Ah Ski Ski Ski

Here's a picture of me summing up the 2006-2007 ski season:
Photo: T. Felton
That's right. This season was all-things not great in terms of snow.

Now, here's a picture of me summing up the 2007-2008 ski season:
Photo: T. Stark.
Can you tell the difference? That's right. So, this winter's been good. And when I say, good, I mean it in the sense that I don't care if I'm using proper grammer or not (good vs. well...yeah, whatever). Just look at that picture - I'm so happy that I could be peeing my pants and you wouldn't even know it because it's literally been balls-deep all season long.

Maybe this year just seems so much better than last year because it hardly snowed at all last year. No. That's not it. It's the fact that nearly every Friday Ullr has turned on the storm spigot and lets the flakes fall all-weekend-long. This past weekend, especially...some of the dryest snow I've skied in my life. I'm going to shut up now.

The Love Affair

I first became acquainted with Brighton ski resort in 1992. Our family took a ski vacation out to Utah during spring break that year. Early one morning on our way to Big Cottonwood Canyon I saw a road sign for the University of Utah - I told my parents I was going to come to college out here. "Sure, Joe..." they said, I was 9 years old.

In 2001 I packed up and moved out to Utah for, ahem, college....and the skiing. Little did I know that I would reacquaint myself with Brighton that winter. Though not having not seen her for a little over 9 years, I wasn't surprised that we hit it off almost immediately. It felt great to be cradled by her back bowls, deep snow and laid-back crowd.

There's no way that back in 2001 I could have told anybody I would still be skiing at Brighton today; 7 years and nearly 550 ski days later, we still get along as well as the day we first met. Sometimes my affair with Brighton reminds me of Greg Noll, a big wave surfer featured in the movie Riding Giants, who moved to Hawaii after high school and fell in love with the huge waves crashing along the breaks at Waimea Bay. Sure, a bit of a stretch, water vs. snow, beaches vs. mountains, Hawaii vs. Utah, but whatever.

Brighton is good.

ph: Evan L.

Exit 4 on I-80 West

This past weekend was an interesting one. Instead of going skiing, a buddy and I decided to trek out to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Western Utah. There's a lot more to why we didn't go skiing, and I'm only going to get angry if I delve into that story; besides, it would at best be a tangent and we all know that staying on topic is much, much better.



Yeah, so, back on topic. The Salt Flats are, well, flat...and salty. After exiting the highway (exit 4, clever, I know...) you head north on some road following signs to the Bonneville Salt Flats. Ending up on a two-lane road that traverses across the Salt Flats, you think "my gosh, could this be it??" Then, it gets better, the road ends - in, literally, the middle of nowhere. Nothing is there to hold you back from doing whatever you please. In our case, we took the time to snap a few photos and then drove my buddy's car really, really fast on the flats.



After seeing all there was to see (read: not entirely too much), we packed back in the Subie and headed back home. Go check this place out sometime if you ever get the chance. In fact, give me a call, I'll ride shotgun.

Yeah, "I used to skate"

So many people make this claim if and when skateboarding is brought up in conversation. But how many people can truthfully say this and, at the same time, actually mean it?

This past weekend I found myself flipping through a skate mag while I was waiting for a window to be fixed on my car. It was probably one of the best things that I have done for myself in a long time (read the mag). Silly - you ask? Not so. I spent the better part of my adolesence with a skateboard under my feet. Outside of my playing lacrosse in high school, skating was what I did with all my friends at that time. We skated every day after school, all weekend long and even talked, somehow, our parents into shuttling us up to Philly, from Delaware, to skate the FDR skatepark under I-95 a handful of times each summer.

Back to the mag - I wish I knew then what I know now. It really hit me, reading the articles and appreciating the pictures, how anti-establishment skating really is. Between the ages of 13-17 I never really took in, evaluated or understood much of what skating meant as a whole. Rather, I knew what it meant to my friends and I and that's all there was to it.

We all grewup in middle-class families that lived in the suburbs. We didn't know squat about anti-establishment and didn't give a damn about anything outside of our own neighborhood. But now, looking back, after finishing college and being thrust out into the 'real world', I can only wonder how and who I would be now if I was truly anti-this and anti-that at a younger, more impressionable age.

This is my buddy, Matt, circa 2000.


Cheers to the youth. I know I'd give anything to be a kid again.

Alta

Ahhhhhh. Alta ski resort. What started out as a quaint mining town in the 1800s has now grown into a world-renowned ski resort; famous for harboring 500+ annual inches of Utah's 'greatest snow on earth'...yeah, blah blah blah....a couple things come to mind when I think of this place: Altaholics, Alta-Egos and the fact that my friends who ride shredsticks can't come here with me if I choose, wait, if I'm dragged into skiing here.

