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Bike Tune

While Kieran alluded to our attendance of the Outdoor Retailer Show is Salt Lake City in his article for very important business and environmental reasons I'll talk a little more about the extraneous fun.

 

 Salt Lake is a 30-40 minute drive from the Wasatch Range of mountains. We made great use of this high range and it's famous Cottonwood Canyons. There is good reason Salt Lake won the bid for the Winter Olympics in 1996. There are plenty of mountains above 10,000 feet for consistent snow and the mid desert geography insures the powder is dry and not wet cement that you sometimes find on the coast ranges. Every year we take advantage of the time before and after the show to do a little snowboarding or telemark skiing.

This year with the company of 3 of our snowboard staff (Briar, Matt and Shannon), Kieran and I headed to the Brighton ski area. Brighton may not be as large as Snowbird or as famous as Park City but it's location at the end of the Canyon makes it ideal for out of bounds back country adventures. Properly equipped with avalanche probes, shovels and beacons our band of snowboarders poached some fine lines this year. Brighton's management is open to the idea of people buying a lift ticket and then using their ski area as a base for backcountry adventures. Many resorts would revoke your ticket or even fine you for leaving the ski area boundaries and returning to use the lift again.

For some of our group this was there first big powder experience and for others it was their first experience earning there turns. A typical "run" at Brighton consists of taking a lift to the top, hiking for 10 minutes above the lift station to gain access to the summit ridge. From the ridge instead of dropping back into the resort we descend a beautiful bowl off the backside. This gorgeous untouched terrain has some narrow chutes or wide open terrain to choose from. Of course after you slayed the line of your choice you still had to get out of the valley. This involves a trot up to the lowest Col where we gained access to a different ridge that leads to another mountain peak. After 45 minutes of slogging through everything from waist deep powder to delicately balancing on rock outcrops you arrive on a summit. From this lonely peak you descend over 2000' vertical feet to the base of the mountain near the resort. You begin on a bald summit, descend through large spruce and then finally whip your way through aspen stands before ending up at the base of the chair lift again. With one chair lift ride and less than 1 hours hiking we were getting over 3000' vertical feet of virgin powder.

On the first day we were a little jealous as a chopper dropped a lucky few off on the ridge we were groveling up. Our wallets don't put us in that league so we trudged on and made our way up under our own steam. 2 days later the winds were high and we were still getting fresh tracks while the choppers were grounded. Revenge was sweet! We even had enough money for margaritas at the hot tub after. One chopper lift and we would have been on a diet of snow and sticks for the week!

It was a real pleasure to ride in the mountains with our staff. I was really impressed with their skills, perseverance and attitude. There was a lot of sweat and hard work and the odd dose of fear to contend with as we earned our powder turns. Alone on a mountain peak in the wind sometimes brings out the worst in people. I was very pleased that our staff made me proud. They can ride big mountains, smile under the strain of hard work and laugh about the small misadventures after. If you ever have questions about snowboarding I can unequivocally recommend to talking to Matt, Briar or Shannon. Their knowledge runs as deep as Utah powder. I think they even learned a thing or two from the "Old Men".