I was done with skiing on the 15th of April – since that day there were stories coming back from the hill of incredible snow and deep powder – so on May 1st, Mike, Donna, Renee and I went skiing Alta. Snow was great. Mike and I managed to ski some first tracks on the Ballroom but virtually everywhere we went snow was very good. If your neighborhood flowers are blooming you can live vicariously through us.

My last day of skiing this season culminated in L-3 at Snowbird. Snow was very good and I did get positive feedback on several years of practicing – thanks to those who encouraged me and those who criticized me – I needed both.

With a base of 134 inches and almost of two feet of snow in the last two days Deer Valley will close for the season on April the 10th. I’m sad and relieved at the same time – it was a great season but after well over 100 days on snow I’m ready for hiking, biking and a little R&R out of the ski boots. I still have a few more days ahead of me scheduled to ski but I should be done by the 15th of April. Of course there is always possibility if conditions continue to be good that I ski at the Snowbird until July – Alta has a base of 195 inches and the Snowbird isn’t far behind. Eagle Point resort got 58 inches of snow in the last 48 hours – I can’t help it but to love Utah.

Our synchro routine made a front page of Park City Record – too bad that the picture was taken at this angle where you can’t see the SYNCHRO – well I guess you can’t have it all. At least I’m on the front page not in the police blotter – listing how many miles over the speed limit I went.

21 inches of snow fell in last 24 hours and there is more on the way. The skiing was awesome – even with the resort sold out lines were very manageable and on the less popular lifts like Red Cloud nonexistent. The day was culminated in the synchro team performance on the Wide West.

Mike’s sister was visiting and we had a chance to ski together. There wasn’t a lot of fresh snow but some places it was a little deeper than others. Mike as usual was a master in selecting the worse possible runs – frozen crud with couple of inches of fresh snow just to mask it. However we managed to find some good off piste snow – here are a few images of the players.

Another great day of skiing at Deer Valley. So far this has been an exceptional year. Deer Valley was voted number one resort in North America 4th year in the row – no other resort comes even close. The opening day there were 20 out of 21 lifts and 75 out of 100 runs opened. Today a week later I skied Perseverance Bowl, Empire Bowl and Ontario Bowl – all with oodles of great Utah snow. Bottom line is – if you are not here – you should be.

Ski season is upon us. Below are important contact numbers for the Deer Valley Resort as well as 2010/2011 Holidays.
You can contact me at 435-671-5008 or mark@dvskiing.com
Deer Valley Skier Services 888-754-8477 – opens July 6th for adult and children’s group lessons, rental equipment and child care, Sept 7th – for private requested lessons.
Central Reservations 800-558-3337 – lodging airfare transportation and lift tickets

Holiday Schedule:
Dec 4 – Deer Valley opens
Dec 25 – Christmas Day
Jan 1 – New Year
Jan 17 – Martin Luther King Day
Jan 20-30 Sundance Film Festival
Feb 21 – Presidents Day
April 10 – Deer Valley closes

Deer Valley is closing for the season today. We have 112″ base and the skiing is great – sunny, warm days with blue skies and plenty of snow. For me this was a good season – I skied 122 days, met some super nice people with whom I hope to ski again, improved my skiing and most of all I loved it all.
I was hoping to ski every day of Deer Valley season but the trip to Vegas and my shin inflammation kept me from the goal – maybe the next year.
I hope to start biking soon as well as explore some of the Utah’s famous National Parks. My backpack is almost ready. I’m still not sure how will I pay for it but I’m sure good things will happen.
If you want to keep up with me start checking my other blog and see you next season – so long – Mark

Alta got a big dump a couple of days ago and as usual Little Cottonwood canyon was closed the whole day. I was super excited as I had a day off the following day. I was on my way to ski 4 feet of powder by 8:00 AM – I was even going to use my powder skis for the second time this year. I had no trouble getting to SLC but when I got off the interstate the traffic going up the canyon was at a standstill. It took me extra 1.5 hour to make it all the way to Alta. What I found was disappointing – only 3 lifts were running and the wait at the Collins lift was over 20 minutes – something that I’m not used to. When I finally got to the top of Collins things already looked pretty much tracked out – not a surprise since most everyone was on that lift. What I found when I got off the lift was very surprising – about 10-15 inches of heavy cement like snow. With the warm temperatures and high winds the night before 4 feet of powder was transformed into 10 inches of crud. My powder skis skimmed the tops never getting even an inch of snow on top – face shots? – what face shots – snorkel skiing? – no sir.
I ate overpriced turkey sandwich on partially staled sourdough bread and went home.
You wonder if Alta really got 4 feet of snow – the attached picture verifies that – they did – driver of this sedan will have some work to do before taking it home.

old man winter is back. To say that this winter was strange would be an understatement. We had early snow in October, then early cold weather which allowed DV to make plenty of snow before the opening of the season and when early December dumped 3 feet of snow we were very optimistic about the season. The way it all turned out until about a week ago we had only 70% of normal snow fall. Due to El Nino effect there was a strong High Pressure system over us which caused most of the snow storms coming off the Pacific to split with the brunt of the weather going to southern Utah – Moab and Zion got about 150% of their annual snow fall while we were praying for the white fluff. We all were reminiscing the last April and it’s snow fall. Well – this year April it’s as unpredictable as the last year was – in the last week or so we had about 40 inches of snow and forecast for tonight is 2-3 feet of snow in the mountains. Skiing is fabulous – I managed to make a few runs on X-files yesterday and the attached picture speaks louder than the words do. I hope we get a real dump overnight and will be able to finish the season on the high note. Deer Valley is closing its season on the 11th, but if we keep getting the snow skiing at Snowbird and Alta will continue.

I love teaching skiing. In addition to being able to spend my days outdoors doing what I love to do it provides opportunity to meet interesting people whom otherwise I would not have met. From movie stars to industry moguls – they all are our clients.
Today I met an interesting family from the east cost – a physicist, an artist and their daughter singer and a historian. The weather was perfect and the skiing was great. If you are interested knowing whom I met check out this website .

After many days of hard work some of us decided to take a quick trip to the other side of the Wasatch mountain to play a little – we went to Alta resort – another “no snowboarding” paradise. Alta has awesome terrain but also needs a lot of snow before you can enjoy all of it. Snow in the northern Wasatch has been a little slow this year, every storm coming of the Pacific Coast gets split with the brunt of it going to southern Utah where the snow pack is over 200% of normal while we “enjoy” about 60% – life ain’t fair. Never the less we made the best of it. Mike was in charge of finding the worst snow and he did, with the exception of couple of runs where the snow was nice and soft we skied a lot of hard pack or crud – Mike promised that would make me a better man – I don’t care who you are that’s funny. Enjoy attached pictures of Bryan, Mike, Mark, Karen, Debbie, Javier, Bill and Dave mostly taken by our fearless leader – Mike.

The ultimate show of skills comes in the moguls, everything that we do right or wrong becomes easy to see. When we are off balance the next mogul will let us know – it’s difficult to hide any deficiencies in our technique. There are many ways to ski moguls, Thor – ski instructor at DV likes to ski and teach bumps and in the video below he shows his way of doing it. He conducts mogul clinics for instructors at DV as well as teaches it to his clients. Watch the video and if you are interested in advance mogul skiing contact Thor.