Imagine 90 seconds of beer‑fueled maniacs in psychedelic onesies and tutus blasting off in rapid succession on skinny ’70s wood‑lam skis—each rocking a porn‑stache, mullet, and disco sideburns. This. Is. Closing Day on 4/20 at Ala Ski Area
Author: Tony Korologos
Devil’s Castle Opens – POW Fest Conditions
Days like these at Alta Ski Area are what it is all about. After a long, hard, sweaty side-step to The Wall, the skier is rewarded with a very long powder line! Wow.
Lift Assisted Mountain Biking at Deer Valley
Never done lift-assist or any kind of assist while mountain biking. My typical MTB session is an hour or two of climbing and 15-30 min of downhill. Today at Deer Valley it was hours of downhill. I have sore muscles and knots in places I didn’t know existed and I got almost zero cardio. Wowsies.
It was an interesting experience. I was off a bit on my first couple of runs because I guess I’m used to climbing first and “warming up.” I also felt like my tires were at too high of a PSI. I let some air out and made sure my shocks were nice and soft and the riding got better.
I made a couple of wrong turns into areas I clearly did not belong. One was a “double black diamond” technical trail. After walking and sliding down parts of it on my feet, I smartly bailed to a different trail that was more in my wheelhouse.
Toward the end of the day I hit the Tidal Wave trail. It was quite fun and had a few jumps that I did ok on. I find it hard to mentally get enough speed to clear the tabletops on jumps, so I end up landing probably a lot harder than necessary.
All-in-all it was a good day, but I think my biking routing of climbing first is the way for me.
Lunch
I should do a mention of lunch. Deer Valley is known for its higher end culinary offerings and my lunch lived up to that reputation. I had a wild boar quesadilla.
Didn’t taste like chicken! It was more beef-like. Very good.
First Look: Yoziss Goggles with Interchangeable Magnetic Lenses
I just received some new SG73 snow goggles from Yoziss for review. I used them this past Saturday and Sunday during some sunny bluebird weather, which also included some high winds.
The goggles come with two magnetic lenses, one for bright light and one for low light. The lenses are easily swapped, by just pulling them off. No latches, unlike my Smith 4D Mag goggles. I’ll post a short video demoing the magnetic lenses soon. Since it was so sunny this weekend I used the bright light lenses. The lenses performed great. They reduced the glare and brightness and kept my eyes comfortable, even in very bright light.
I’m also very happy with the fit and comfort of these. They seal well and the thick padding is comfortable on my face. They’re also sharp looking. I dig the colors of the lenses.
So far I’m thrilled with my new goggles. I can’t believe how reasonable the price is. They’re under $70. My comparable Smith goggles were 4-5x that price!
High Rustler to Stump Shot to Regal Chute to Rustler 4 to 180 Bend at Alta Ski Area
In high winds and low visibility, the trees are the place to go. Here’s some fun and spicy steep tree skiing at Alta Ski Area. Here I start at the top of Alf’s High Rustler then hit: Stump Shot, Regal Chute, Rustler 4 and end on 180 Bend. Getting to some of these spots is half the fun.
Alta Ski Area – 2nd Chute to Ballroom
The three chutes on the slope of East Baldy don’t get much press. They’re not open often because the wind and sun exposure can make the snow very crusty and hard to ski.
But when conditions are right these chutes can be very fun. Short fun, but fun!
Lower Greeley Hill
With the massive amount of snow we had last year this section of scrub brush wasn’t even visible. This year with about a 100 inch base, it’s currently a fun, low angle obstacle course. If you ski stuff like this, make sure you don’t use pole straps. In fact, never use pole straps. 