Park City Mountain Resort Blog

Opening Jupiter Early, Just like "Back in The Day"

A few of us have been working for Park City for quite a long time; 15, 20, even 30+ years. Occasionally we sit around the office or the pub and talk of life "back in the day." You know, "back in the day before a chairlift was in McConkey's, the cornice was 20 feet high" or "back in the day there was so much snow, we used to ski down Main Street for lunch." Often the younger patrollers will sit and listen to our tales, and just as often they'll roll their eyes and walk out of the room. Well, so far this season is shaping up to be one of those "back in the day" years; as in "back in the day we could open the WHOLE mountain by Thanksgiving." Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration as Turkey Day has past and the whole mountain isn't quite open, but it's not far off.

The last few years, we've been limited to a few runs on artificial snow well into December; those lovely yet lonely strips of white on hillsides of brown. This season, all was white weeks ago. In fact, snowfall for the month of November at Summit Patrol added up to 63 inches, well above our 36 year average of 47 inches (the last five years we barely topped 30). So far all this snow has (fortunately) not been our typical light, fluffy, Utah powder, but more Sierra-like. Not so good for powder skiing but PERFECT for laying down a stout base. Over this last weekend we opened the McConkey's area and the Pinion Ridge side of Jupiter Peak; the earliest date in recent memory. We have been working hard to keep up with all the openings and we're not done yet...

 
If you've been around the last couple days you've no doubt heard the explosives of snow safety work in Jupiter. Other than one rather impressive avalanche we pulled out of West Portuguese, overall the snowpack has been behaving.   If all continues on track, we are scheduled to have Jupiter open Thursday morning. While it isn't "in your face" powder skiing (again, our dense snow), I can say conditions are pretty darned good. We spent the last two days working the Scott's side and coverage over there is great. Those of you who have been in McConkey's or the Peak over the last few days will most likely agree that the Upper Mountain looks better than it has in years at this pre-holiday point of the winter.

Before you all go charging out of the Jupiter gates though, I do need to get on my soapbox a bit. As good as things are, we still need to remember that early season conditions do exist up here. This is not the time to drop aggressive lines through steep trees or blindly huck every bump, rock, cliff, or cornice. We are not even two weeks into what we hope will be a long and snowy season; it would be a shame to end yours now with an injury. By all means enjoy this wonderful early snow, just take the time to step back and perhaps dial things down a bit.

Be careful and I hope to see you out there. Stay tuned for additional terrain openings expected for Saturday.

Lift Evacuation Training Video

Have you ever wanted to go behind the scenes of a ski resort? Here's your chance. Tag along with Park City Mountain Resort's mountain patrol as they perform their annual lift evacuation training.

David Weiss of PCMR mountain patrol explains the process of rescuing an adaptive skier and their National Ability Center instructor.

This video was shot on October 22, 2010 on the Bonanaza chairlift.

Halfway to Winter: A Midsummer's Night Post

Yes, It's me. You may be surprised to see a post from 406 in July. No more surprised I'm sure than Eric, Krista, and the rest of the PCMR staff who figure I drop off the earth this time of year. 

I took note of today's date and realized we're at a halfway point. Halfway through summer, halfway to next winter; however you prefer to look at it. You see, three months ago this week we closed our winter operations for 2009-10 and three months from now, we (the patrol) start our early training for the 2010-11 season. While it really feels like summer just started (we had a pretty good snowstorm over Father's Day weekend) folks are already getting set for the upcoming winter. I think Hutch even started to dig into the hiring process for our latest crop of rookies and I'm making preparations to travel with Colin in October to the biennial International Snow Science Workshop (held this year at Squaw).

For now, it's time to embrace the now and the heat of summer. Today I took a long ride up in the hills along just a bit our extensive network of single-track. Had great views along the Wasatch Crest of the high peaks and wildflowers.

