Archive for the 'Skiing' Category

The Lonely Garage, Guest Writers, and Beantown

The garage is a lonely place without the bike. Today in Park City was amazingly warm weather. Great for riding motorbikes in short sleeve shirts. Not so great if the business you are in is skiing. Last Friday, Deer Valley Resort had all guns blazing, with fan guns blowing copious amounts of snow as far up the mountain as you could see. Today, it was 65 degrees and sunny. I see a pattern developing. This is turning out much like last November. There’s no doubt the snow will come, just a question of when.

The garage is empty, because I scrambled home at lunch and rode the KTM across the way to the local folks at Summit Honda. They don’t speak Austrian, but are nice enough and agreed to install a new Regina chain for me, since I don’t have the correct tool to replace the rivet link. While I was inside, my bike created quite a ruckus outside. There were four or five guys hovering, checking it out, eyeballing it, sizing it up. Summit Honda has a 2001 KTM LC4 they took in trade a while back (which I wrote about), with 1,700 original miles. Apparently they couldn’t sell it for awhile since they didn’t have the title, but have that all worked out and it’s back on the floor. It would be a sweet bike for someone looking for a good dualsport.

Finally, for all of those who are bored with my infrequent posts, occasional rants on cycling dopers, (all two of you, according to Dave Fields), I will start to post writings by fellow itsallaboutthebikers. Sully is on the hot seat. Let’s see what he comes up with. The pressure is on. Maybe while I’m in Boston for a consumer ski show, Sully will come through. If so, I’ll drink a pint of Guinness for every post he writes. Or three.

Live Update: Warren Miller in SLC

Testing out the Wordpress iPhone App, live at the Salt Lake City premiere of Warren Miller\’s Children of Winter ski film. Stay tuned!

Backcountry Ski Touring with Bikers

On March 30, a small but elite crew of willing participants met in Park City at the Eating Establishment to map out the day’s route that would include 5 Utah resorts (Park City Mountain Resort, Solitude, Alta, Snowbird, Brighton) in no particular order, as well as some rewarding backcountry shots in between. We departed on this journey at about 9:30 AM, and when all was said and done, we returned to Park City a little after 5:00 PM. It should be noted that this trip “officially” never happened, you’ll just have to take my word for it. By the end of the day, we had hiked and skied some of the most legendary backcountry shots the mighty Wasatch has to offer: Patsy Marley, Grizzly Gulch, a chute on Mt. Tuscarora called The Seagull, and managed to squeeze in quite a few great in-bounds runs like the Highboy at Alta. To the 5 amigos who held each other together through a full day of hiking, traversing, crashing on pavement, more hiking, bottomless buckets of fries at Alf’s, more hiking, bonking, breaking trail, and some kick ass memorable turns in between: let’s do it again next year!

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SS, Potter, Motionboy and Darth Nater, posing in front of random license plate at Solitude.