Winter 2012/13

2013 Speaker Series

2013 Speaker Series

Utah Adventure Journal, in conjunction with Snowbird Resort is pleased to announce the 201/2013 Adventure Speaker Series, taking place at the Wildflower Lounge at the Iron Blosam Lodge at Snowbird, on nine Thursday nights this winter.  Come and meet some local Wasatch adventurers, and hear their motivating and inspiring tales of high adventure from around […]

Ski Links Extraordinaire in the Wasangeles Wilderness

Ski Links Extraordinaire in the Wasangeles Wilderness

  More backcountry skiers per acre than any other national forest…tracks everywhere…the Wasangeles Front is a (justifiably) popular ski touring haven.  Yet just a few trailheads and a tiny, user-friendly fraction of the available terrain sees the vast majority of the ski tourer visits. Easy access and moderate slopes attract most tourers to the multi-use […]

Coalpit Headwall, 1975

Coalpit Headwall, 1975

It was hard NOT to notice it. Every time we would look to the west, out of the window in the patrol shack on Hidden Peak, it was there, arguably one of the most impressive features in Little Cottonwood Canyon, the Coalpit Headwall.   We didn’t know if it had ever been skied, or even […]

The Science of Chairlifts

The Science of Chairlifts

Skiing has come a long way since the world’s first chairlift debuted in 1936 in Sun Valley. Developed by an engineer, the one-chair lift was inspired by the design of a conveyor belt that was originally built to efficiently load bananas onto cargo ships. With a few modifications to the banana hooks (replaced with seats) […]

A Day at Voile

A Day at Voile

  Considering the joy that a single pair of skis can bestow, one must think these wooden planks are born from the intercourse of all things awesome, like a byproduct of beer, snowflakes, and avalanche rescue dogs that magically rises pre-molded and ready to ride from an embryonic goo that smells like alpine wind, all […]

Mountain Facets

Mountain Facets

On November 13, 2011, the mountains above Salt Lake experienced a heavy winter storm. Because the fall had been so dry, the snows from October had turned rotten. During the days prior strong winds scoured most of what remained, but not all. There were twelve human triggered avalanches reported in the Wasatch that day. Several […]

Last of the Desert River Rats

Last of the Desert River Rats

    I came out of my room at one of the lodges near Lees Ferry, Arizona and there he stood in the parking lot. Eyes crinkled. Hair white.  Faded blue, quilted coat with duct tape on the sleeve. As a young man he had walked thousands of miles through canyon country, often alone. As […]

A Well Kept Home is a Sign of a Wasted (Outdoor) Life

A Well Kept Home is a Sign of a Wasted (Outdoor) Life

“The cat peed on the carpet again!” My wife’s disgusted voice echoed up from the basement as I gathered my mountain bike helmet and gloves, reminding me of the fact that we needed to tear the whole floor out thanks to an incontinent, old long-hair with a sudden aversion to anything even resembling a box […]