 

I even ran into the PCMR sawyer crew (all patrollers of course) on their lunch break where CMG meets the Mid Mountain Trail at Hidden Splendor. Speaking of winter preparations, they are thinning the woods between Powder Keg and Assessment to open up some new lines. It was good to see Andrew, Jeff, CB, Manky, Ben, Mandy, Mike, Tessa, and Stu (nice pants by the way Stu). We shared some lunch and laughs; generally caught up on the last few months of our lives.

In a couple weeks my wife and I will pack up the dogs and head out to our camp on Lake Superior for the rest of the summer. A chance to trade the mountain bikes for road bikes, canoes and kayaks; trade world-class Park City cuisine for fried fish, pasties (pAAst-EEs) and beer. When we return in late September, we'll be that much closer to the first snowfall and another winter season. Until then, be sure to get outside and enjoy the Wasatch in summer.

Park City Mountain Resort Avalanche Rescue Dog Team Receives International Training

Park City Mountain Resort’s Andy VanHouten and two and a half year old yellow Labrador Retriever Zeke recently returned to Park City after traveling to Switzerland for an intensive search and rescue training program.

“Traveling to Switzerland, was an amazing experience and opportunity for Zeke and I”, said Park City Mountain Resort patroller Andy VanHouten. “We have been able to bring back a wealth of knowledge to share with the other dog teams both here at Park City Mountain Resort as well as other teams across the Wasatch.”

While in Switzerland, Andy and Zeke completed seven days of training with some of the elite search and rescue dog teams from around Europe. Andy and Zeke performed a number of drills and rescue scenarios. The team excelled at their training and showed what a great asset they are to Park City Mountain Resort. The program focused on several different components of search and rescue, including new beacon techniques, probe lines, and advanced shovel techniques for extremely deep burials. Both handler and dog were flown into test sights to practice working with the distraction of helicopters over head to simulate a real life experience.

The avalanche rescue dog program at Park City Mountain Resort is an integral component of the emergency search and rescue plan both at the Resort and throughout the Wasatch Range. The team works closely with Wasatch Backcountry Rescue, a non-profit agency, and area sheriffs departments. The Resort’s five dog teams train and test regularly to be ready for immediate deployment in the event of an avalanche anywhere in Northern Utah.

Most of Park City Mountain Resort’s avalanche dogs start their career on the mountain at 7-10 weeks of age and will spend two years in training before they can be certified for search work. By the time they are certified, they will have found dozens of buried volunteers in simulated drills. Patrollers interested in the search and rescue program will volunteer to act as “victims” and be buried in snow caves 2-6 feet deep for dogs to sniff out. A standard dog test will incorporate two such burials in an area the size of two football fields, as well as buried sweaters, backpacks and other items. The snow surface will be completely disguised and no surface clues will be visible. A successful dog team will locate and dig up both “victims” within 20 minutes.

Andy and Zeke’s Swiss training follows previous rescue dog teams’ special training across the globe at locations including Stephen’s Pass in Washington and Fernie, British Columbia. At Park City Mountain Resort, a certified avalanche rescue dog is on duty every day of resort operations. They may be spread about at any of the Patrol locations, but you will likely see them riding chairlifts, snowmobiles or skiing with their patrol handlers.

Time to Catch Up

Another Wednesday slipped by and I did't get my in weekly post. Apologies; I took the day off and met my Old Man (father) in Salt Lake at good old Carl's Cafe for some breakfast and catch-up time. Despite my folks living only 20 minutes away at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, I haven't seen much of them lately. A two week storm cycle can do that.

Speaking of which, I ran the numbers for the cycle and from January 18 to 28 we picked up 79 inches in Jupiter and 60 at the Summit. Then a few days later we had a little "freshener-upener" storm that gave us 10 more inches. With the opening of Lower Pinecone last Friday and Gobbler's Knob on Monday, we are 100% open. Well okay, almost 100%; there are a couple gates that allow upper access to areas open below that are still closed, but these are obscure. I will stick with my "100% of our ridable terrain open" statement.

