Cat Skiing with Park City Powder Cats

I skied with Park City Powder Cats about four or five years ago. I’ve been meaning to get back out again for some time now and today was finally the day! I was a bit leary as we drove out this morning, partly because it hadn’t snowed much for the past week and also because the day was starting out cloudy without any blue sky poking out anywhere.  However, once we pulled into the cabin in the beautiful Thousand Peaks Ranch, that serves as the base camp for the Park City Powder Cats, I started to get a good vibe – helped along no doubt, by the views of the magnificent bowls that we’d soon be riding!

After a quick safety briefing from lead guide Johnny, some tasty muffins and a last minute shot of coffee, we clambered into our chariot for the day, ably driven by Jacon, along with our two guides Megan and Jason. Dropping into Giant Steps for our ‘warm up’ run, we all could sense that this would turn out to be a great day. The wind had been whipping along the ridge before we dropped in, but once we started making turns we enjoyed a healthy serving of a few inches of fresh Utah powder piled upon a nice and supportable base.

After this first run, our guides seemed to be happy with our riding abilities and we quickly moved into territory that was steeper and deeper. That along with a clearing sky made the day zoom past. By the time we were snacking on a few delicious cookies for desert and heading out to No Name Bowl for our last run, the clouds were again closing in, but with all the blue sky, powder – and some corn that we got to play in all day, it almost seemed a fitting close to have the skies darkening again.

As I sit on my couch relishing the great day, I wanted to jot down a couple of quick tips for anyone thinking of booking a cat skiing trip:

• If it hasn’t snowed for a few days prior to your trip, don’t worry. There is lots of terrain at snowcat operations. For instance, Park City Powder Cats has over 40,000 acres of terrain in the private ranch that they operate on. Since they only run a maximum of two cats per day with each cat making from 8-12 runs per day, their terrain can offer virgin powder runs for days and sometimes even weeks after a storm!
• Try to book with a group of friends if you can, because cat skiing is an experience that is best when shared.
• A day in a snowcat can usually beat a heli day (for a fraction of the cost). You can’t ground a snowcat due to weather – you realize that it’s cloudy when it snows?! The snowcat will often beat you down to the bottom of the run and since it’s only for your group, you can leave packs and other items in the cat for the ride back up. Plus, you can get about as much skiing and riding in with a snowcat as you can with a helicopter because your day usually lasts longer and is more uninterrupted.
• Snowcat trips are also not just for hardcore skier and riders, if you feel comfortable riding advanced terrain in a variety of conditions, you’ll have an absolutely fantastic time. Remember, there are no crowds on the slopes and no lift lines!

Finally, for some ‘eye candy’, I’ve embedded a slideshow with pix of our trip below, (click here if the Vopod player isn’t loading the content):

Social Media Happenings in Utah – January 09

I attended the 1st ever Social Media Club of Salt Lake City meeting last Thursday and was  happy to see the larger than expected turnout of very excited group of people that filled the room to overflowing. And, the best part is that there’s more to come, and there are also more great events happening this week!

On Inaugural Day,  there’s a Salt Lake City Sundance Tweetup at the Beehive Tearoom starting at 7:00pm and features a “guest speaker” with lots of other Sundance connections as well.

Then, on Thursday, the 22nd, there’s another Sundance Tweetup, this one being the Charity Tweetup at Sundance, which is happening at the Legacy Lodge at Park City Mountain Resort (where I work, hint, hint). The cool twist on this event is that it has  a suggested $5 (min.) donation, but all of the door will go to a charity that will be determined based upon a vote of all attendees. There’s will also be a quick panel and plenty of Tweetup goodness. PLUS, and I still haven’t had any takers on this – I’m looking for some ski or snowboard Tweeples to join me on the slopes for a #SkiTweetup! Don’t worry about ability, I can ski really slowly if need be, I just figure it’s time to Tweetup on the slopes – @freeskier41 – you listening, my man (I know you don’t need to go slow)?!

BTW, just noticed that the PodCampSLC twitter account just tweeted back into action – it’s not until March 27th, but it’s sure to be another great Utah social media event to attend!

Photo Credit: magerleagues

I’m Calling Stephen Colbert Out

I got bored the other night during the second half of the BCS National Championship Game (strange how the only undefeated team in the country wasn’t playing in this “Championship Game”), so I switched over to the Colbert Report just in time to catch this “call out”:

So, if the Fox13 news team doesn’t take up Stephen on his challenge, I hope he’s got enough gumption to come up to Park City and do some leg wrestling up on top of a mountain. So, here’s my call out Stephen, let’s throw down, or leg down or whatever it’s called up here in the beautiful mountains of Park City, Utah – bring it on!

Early voting is great?

The option to vote early, is a great thing about living in Utah (there may be a few other great things but I can’t think of them this late)! So last Thursday, after hearing rumors of long lines and an upcoming snow storm, I decided to take the short walk from my office over to the the early polling location at the Park City Library, and do the deed. When I walked in, I found perhaps 20 people sitting in the hallway outside the polling location and was briefly chargrined until I figured out that they were all waiting for an upcoming City Council meeing. Moving on, I quickly got properly signed in and voted in five minutes tops. That was it, it wasn’t even November and my civic duty was fulfilled – and now I’m waiting for closure. I’d almost rather stand in line for a few hours than submit myself to what I know is coming tomorrow – hours of talking heads on our TV and me sitting on the sofa with my laptop trying to figure out if the election is heading in the direction I hope it will.

Hmmm, maybe early voting isn’t such a great thing after all?! Bring on the snow, that’s definitely something great about living in Utah!

Photo credit: tifotter

Snowcone fun

I just found the Utah Tourism TV ads that I mentioned in my A Tale of Two Lunches post from earlier this week. I’ve got to say that, although I’m not a fan of the medium that these ads are primarily intended for, this ad (in particular) gave me a chuckle, and as I say in the title of my blog, it is all about fun!