Utah MTB

Archive for the ‘Diary’ Category

by Bill Messick

My legs are pretty sore today, for the past four days Jason and I have skied pretty hard! Today at Sundance I talked him into taking the climb up Marmot Gulch with me to take a run off the top. To my surprise he said yes, so after a warm up run off the top of Bearclaw we caught the lift back up to start the 15 min hike above the lift. After stripping down a little so we wouldn’t overheat we tossed our skis over our backs and started the climb up to the ridge. This climb is hard but short, we took a few turns catching our breath and loving the view on the way up. The flat spot on the top is a welcome site as you top out over the ridge but we were headed another 100 yards up to the top where the solar panels are, that would be the sweet spot of the day.

On the top we kicked back in the snow and chilled out for about 20 min as we discussed how we were going to drop off the ridge, right off the edge was a fresh hit of powder that nobody had dipped into yet. Jason decided that I should take it first, I tried to let him take her virginity first but he insisted that I go first, so I did! I don’t remember if I turned my iPod on or not but I looked down and decided to take the left ridge and cut right, it was over to fast and I was standing on the road in only three cuts. Jason took a different approach on his way down, he made a cut left then right then rolled over one cut on his back and finished on his feet on the road.

At that point we were standing on the road looking right down Marmot Gulch and it is a very intimidating drop to look down. This time I skied down the ridge on the right and took a cut to the left off in to the gulch. The right side of the gulch is powder and the left side is crusty ice so as you made your cuts back and fourth things would change fast. On the way down I got caught up in the powder and went down a few times, it was really deep and thick and would suck you right in. This run is steep and ends in a very narrow opening before shooting you out on to Top Gun. Jason did good on this drop and came out with a little more confidence than he started with.

I hope we can do this one again before the season is over!

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What a crazy day I had today! Me and Jason get up and I wax my skis to head up to Sundance for another day of warm spring skiing. To my surprise mother nature was extra good to us today by dropping fresh powder on our heads. We get up the road to Provo Canyon and hit the turn off for Sundance and about a mile up the flakes started flying and I’m not talking about your government flakes! The temp had dropped outside and a fine dust was dropping on the all around us.

We get up to the top for our first run and that is when it got crazy, there were clean spots of powder all over the place to dip your tips in. I hit this run down Bishops Bowl on the left side and skied all the way down in untouched powder, it was amazing stuff! I had more fun today than I have had in a long time and I’m hopping to get back up there for more tomorrow.

Sorry no photos or video today but enjoy the soundtrack of today!

by Bill Messick

I wasn’t planning on skiing today but I woke up to a foot of powder in my driveway and the next thing I knew I was on my way up the mountain. Strange thing is there was more powder in the valley than there was on the mountain at Sundance! There was about 4-6 inches when I got to the top of the lift, still it was good stuff. I did get a little video today and took a few min to cut it into a music video using the music of Courtesy Blush with their song “Sun Divider”.

Check out the video for more.

by Bill Messick

Today Jason and I took Bubby out of school so he could ditch class in the powder, well It didn’t start off that way! We get up to leave about 11:30 am and it is 57 degrees outside and sunny, that can’t be good on the snow! We get up there and get a few runs in and it starts to snow and it snowed heavy leaving the nicest powder you could ask for all over a mountain with hardly anyone skiing it. Yea we got to play in the fresh stuff today, not much about 3-6 inches but fresh right out of the snow factory in the sky. Bubby did pretty good today even in the powder that he is so scared of!

Check out the video for more on this trip.

Today was hot! It was about 47 degrees on the top today, that is snow melting hot! So me and Jason took a trip up to Sundance for a few hours and got burnt on the mountain. I did get a few photos and about 2 min worth of video, in the video someone is hurt and a girl makes her jump.

Check out the video and photos for more.

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by Bill Messick

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I didn’t get any video or photos so enjoy the song Everywhere by Neverwonder and visit them at http://www.neverwonder.com tell them I sent you!

I got up early today and got up to Sundance as it opened, to catch the 6 inches of fresh powder that had dropped since yesterday. There was a bunch of people with the same idea as me, the parking lot was filling up fast. It was rather warm up their today, clear at the base and in a sock at the top. The top was covered in the clouds for the three hours I was there.

It was so thick I had to spend most my time skiing through the trees so I had a point of reference to focus on. Every time I would run out into the open I would get snow blind and loose site of everything, it was crazy up there.

The powder was a fresh six inches and still falling and the temp was crazy warm making the snow heavy. I saw and came across a dozen avalanches on the catwalks and between the trees on the steep stuff. At one point I was skiing down a chute and as I made a turn on the edge a saw the snow flowing down the center of the chute right above me, so I pointed myself down and raced the slide to the bottom making it just ahead of the river of snow! I love days like this, you never know what to expect next!

by Bill Messick

You could say Jason has taken his falls on the narrows in the Pipeline up at Sundance, in fact one day he knocked himself out there. Every time we ski through the Pipeline he gets to the same spot and has a pretty nasty fall. Last week he twisted his knee in this ominous place and today just like every time down he fell in the same spot! So we took one more hit down Bishops Bowl taking a moment for him to rest on the catwalk on the edge of the Pipeline before dropping into his own hell run. Well I got him to slow things down and take his time getting to the squeeze spot, as he hit it you can see in the video he just works his way past the bad spot in his mind and finish the run without a single fall!

Check out the video and see for yourself, don’t miss the cool pics from this day.

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by Bill Messick

To get to Marmott Gulch you have to take off your skis and climb for about 10 min up the hill on your right as you get off Ray’s Lift at the summit. They have this marked as a Black Diamond but I would class it closer to a double black. It is a tight fast drop through a very steep and narrow gully.

Check out the video for more on this run.

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