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.
Category: Downhill Skiing
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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!
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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. 
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First Look: Stance Performance Socks for Hiking, Skiing and More
I’m happy to report that I’ve got some new socks in for review from Stance. There are several models/styles for varying sports.
Performance Socks
For general sports the “Performance” model is the stance offering. I’ve got some tab height nylon blends in black, gray and white. I just tried my first pair on a mountain bike ride this evening. I just happened to bag my biggest ascent ever. Coincidence?
Hiking Socks
I can’t wait to try out the mid cushion Jimmy Chin model hiking socks, and the merino wool blend hiking socks.
Skiing Socks
It’s 105 degrees here, but it’s never too early to get the gear ready for next ski season! I’ve got a couple of pairs of Stance ski socks to try out when the snow flies.
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Gunsight – July 16th 2023
My summer tradition of skiing Gunsight at Alta Ski Area continues. I hit Gunsight a couple of days ago and it was, uh, not good skiing.
The chute was full of large sun-cups, rocks, pine cones, branches, and even one lady’s season pass to Jackson Hole. When I got home it took me quite a bit of time to rub off the pine sap from the bottoms of my skis.
The summer road wasn’t open yet, so I had to hike up from the Albion parking lot, which added about another 2 miles round trip of hiking in the heat. At the start of the hike it was 80 degrees and when I finished it was 85. Very hot for up there. By the time I got to the top of Gunsight I was asking myself if my season was finally over due to the ever worsening effort to reward ratio.
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Little Cottonwood Canyon Avalanche Destruction – May 28, 2023
Captured some of the avalanche damage in Little Cottonwood Canyon today with my latest drone, a slow flyer which is designed for more “cinematic” filming. Only flown it a couple of times so far but I’m digging it. The damage is stunning, including of parts of Tanners Flat Campground. Below are two versions of the video, a long and a short one. The short one is going viral on Twitter, at over 40K views in 24 hours!
Long Version
Short Version
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Rope Drop in Mineral Basin Video Goes Viral
A couple of days ago I posted a crazy video of the rope drop in Mineral Basin. The Twitter version is now up over 50K views and was even picked up by MSN and UnofficialNetworks.com.
Hundreds of skiers and snowboarders race to get first tracks on wind blown sunbaked crust in Mineral Basin. pic.twitter.com/ZSpbSQUj14
— Tony Korologos (@TonyKorologos) March 12, 2023
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Eddie’s High Nowhere
Today I imposed an interesting test on myself both physically and mentally. Lovely bride asked me why I like to do stuff like this and it kind of set me aback. I’ll have to ponder that.
Anyway… Today’s run was on Eddie’s High Nowhere, a special area where you can go in to skimo (ski mountaineering) mode inbounds. After lots of side-stepping and traversing you have to boot pack to the top, where you’ll almost always find a cornice as the winds howl in this spot. Today’s boot pack was so windy I couldn’t hold my skis in the typical place over my shoulder. So I crawled with my poles and skis ahead of me.
The top is an amazing spot. Super rugged. No-fall-zone in all directions. The drop from the cornice to the run is about the steepest thing there is at Alta. It’s practically straight down and today that drop was about as wide as a pair of skis. I chose no on that. I didn’t think side-sliding it was possible and I sure as hell wasn’t going to point a ski down it. So I went for the side entrance below the cornice. There was a steep drop there too. Because of the poor visibility I couldn’t tell if there was anything to avoid, bumps, ice, who knows. My mind wouldn’t let me point a ski down that either. So for perhaps the first time ever, I started thinking about how I was going to back out. I’d probably have to reverse boot pack down where I came from.
On the way out I checked the trees to see if I could find another way to enter Eddies, and I managed to find one. I had to traverse a section of trees that is extremely steep. The video can’t convey just how steep it is. Not even close. A fall there would result in a case of human pinball. So I took it slow and eventually found my way in. Once I was in, the skiing was on ice and breakable crust with wind blown dust on top. Did I mention the poor visibility? LOL So you don’t know if you’re going to hit a bump, slide on ice, or stop suddenly. It’s basically defensive skiing at that point.
It felt satisfying to get down Eddie’s today. That’s where my thighs cramped up a few weeks ago, so I had a bit of a mental demon to exercise.
Hilariously, after getting down one of the toughest runs at Alta, I crashed into a tree (yes I know, another tree) off the cat track at the top of Collins, in front of all the people who get off the lift. What a hack I’m sure they were thinking.
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