NOAA’s February Forecast for the United States of America If you live in California and you were hoping for a wet February, NOAA doesn’t share your hopes. If you live in Tahoe, you won’t want to look at these images nor read this article. Tahoe if forecasted to have an above average temperature February along with a below average precipitation February. Ugh. NOAA has released it’s forecast for the month of February in the USA. Temperature wise, we are looking at above average temperatures in CA, NV, ID, UT, AZ, NM, and much of the American South in February. […] Weather SnowBrains | January 24, 2014 1 Comment
Friday Fun: “I Hate Lake Tahoe” The first time we watched this video, I Hate Lake Tahoe, we couldn’t figure out if we thought it was funny or not. Upon further review, it is pretty comical. This is installment #2 of the 5 part series by Funny Or Die called “I Hate California. “It’s good to watch this vid as it helps ya realize that we’re pretty lucky here in Lake Tahoe. We’ve got a […] SnowBrains | January 24, 2014 3 Comments
Could You Self Rescue in the Backcountry? I love skiing in the backcountry. Touring, helidrops, slack country laps off the ski area boundary…all offer us a chance to get out into the mountain environment and play. Nothing, however, is without risk. Even when we take steps to mitigate our risk, be it through good decision making, proper equipment or looking at the snow, we can never truly eliminate danger in these pursuits; residual risk will always be present. This can be from injury, malfunctioning gear or just simple accidents due to bad luck. What kills me, especially from the viewpoint of a rescue professional, is that so […] Featured Article SnowBrains | January 24, 2014 0 Comments
Grand Targhee, WY Conditions Report Yesterday: Sunny Skies & Solid Coverage Fueled on some decent coffee in Driggs, Idaho, spurred on by a few centimeters of fresh snow overnight, plus some cool Moose sightings on route to the hill, we began the day yesterday with some sweet top to bottom groomers on great quality snow at Grand Targhee ski resort in Wyoming. […] Conditions Report Ryan Gormly | January 23, 2014 1 Comment
Broken Scapula, 3 Ribs, 3 Vertebrae, and a Collapsed Lung: “All For the Love of the Game” With winter beginning to move in more and more, excitement for what is to come fills the atmosphere. Snow is falling, people are embracing Ullr, and an enthusiastic vibe runs throughout Teton Village. But for me, I am happy and ecstatic just to be able to ski after I had one of my most life threatening […] Featured Article Bryce Newcomb | January 23, 2014 3 Comments
PHOTO TOUR: Bridger Bowl, MT – A World Class Community Ski Area Bridger Bowl, located about 20 minutes outside of Bozeman, Montana provides high quality skiing experiences for everyone. This non-profit ski area is steered by a volunteer board of directors. This business model, which is unique, allows Bridger Bowl to put the money back into the quality of their product, the skiing experience. Its hard to […] Featured Article SnowBrains | January 23, 2014 2 Comments
Brain Post: 1% of Earth’s Population Controls 50% of Earth’s Wealth New Study Finds A new study published by Oxfam states that 1% of the world’s population controls about 50% of planet Earth’s wealth. This study was published just before the upcoming World Economic Forum’s annual meeting at Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, beginning January 22nd, 2014. • Almost half of the world’s wealth is now owned by just one percent of the population. • The wealth of the one percent richest people in the world amounts to $110 trillion. That’s 65 times the total wealth of the bottom half of the world’s population. • The bottom half of the […] Brains SnowBrains | January 23, 2014 2 Comments
US Olympic Freeskiing Slopestyle and Halfpipe Teams Announced: After two weeks of competition at Park City, the US Olympic Freeskiing slopestyle and halfpipe teams have been announced. These 11 athletes make up four teams, the U.S. Olympic men’s and women’s slopestyle and halfpipe teams. For the 2014 Winter Olympics ski halfpipe and slopestyle were added to the winter sports competition. […] Olympics Chaz Diamond | January 23, 2014 2 Comments
Squaw: Upper Mountain Closed Due to Snow Making Pipe Burst The tough times continue at Squaw, with the Upper Mountain shut down yet again this year. This time the closure was due to a snow making pipe burst, causing the upper mountain to be shut down the past two days and likely leaving it closed again tomorrow. And the forecast continues to look dry for Tahoe, with no change in sight. Simply sunny skies and 50 degree temps. […] Conditions Report SnowBrains | January 23, 2014 9 Comments
VIDEO: TGR’s Award-Winning Austrian DEEP Powder Edit “Fieberbrunn is a placed with gauranteed snow,” said the elder Fieberbrunn local Sepp Pletzenauer when interviewed for the Austria segment of Way Of Life. “It has the open terrain, nobody around, beautiful powder snow, and I just go and make my path.” Sepp’s sagacious outlook on his home terrain proved to be more than accurate. The powder that Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, Dylan Hood, and Colter Hinchcliffe found there after a seven-hour […] SnowBrains | January 23, 2014 0 Comments
