Talk about stepping it up. Just happened to stumble upon one of Sage’s latest clips from the new TGR stuff, and he has once again blown us away. We went searching for some more, and found four total that TGR leaked out already…that I thought to share here. Two of my favorites are embedded below, and then two others are linked up as well. Enjoy!
Paying full sticker is for suckers! Although it used to be more of a challenge for me (no Internet deals to turn to, no friends who were “skilebrities”, etc.), I always made it a priority to find the best buys possible on gear. Not to mention the fact that to pay retail was down right impossible for me. Back in the day I didn’t have time to work much, what with those 100-day ski and mt bike seasons every year.
What I found is that once I moved to Alta and spent a few winters, it wasn’t too hard to figure out how to get the deals on ski gear. It’s really not that hard to do if you’re skiing long and deep seasons, and embedding yourself in that culture full time. I would hit all the swaps, find skis for sale in the lodges, and I even bought my share of hand-me-downs from freeriders…complete with forward mounted Salomon 916s…one pair of which I still use on some trashed, early season rock skis!
For some, including myself, mountain culture and the ski bum lifestyle became a career of choice. I wouldn't have had it any other way in my 20s. But having the freedom and time to ski every day came with sacrifices, in terms of affording the latest and greatest fat skis. I did ok though, that's for sure. Considering I didn't have a ski company giving me a few sets of skis each November 
So at any rate, if you're a hard charging local who doesn't plan to work this winter, just ski, check out the select Used Skis I am featuring from Evogear.com. You can also visit their site to see the complete selection. Plenty of second hand, used or demo skis to browse through. In fact I think it's safe to say that's your best option online for used ski gear.
If you're not familiar with Evogear.com it's time to check them out. Although I've never had the chance to meet any of those folks, this store is a client of our company...and it's run by skiers who get after it daily! Happy gear hunting. You better get on it, looking out the window right now at the Wasatch and I see yet another October layer of snow from last night...
Avalanche Skier POV Helmet Cam Burial & Rescue in Haines, Alaska
Jesse posted a link to this video on the AltaCam skiing forum recently, and I just had a chance to watch. It’s about 8 and a half minutes long. With the avalanche occurring in view at skier’s right around 1 minute 17 seconds in. The remaining 6+ minutes of footage is POV of being buried alive in a slide. Incredibly intense and scary to watch, but it’s important that you watch it…the whole thing. Here is a quote from the story included at Vimeo.
The guy in the video was the first one to drop from their group and while not a guide (he was going tail-gunner style), had a lot of Utah and AK backcountry experience. He had a Black Diamond Avalung on, but as you can tell from the video while he’s talking as he’s dropping in, it wasn’t in his mouth to start. He tried to shove it in the instant of starting to get sucked down, but it didn’t stay. It was just off to the corner of his mouth he said, and he definitely got snow / ice build up as you’ll see on the second sweep of the mouth by the guide after they get to him…
Glad to see this turned out ok in the end, but a good reminder to everyone who enjoys the mountains in the winter…
..contributes to stuffy and sleepless summer nights. In fact just tonight I was laying there restless, thinking about powder skiing. I went to my Facebook acct because no sleepy for me, and on my feed page I saw that Jeff had just posted a new clip on Youtube earlier in the night. It’s below for all to enjoy. Highway 210 Part 1
Yeah, you might want to keep an eye out for part 2…
UPDATE 8/25 – Parts 2 and 3 of Highway 210 now available! Embedded below in order…nice work Jeff and Andy!
Well “better late than never”…I think is how the saying goes. It’s been almost a week since we spent a great day in the sun at Alta with good friends celebrating yet another 675 dang deep inches of powder plus (and counting, as I type right now!). I did not spend any time this year at the top of highboy, but check out this photo we got with our camera. This shot was from the back of the GMD lot. I mean the back, right next to the boot pack up to the Peruvian Lodge. The zoom is not too shabby…
I wonder what the count is up there these days. At least a few hundred on High Rustler proper. I also saw gatherings at Punk Rock, at the Church and of course on Eddies. I did make a highboy pass on my last run. There wasn’t a snowball that came close. Bunch of hollerin’ drunks up on that rock
I felt like a million bucks on my skis. Seems to be that way every closing day no matter how buzzed I get. Simply tapping into the energy of the day turns me into a super hero. I was goin’ backwards, doin’ spinny flips…all that. Haha. But seriously, it did feel good slushing around on fat skis.
