SWE: The Difference Between Blower Pow and Mashed Potatoes If you’ve skied blower powder or struggled through thigh-burning turns in fresh mashed potatoes, you’ve experienced SWE. SWE stands for snow water equivalent. The SWE of a particular snowfall can make for an epic powder day, a struggle through heavy snow, or even create dangerous avalanche conditions. Basically, SWE can be thought of as the amount of water covering the […] Lynn Barlow | September 5, 2020 1 Comment
Skis Are Older Than the Wheel | NPR Story What came first: the ski or the wheel? According to a recent NPR story, it was the ski. We’ve previously reported on the origins of skiing and how skiing is about 9,000 years old and from Scandinavia. This article proposes that skiing is 10,000 years old and from China. The birthplace of skis is under debate, but the ski is believed to be even older than […] SnowBrains | September 5, 2020 1 Comment
Six Ways to Snag a FREE Season Pass Be honest. The first time you saw the above photo of the vandalized Epic Pass billboard in Park City, UT, at least some small part of you identified with the vandal’s pain. Whether that was because of the cringe-worthy graffitied typo, or because you, too, had felt the frustration stemming from rising resort costs is for you alone to know. […] Industry News Reed Philips | September 5, 2020 0 Comments
Riders On The Storm: The Ultimate Guide To Living In A Van, Chasing Pow, & Slaying The Goods Every Day SO… You’re a so-called ski bum. Maybe you live in a ski town, or town near a resort, or battle it out with the other weekend warriors enough to associate with the periphery of a lenient definition of the term. Regardless, you’ve had epic days…and I mean epic days. The best day(s) of your life. Untracked lines. Free refills. You’re a hero. […] Brains Sergei Poljak | September 5, 2020 8 Comments
Dew Point and Avalanche Danger: A Beautifully Problematic Correlation Avalanches are a powerful force of nature that should not be reckoned with. They’re powerful, destructive, and hard to predict. There are so many factors that can contribute to snowpack instability, it’s hard to remember all of them. The goal of this article is to bring awareness to one of the most important of said factors. When it comes to […] Avalanche Clay Malott | September 4, 2020 0 Comments
How Weather Conditions Affect Wildfires Weather conditions affect wildfires in three key ways that can lead to easier suppression or an out-of-control blaze. The three major factors for the development or suppression of a wildfire are wind, humidity, and air temperature. Wind Wind is the most obvious driver of a wildfire. As the wind picks up it flattens out the flames, bringing them closer to ground […] Fire Alex Camerino | September 3, 2020 2 Comments
Using Reforestation for Avalanche Mitigation: Does it Work? A new study suggests that strategic reforestation may help to mitigate avalanches in certain areas. SLAB Laboratory, based in Vaud Canton of Switzerland, studies the physics of avalanches using computer-generated models fed with historic avalanche data. Researchers were interested to see how wildfires in 2018 affected the winter avalanche cycles in the mountains around Vaud. Related: Lake Tahoe Tree Deaths Double […] Avalanche Alex Camerino | August 28, 2020 5 Comments
7 Downsides to Being a Snowsports Instructor Being a snowsports instructor is often a rewarding and fun occupation. You spend your day out in the fresh air, doing an activity you love, and getting to share that activity with other people. As with most jobs, however, there are plenty of not-so-great aspects to being an instructor. Long days, crying children, annoying adults, kids on chairlifts, arguing couples, […] Jenah MacGrain | August 24, 2020 1 Comment
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