The backcountry situation is still a bit of a dangerous crap shoot. The Utah Avalanche Center has lowered it's advisory to a "scary moderate." Translation: while many of the large paths have released and other areas are settling out, the avalanche dragons are still lurking out there just waiting for the right trigger. Especially sketchy are upper and mid-elevation ENE-facing bowls and knobs. Last weekend folks got out as they often do and there were two avalanche fatalities. Now it's again Friday afternoon, it's looking to be a fairly nice weekend with some small storms, traveling conditions have greatly improved (no longer slogging through waist-deep snow) and again I say with grim confidence that there will more more accidents. I can also say however that I have been spending some time skiing low-angle north-facing trees and meadows and finding lovely conditions. If you are touring or riding your sleds, may be another good weekend to stick to such spots.

One final good-karma story for the week. Yesterday we had a call that a guest had dropped his watch in the closed area under the bottom of Silverlode. The liftie asked for permission to go in there and help him (right thing to do, thanks). Then a few moments later the guest himself called panicked that he had lost his very $$ watch. Jimmy went down with the metal detector to offer a hand. Mission was accomplished, guest was very pleased, Jimmy was rewarded with a generous gratuity. Happy to say we'll be closing-out our week at the Corner Store tonight spending said gratuity. Thank you sir and we were glad to help.

A Fallen Pard

Just finished snow blowing the drive at home after an 11 hour day. It was one of those annoying storms; windy with wet snow showers at the resort that didn't amount to much, and 4 inches at home. 

I planned to post today about the ignorant, uneducated avalanche experts out there who continue to violate our closures and mock our program. There are still folks out there who think we close runs and bowls "to save them for ourselves" and just don't understand the consequences of going into such places. Just this morning I was skiing under the Crescent lift line with Joel and Jonathan to see if we could open it. With every turn we were hitting stumps and logs, literally risking limb to see if we could open yet another run for you, our skiing/riding public. Some yahoo on the chair rode over us and made some idiotic comment. People like that just don't get what we do as part of our job. What we do for them for relatively meager pay so they have somewhere to ski or ride. Again, I had planned to write about this today; then we found out about a tragedy at another resort that really put things into perspective, that really reminds us what can and does happen as part of our job.

This morning at 8:30 in Jackson Hole a veteran patroller, Mark Wolling was caught, buried, and injured in an avalanche while doing control work. I was able to find more details at the Jackson Hole Daily. Tonight "Big Wally" is in critical condition at the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls. Tonight I raise a pint to Mark. Our thoughts and best wishes are with him, his family, and our brothers and sisters at the JHMR Ski Patrol.

The Stick of Dumb

On Friday evenings we, the patrol, gather at our local pub for some end of week decompression. As part of this "safety meeting" we have a tradition of presenting one patroller with the Bad Judgment Award, otherwise known as the Stick of Dumb.

The Stick of Dumb is nothing more than a broken ski pole with grips on both ends decorated with tassels. The patroller in question must ski with it on his or her pack until the following Friday. A sort of memento or reminder of his or her actions. At the following Friday's "meeting," he/she is responsible for presenting the award to another patroller who has made that week's bad judgment. This week, the honor went to one of our rookies who failed to exactly follow Colin's instructions when we were out on a boot-packing mission. It's always bad judgment not to listen to the instructions of our Snow Safety Department.

Our recent large storm and subsequent terrain openings have me thinking of bad judgment. We finally were able to open some of our steeper terrain off areas like McConkey's, Thaynes, and the Font Side. Understandably you, the skiing/riding public have been dying to get at these spots for your first powder fix of this young season. As we opened McConkey's yesterday morning I watched the thundering herds fly down the bowl at maximum warp. Though we deem something open and skiable, the cover is thin and now is not the time to go charging down runs like it was mid-season on 6 feet of snow. Please use a little caution and "ride light" as we often say in the backcountry. There's plenty of season ahead; it's way too early to earn your own bad judgment award.