Chalk and Light Flurries: Jackson Hole Conditions Report There’s no denying it, when compared to the rest of the West Coast, Jackson has the snow. While high temps after the new year storms have led to some variable snow conditions on the south east aspects, the north facing snow is still smooth and chalky. The trees off of Sublette were holding some of the best snow we found, and Old Man Winter decided to pay a little visit bringing some light snow […] Conditions Report SnowBrains | January 23, 2014 0 Comments
Backcountry Essentials: How Wind Loading Works Powder Magazine just had Sean Zimmerman-Wall, a Snowbird, UT ski patroller write up a great piece on how wind loading work and what to watch out for. Strong winds create some of the most dangerous objects in the mountains: wind slabs. Wind slabs cause avalanches and avalanche are to be avoided at all costs. Sean Zimmerman-Wall is a full-time ski patrolman at Snowbird, an avalanche educator, and an Andean mountain guide. Check in on […] Featured Article SnowBrains | January 23, 2014 2 Comments
NASA: California Drought Getting Worse… | Powerful Comparison Images of 2013 vs. 2014 The California drought is getting worse. It’s so bad, that NOAA just wrote an essay about just how bad the CA drought is and created these images for us to understand just what they’re talking about. 2013 was a dry year for California, but it has nothing on 2014 so far. January is on track to be California’s […] Weather SnowBrains | January 23, 2014 2 Comments
USA to Send Warships to Russian Olympics for Athlete Extraction: Security will be a major concern at the Sochi Olympics next month. The USA Government isn’t going to take any chances with its top winter athletes. They’re sending several warships and aircraft to Russia as a way to remove American athletes if anything gets weird. […] Olympics SnowBrains | January 22, 2014 0 Comments
The Gift of Sun in Japan in January: Photos & Video In Japan, in January, it’s supposed to snow and snow a lot. They usually get about 300 inches in January. Not this year. This year, we’ve been in a cycle of snow then sun then snow then sun in place of the usual snow everyday. This year’s cycle has been great for getting up high and skiing some of the more exciting lines in the area. The X-factor has been the avy conditions. We’ve backed off of […] Conditions Report Miles Clark | January 22, 2014 0 Comments
VIDEO: Skier Airs Into Avalanche @ Berthoud Pass, CO This video shows us a skier who airs into his an avalanche that he triggered at Berthoud Pass, Colorado. He was lucky as the avalanche was on the smaller side and he was able to stay on top. Please check the Colorado Avalanche Information Center website before heading out into the Colorado backcountry. I was caught in an avalanche on Saturday at Berthoud Pass. Poor decision [.,.] Avalanche SnowBrains | January 22, 2014 2 Comments
VIDEO: How To De-Ice a Chairlift | by Timberline Lodge, OR Every wondered how ski resorts de ice the chairlift cables after a big storm or an rime or ice event? Us, too. This video shows us exactly how it’s done. Basically, you need some chairlift ninjas, a snowcat and some rope, and some serious know how. MHR crew Tim Douglass and Hette Olyano head up to document deicing the haul rope on the Magic Mile chairlift at Timberline Lodge and Ski Area – Timberline Lodge ski resort, OR […] SnowBrains | January 22, 2014 0 Comments
Tahoe Crew Hits Utah Hard | Video Conditions Report: California is experiencing its worst drought on record which means that Tahoe ain’t pretty right now. It hasn’t actually snowed yet in Tahoe this year. Utah, on the other hand, has done pretty well. They’re certainly below average in the snow department, but they’ve got snow, they’ve had powder days […] Conditions Report SnowBrains | January 22, 2014 0 Comments
Snowbird, UT Conditions Report for Yesterday: Chalky Goodness Snowbird ski resort in Utah recently got some big storms that filled the place in well. They’ve gotten 158″ of snow this season and they have a base 60″ deep right. The powder is mostly gone now, but we had a variety of good skiing all over the mountain yesterday. Lupine Loop, Bassanova, and Junior’s powder paradise were all great in the morning, with Mineral Basin basking in sunshine. Regulator […] Conditions Report SnowBrains | January 22, 2014 0 Comments
Whistler’s “Deep Winter” Winning Slide Show by Zoya Lynch Every January, Whistler Blackcomb hosts the “Deep Winter” photo competition. One photographer selects a group of athletes and they spend a week gathering the best images they can from inbounds at Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. At the end of it all, each team puts together a 4 minute slide show and submits it to the judges. This is the winning slide show: Winter Canvas […] SnowBrains | January 22, 2014 0 Comments
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