A few thoughts that come to mind within this triptych:

Altaholics: These are the out-of-state guys and gals from back east and out west that make yearly, often multiple time-a-season, pilgrimages to the glorious state of Utah with one purpose, ok, two purposes: To patronize what they see as one of the last 'pure' skiing establishments in the Nation and to complain about the estranged liquor laws of our fine state.

Alta-Egos: Usually found amongst skiers that have grown up in Utah, learned to ski at Alta and will continue to ski there until they die or it doesn't snow anymore - whichever happens first. Here's a typical conversation would go with someone who has an Alta-ego:

1. "So for this party tomorrow night, I need directions to your house."
2. "Sure, buddy. We're at 300 South and 800 East, right by the Sinclair."
1. "Where is that in relation to Alta??"

Sadly, the above is no joke.

Snowboarders aren't allowed: The majority of my friends ski. And many of my friends snowboard. Usually, we enjoy skiing and riding together. Yeah, well, that's why Brighton is better.

I will merit this skiing establishment in that it has some of the finest terrain in the Wasatch. The only downfall: After a big dump it gets skied out faster than you can wipe your own ass.

*Edit - Yes, I also have tons of friends that ski at Alta. Most of this post is meant to be taken as toungue-in-cheek. Thanks for reading.

November is Many Things

Hello everyone. Joe here. November is many things. The first thing that happens in November for me is my birthday. I turned 25 on Friday, November 2. I've made it. I'm half-way to 50 and only need to work another 45 years before I can retire. Actually, I'll probably never retire.

Being 25 has given me mixed feelings about growing up. I feel like there were so many things I missed out on while growing up and while in college. Those that know what I'm talking about, well, you just know - and those that don't, don't worry about it.....'cause I'm over it.

I've started paying my own car insurance (I know...a little late jumping on this train; thanks Mom and Dad for helping out way longer than you should have). I've also started paying more attention to the world around me and am starting to become more aware of how my actions today could affect how I may be living in the future. Before this turns into a rant on carbon footprints and whether or not global warming is blah blah, so on and so forth, just know that I've started to open my eyes a little more regarding the decisions I make about how I live. Ok, when you boil it down I just try to keep the lights off at home except in the room I'm in. The bottom line, I have a ways to go in becoming globally conscious, but it's a start.

November also brings colder weather. And colder weather in Utah usually means snow. Last year this wasn't the case, as our winter was, well, what winter...? We're due for a good amount of snow this year. I can feel it. The winter crew is assembling and we're all starting to get excited for the season ahead of us.

Until next time....

Subaru-a-Boo-Ba-Ru

It seems like every car company out there has a good thing going at one time or another - they have their eggs in a bunch of different baskets and their cars look great. Let's take Subaru, for example. Their 1987 GL Wagon is a timeless classic - those that know this are very well aware of the weight those words bear. Outback wagons in general have always had a decent, clean yet crisp look and feel to them.

Then in the early 90's when Subaru introduced to us the Outback Sport, our stomaches churned a little in the uneasy direction. The car looked more like a bubble waiting to be popped than it did an all-wheel-drive, gas-efficient mini-wagon. A couple years ago Subaru took the Outback Sport back to the drawing board and came out with something I think all of our paletts enjoyed. The car was good looking, had awesome looking head lamps, had a decent shape that said, "drive me" and left you with an overall impression of "man, I want one of those," if you didn't already have one.

Don't get me wrong. A Subaru will always and forever be on my wishlist. But I have to ask the people at Subaru what they were thinking when they let this design make it off the production line and skid into driveway's across America:

I have to ask, WTF, guys at Subaru? WTF??!! This has got to be the ugliest, most unoriginal design I have seen for a car yet. I was driving around town this afternoon and saw a blue guy just like it. I thought, hmmmm, maybe a Kia?? Hell no sirs and madams. It was a brand-spankin' new Subaru Outback Sport. Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee) would have pooped his pants if he saw this car.

If this is a testament of what is to come from Subaru, I am truly afraid. I don't like how this car looks, end of story. I'd rather be stuck driving a Toyota FJ cruiser, or better yet, a Camry wagon; do they even make those anymore? Hopefully this is just an in-between design and the guys at Subaru are cooking up something great that's going to make everyone that buys one of these 2008 Outback Sports look like a fool. Congratulations guys, this is the worst-looking hatchback I've seen yet.