’s in Erin, NY for the month of December. It’s been several years since I was home for the holidays. The year before Danette and I were married we went to NY for Christmas, and we haven’t been back since. I am looking forward to relaxing at home for a month, rather than trying to squeeze in everything in one week’s time. We’ve got the Yoda (Toyota Tacoma) loaded, complete with dogs and holiday goodies.

Our first day was a push on the highway, that’s for sure. We drove from Heber City, UT to North Platte, NE. I set my trip odometer on Main Street in Heber and when we pulled into the La Quinta (exit 179 I-80) in North Platte the mileage had just turned on 630. Ellie did excellent, up until Cheyenne, WY…where we took a break for a while at Sierra Trading Post. Then all hell broke loose, so to speak She was over it. She screamed bloody murder for the last couple of hours. Poor kid. Once in the hotel she settled into a good meal, and good night sleep.

Now for the fun stuff to report. Well, not so fun actually but an adventure none-the-less: We’re stuck here at the La Quinta in North Platte! An ice storm hit us early this morning and as I type, there is about 1/4 inch of ice coating the truck and the parking lot. It’s not worth the risk to leave so our plan is to hold out until mid-day to see if the weather breaks at all.

I did walk over to the convenient store across from the hotel and the clerk said that he had just come off the Interstate, and that it wasn’t good. He mentioned about 3 miles east of us a cow trailer was on it’s side, and they were in the process of wranglin’ up a dozen head of cattle on the freeway. There were also semi’s jack knifed and cars off the road. So it goes without saying that we’ll ride out the storm here. Hey, at least we’re not stuck in some snow cave waiting out a storm…although that might be better than an Interstate La Quinta Inn.

It did report on the news that it’s suppose to warm up as the storm progresses so we’re hoping for the best. I certainly don’t want to stay here another night. I’ll chime in soon again, at our next stop…