The parking lot scene was a blast BTW. We set up at the back of the lot with Tom and Julie (Keller). The band Lake Effect actually set-up right next to us. It was real nice. Check out the vid clip below of a random Alta kid sending it off the snow mound piled up on the east side of the P-dawg lot (it’s a quick 5 second clip)..he gets worked a bit here but they sessioned that thing all afternoon and into the evening. And those kids were going huge and sticking huge mock ski tricks 
I can bet they’ll be dreamin’ about the pow all summer..
And of course I have to include the show man of the party. Check out this dude. Gotta love the last day at Alta. See ya’ll on the hill next season, and stay tuned to my rants this summer!
The “dump” truck that hangs out at the base of Collins lift has been out a lot this past couple of weeks. Check out the latest snow report at Alta.com:
Current Conditions as of: Wed April 1st, 2009 at 04:30:00 PM
Settled Snow Depth: 162″
Snowfall (Past 12 hrs): 12″
Snowfall (Past 24 hrs): 19″
Snowfall this Season: 565″
Most of you reading this probably already know that Shane McConkey passed away on March 26, 2009. I never had the opportunity to meet him, but Danette met his parents once through Jim & Elfrieda Shane (We both heard that he was named after the Shane family and former owners of Goldminer’s Daughter in Alta. Can anyone confirm that?).
At any rate, our deepest condolences to his wife, 3-year old, other family and all his friends. From what I know he made an incredibly positive impact on countless people (not just skiers). Here are a couple of tribute vids on YouTube…and there is also a tribute web site: ShaneMcConkey.org – R.I.P.
UPDATE: I saw on Facebook a great tribute page from Powder Mag. They listed some more links at the bottom including Matchstick’s official statement on the accident.
I noticed on Alta’s pics of the day today they were featuring Grant Howard, son of Alta patroller Sam Howard. The caption to the photo (which is below, BTW) reads “Alta local Grant Howard 2nd Place at Junior Freeskiing Nationals”. Wow…Congratulations Grant! In fact, I checked out the results PDF and for age group 12-14 Alta locals took the top three spots! On the podium with Grant: Riley Rose (1st place) and Casey Rose (3rd place). Also, Tasha Heilweil from Alta took 2nd place in the Ladies Age Group 12-14. I think some young men and women are on a career path already
Altafarians in full force. Way to represent you guys…
You’re probably thinking that it would be impossible to survive such a huge drop. Well…..THINK AGAIN!! Fred Syversen was pretty much unscathed from the ordeal. Glad you’re ok brother!
NOTE: THIS WAS UNINTENTIONAL
More info and photos on HomeboySki.com…
Edited to Add: Here is a very important point to make about this, from an interview with Fred Syversen published 1/23/09:
Although Fred set the new world record on cliff dropping and survived a pretty amazing drop, he wants to point out that we should all be responsible for crediting good skier’s and not stunts that might get people killed!
The latest from the AltaCam Podcast Series…
Dave Van Dame has a rich history in Little Cottonwood Canyon. He’s got a very distinct style of skiing, where he puts in flawless track after track 18 inches a part…sometimes covering entire hillsides with the stamp of his work for days (even weeks) at a time. He’s admittedly “an elusive little critter”, but it seems that you can always find his handy work in and around Alta Ski Area.
AltaCam just launched an exclusive interview with Farmer Dave today. Once again, nice work Johnny B. In the interview Dave talks about how he developed his skiing style, as well as his very own system for climbing up hill between lap, after lap, after lap…
Back in the day GravityFed actually published the Farmer Dave Profile, written by Bill Deleo. That piece got a lot of play over the years, thoroughly discussed on the TGR forums and other high profile skiing communities. Here is my favorite part from that article (originally published in 2001):
He is very thoughtful and well-spoken, and he speaks quietly. When asked about his past and himself, he holds his cards very close to his chest and tells me very little. He hesitates, looks around, laughs nervously and says, “Some of those things are pretty secretive and I tend to ski by myself a lot. Part of it is because I enjoy going at my own pace and I don’t typically stop. When I ski in the morning, I ski until I’m done and then go home.“
There you have it. Just ski until you’re done. That’s all. Classic. At any rate, enjoy the podcast…
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