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?

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

Found a great article from the Salt Lake Tribune that’s featured on Alta’s web site. It’s a tribune reader poll from over 1100 Utah skiers on their favorite ‘Greatest Snow on Earth’ to ski. Nice choices we have here in Utah My favorite reader poll quote was “The least of Utah is better than the best of most states” from Rick Carter.

Here’s a snippet from the article…

“More than 50 percent of a SL Tribune’s poll (1,107 participants) designated Alta or Snowbird as the best, primarily citing their exquisite snow and varied, challenging terrain. And when it comes to picking one special place to carve turns, more people would choose to do so on either Alf’s High Rustler at Alta or in The Cirque at Snowbird.”

Quickview of the 2006 Salt Lake Tribune Skier Poll for Utah Resorts:

Read Entire Newspaper Article…

Here is a good idea for holiday gift giving.. Alta Ski Area is offering gift cards available online through their store. Give the gift of skiing.. crave that powder junkies fix!

Details as follows:

Alta Gift cards start at $15.00, in increments up to $500. The card can be used at Alta Ski Area Ticket Offices, Alf Engen Ski School, Alf’s Restaurant, Watson’s Shelter, Collins Grill or Alta Ski Shop & Demo Centers. Additional value may be added to your gift card at any time. Order Alta Gift Cards online or by calling (801) 359-1078.

More info..

News is makin’ its way around the ski industry now. Steve Lloyd (check out his photography) had someone or something watching over him yesterday. News reports say he was buried for 10-15 minutes in upper Silver Fork basin - Big Cottonwood Canyon, Wasatch Mountains. This was a very experienced group of skiers and his friends knew how to react with their beacons and affect the rescue. When we was uncovered he was blue and unconcious, but apparently gained conciousness shortly after he was dug out.

We’re all very grateful to his friends and for the outcome. Now…back to the powder! More news:

AltaCam Forum: Steve Lloyd Buried in Avalanche for 15 Minutes and Survives!

Channel 2 News KUTV: Four Caught In Canyon Avalanche, One Buried

A quick post to mention that we recently upgraded the search functionality on OutdoorGearEngine.com. Now we’re almost ready to call our custom built gear search engine v3.0! A few more tweaks and we’re ready to distribute the news through our news syndication service of choice: PRWeb.com (check out a press release from July that received over 65,000 reads!).

Also, while you’re checking out the new, more accurate and lightning fast search, notice how the column headers are now all sortable. Stay tuned for the official v3.0 release as this will also include the addition of over a dozen new merchants to the database. That translates to over a dozen more sales and promotions being posted here on the OGEBlog! Let us know if you have any comments or suggestions on the new features on OGE.

Just a quick heads up…a podcast just went live about the pic of the month contest on the AltaCam.com site. We blogged about it here on November 1st.

Take a listen to Jesse’s interview/podcast. He goes over the details of the contest and talks a little bit about the AltaCam site in general. Contribute your photos for free and have a chance at winning a gift card from Backcountry.com, and your photo featured on the homepage of the AltaCam site.

Read the media release this podcast was about..

Last night it was the one year anniversary of the death of a dear friend, Alta ripper and all around good soul for the planet. Greg Stearns was on a mountain biking trip in Canyonlands NP (on the White Rim - a 100+ mile, multi-day sagwagon-supported trip) near Moab, Utah when he stepped off a cliff in the night and was killed. Sunshine Beth (with us on the trip) wrote a tribute at the start of 2006 that was eventually published on GravityFed.

Greg is pictured above in the OGE Blog header playing horseshoes with K.C. Spiro (K.C. on left) at a location that was surely one of his favorites on earth: Murphy’s Hogback Camp (where he spent the last hours of his life a year ago yesterday)

Greg, we miss ya brother…

Gary M

Attention Alta skiers and ski photographers. Here’s a cool idea from a grassroots online community for Little Cottonwood Canyon skiers. The guys at AltaCam announced their monthly contest guidelines today for the pic of the month contest. Pretty cool. The ski forum community will vote and each month a winner will have his/her photo posted on the homepage of AltaCam and get a $75 gift certificate from Backcountry.com.

“The rules are simple. Email or send photo submissions to AltaCam by Friday, November 24th at midnight MST. Both prints and digital photos will be accepted. To have photo prints returned, include a self-addressed stamped envelope. For more information, additional contests guidelines, and details on where to send photo submissions visit the Pic of the Month Contest page on AltaCam.com.”

An official press release made it out through the PRWeb.com distribution channel this morning. Read the entire article…

If you’ve picked up a skiing magazine in the last ten years, chances are you’ve seen images from Lee Cohen, an outdoor photographer (he’s arguably brought us the best images in the history of powder skiing photography) based in Utah. What mags you ask? Name one. Even though I’m sure you’ve seen his work in many places, he’s probably made you drool over deep powder imagery in Powder Magazine the most. In fact, you likely have seen one of his photos on the cover of Powder! To wit:

One of these days grace yourself with a mid-winter storm cycle in Little Cottonwood Canyon.. You owe it to yourself to see this guy’s muse!
Lee Cohen Photography