Yes, It Is April

It has been quite a long time since I last posted; early March I think. Sorry about that, but it is a measure of how good the season was for us. It never stopped snowing long enough for me to have the chance to sit down and think of something useful to say. The best I could've come up with would have been something like, "snowing again; gotta go home, dig out the house and go to bed so I can get up at 4 AM and do it all over tomorrow."
That said, some final numbers for the season from our standpoint:
406 inches of snowfall at the Summit weather plot; the first time in 34 years we've gone over 400!
500 inches of snowfall at the Jupiter weather plot; only the 3rd time in resort history we've hit that number.
On closing day we had 10 FEET of settled snow depth at our Jupiter plot and every chairlift open (Jupiter Peak too!); the first time in a long time many of us can remember that happening. Judging by the party at the top of Jupiter Peak on Sunday afternoon, I'd say many many locals were pleased with that.
Since there is still SO MUCH snow and all the runs are still in great condition, I'm sure there's many locals out there who plan on "touring" the resort until the snow melts. As we leave the resort and head off for multiple adventures outta town, Colin, David and I just want to leave the locals with a reminder that there is no more avalanche control work being done. Treat the area like the back country and use all appropriate precautions (good route finding and travel skills, along with beacon, probe, and shovel). Especially if we get a rapid warm up when there could be a REAL danger of wet loose and slab avalanches.
Have a safe spring and summer and we hope to see you again next winter.

Belle is Back!

About a week ago I put up a post from Hutch, one of our Mountain Patrollers, describing the class that he and Belle were heading to up in Fernie. They're back and here's a follow up note from Hutch (and Belle):

What pleasant welcome home for Belle and I: a beautiful bluebird day-and-a-half with lower Pinecone open. It's dark in British Columbia. The daylight gained moving south a few degrees of latitude us just another reason to love Park City.

While the daylight was short, the education was substantial. We worked from 7am to 9pm. All day in the field setting up training exercises for the 35 dog teams from around Canada and the US, and evenings in the classroom looking at advances in search and rescue techniques, equipment and philosophy.

Belle Starr and I worked harder and harder drills each day until Friday when we had the opportunity to attempt a validation under the rigorous Canadian standard. You know how it comes out, of course!  Belle and I are the only team from "the States" to validate for 2008. So home again, knowing that our program is one of the best in North America and loaded with ideas from our northern friends on how to make it even better.

Best of luck to our next dog teams to start their courses and tests in a few weeks,  but I know they won't need it....

Hutch

Welcome back to both of you, enjoy all the new snow!

Jupiter part Duex

So yes Krista is right, we have been hard at it the last couple days trying to get more terrain open (nice post Krista, thanks). This latest storm came in with 20 inches of snow and 2 inches of water. In addition, we've had over 48 hours of ridge-top winds in the 40s to 60s. Needless to say, yesterday and this morning we had our hands full with snow safety work on the terrain that has been open so far. I'm happy to say (and proud of my crew!) that we had the Pioneer and McConkey's areas open by 9am after extensive avalanche control work AND we were able to get 17 more runs open for the season in the King Con and Ski Team areas by 10:30.

After a chance to "refuel" with coffee and a quick lunch, we headed up the Jupiter chair heavily armed for an afternoon of control work. Krista is right, we did have some significant results (ie BIG avalanches) in Portuguese, Main Bowl and First Bowl. I am glad to say, where we skied out, the coverage is greatly improved since we were last up there. All I can add to Krista's post, is that we'll do our best to get our work done in the morning (I'll be up at 4am again), and if all goes well with minimal surprises, we SHOULD have Jupiter open around mid-day. From our standpoint, with 3 more storms lined up for Sunday through Christmas night, we'd LOVE to get it opened so YOU can ski/ride it up before it gets buried again.

Thanks for your patience and we'll see you out there.