We’re snow junkies..and I happen to be partial to Alta Ski Lift Co. …like it or not a lot of these posts will be focused on snow riding in Little Cottonwood canyon! (i say snow riding to not alienate the snowboarers ;))

Each new, crisp powder day I’ll post the ‘Alta Ski Area Powder Alert‘ (click the link to subscribe).

Here’s today’s juicy news:

Hello Alta Powder Hounds…

In the past 24 hours, Alta Ski Area has received: 19″ of new snow
The settled mid-mountain base is currently: 43″
So far this season we’ve received 81″ of snow
The extended weather forecast is: Heavy snow through Wednesday. Another 10″ of snow is forecasted for Today.

AltaCam has opened the voting polls in their monthly ski photo contest. Anyone can submit their photos. All contest submissions will be included in a monthly site image gallery. Winner gets a Backcountry.com gift card and their photo/link featured on the homepage of AltaCam.com for a month.

Click Here to cast your vote for the November photo contest winner!! (must be registered to forum to vote)

Local skiers and snowboarders…you may find this to be useful information. It’s a daily update all in one place of winter & turning conditions for all Utah resorts. If you’re coming out to Utah for a visit this winter this would also nice to keep track of. …it’s a quick and easy view of current ski and snowboard conditions for ‘The Greatest Snow on Earth’. Grab the RSS feed at Utah Life Outdoors (a site dedicated to outdoor living in our state) and plug into your favorite content or news reader. Another options is to have the reports delivered to your email inbox each day. Visit the Utah Ski & Snowboard Conditions Page to do either…

We’ve also included subscription links for this real time feed:

Utah Ski Resort Conditions  

Happy powder…it’s definitely lined up to pound on us in Utah week after Thanksgiving 2006.

On November 1st AltaCam announced a photo of the month contest. We blogged about it back at the beginning of the month.. Update: Submission deadline has passed for November, but don’t worry if you want to try again they’ll be accepting submissions all winter. This is a monthly contest, and the winner each month get’s their photo posted on the homepage of AltaCam.com and a $75 gift card from Backcountry.com.

And the big news, this contest has actually been posted on the Alta Ski Area web site: Alta.com.. Go to their homepage and Check it out!

Info on the contest: Photo of the Month Contest Page

Holy Crapola! See I told you holidays were good times to get the most out of your gear dollar. Looksie here: Hot off the press from Backcountry.com (visit site). There are all kinds of deals flying around that place!!

Ditch the Duct Tape…
How many times have you been out touring, at the resort or just around the town and seen a duct tape patch job on someone’s jacket? There’s one (or in the case of Alta, many) in every crowd, and every ski town. Time to ditch the duct tape and get a winter jacket that’s going to stand up to the rigors of your winter adventures. You know who you are…so DO-It.

You must click the links below to redeem discounts & savings.

Here are a couple of banners:

Here is a list of killer offers (click links below to redeem discounts):

• 15% Off ALL Clothing at Dogfunk through 11/30! (excludes Burton) Click Here
• 15% Off ALL Volcom Clothing at Dogfunk.com until 11/30/2006
• 15% Off ALL DC Clothing at Dogfunk until 11/30! Offer Applied at Checkout
• 15% Off Helly Hansen at Tramdock.com until Nov 30th! Click Here, Offer Applied at Checkout
• 15% Off ALL Oakley Clothing at Tramdock.com until 11/30 - Click Here
• 15% Off Spyder Clothing at Tramdock through November 2006!!!
• Burton Gloves On Sale
• Up To 50% Off Marmot Gear

Oh yeah! This is what you’re talkin’ bout! Watch these gear retailers around the holidays. There are usually some killer offers to take advantage of. For example, these exclusive web deals from Altrec are only good through midnight on ‘Cyber Monday’ (11/27/06)…so if you were thinking about that new ski coat or goggles DO-It now.

Here are the promo details:

• $20 Off orders over $200 - expires Cyber Monday at midnight, 11/27. Click on the following banner and use Coupon Code earlybird at checkout.

  

• 70% Off Select Items - Altrec has over 150 products at 70% Off RIGHT NOW, also expires midnight 11/27 so act fast.

  

It seems to happen every year. Well a couple of times each year, even. The debate sparks over heli skiing the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. This is primarily a debate between Wasatch Powderbird Guides and all the non-motorized backcountry access advocates including Save Our Canyons. We just posted about the recent Salt Lake Tribune article that ran about how the courts ruled in favor of the heli-skiers.. this should get pretty interesting in the next few weeks.

Here are a few active discussions on the topic:

AltaCam: Wasatch Powderbird Guides Special Use Permit Renewal

TelemarkTips: Bomb-Free Wasatch 2006

TGR: Utah Heli-Skiing - Court rules in favor of WPG

What are your thoughts on this issue?

Here is another re-purposed article from the archive of the good ole’ GravityFed classic content. I remember back in the day this article by Fish Solo (aka Fish Bartlett, Fish Solo Bartlett or ‘gasp’ his real name Brett Bartlett…see what he’s doing now) caused quite a stir in the letters to the editor section. I specifically remember one guy crying because he no longer can ski 20 days a season, but that didn’t mean he’s not a true skier or some shiznit like that. Yeah…that guy cried a thousand tears over anything, though.

The point is, this article stirred up some controversy back then so let’s see if it happens again..

“If you ride less than 15 days a year, you’re probably a weekend warrior with no real skills anyway, so any one who’s better than you is a threat and any one worse just plain sucks. If you ride less than 15 days a year, you’re probably a weekend warrior with no real skills anyway, so any one who’s better than you is a threat and any one worse just plain sucks. But the real problem here is that you’re not on the hill enough to make an educated guess. Wait until you’ve ridden your first 100-day season to badger one about how to ride…”

read more | digg story

The age old debate between backcountry skiers and helicopter skiing outfitter Wasatch Powderbirds just flared up on popular web forums again with a recent ruling in favor of the helicopter skiing company.

Article Last Updated:11/21/2006 01:55:42 AM MST: “U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart said Monday that the U.S. Forest Service complied with federal environmental laws when it renewed the heli-skiing company’s permit in 2004, rejecting a challenge by the environmental group Save Our Canyons.”

An official hot topic on the AltaCam ski forum was just bumped from the depths of debate last ski season by DSpoon!

AltaCam Thread: Wasatch Powderbird Guides Special Use Permit Renewal - Most Recent
Salt Lake Tribue: U.S. Court rules in favor of copter skiers

This is a fairly new merchant we’ve added to our gear search engine. I think we’re up to like 58 merchants or some shiznit. Skis.com’s tagline: The Ultimate Online Ski Shop! They seem to distribute a lot of the top ski gear and apparel. Whenever there’s a discount involved it’s worth trying out a new merchant. Especially for holiday shopping madness 2006-07!

Hot off the press. Skis.com (view site) is offering a coupon from now through January: Receive $10 off any sub-total of $200 or more from now till January 31, 2007. You must click the link below to activate coupon..

Shoppers CLICK HERE to redeem this savings. After on site use Coupon Code: AFF10OFF at checkout. Gear up for the season yourself, or gear your friends for the holidays..