Top 5 Ski Resorts on a Pow Day in North America Freeskier magazine just ranked the top 5 ski resorts on a powder day. We must say that we mostly agree with this list. For us, the top 5 zones for freeskiing in North America are Tahoe, Utah, Jackson, & Whistler. Interior B.C. should get a mention here, though. We would replace Heavenly with Revelstoke… […] SnowBrains | December 26, 2013 4 Comments
Behind the Curtains of the Calgary Ski Scene with 403Media If you enjoyed Sherpas Cinema’s INTO THE MIND Calgary segment with JP Auclair and Tom Wallisch, you know that Calgary, Alberta (where the segment was filmed) isn’t just a big city in the middle of farm and oil country, but also a mecca for urban skiing. 403Media spearheads the Calgary ski scene and played a key role in guiding and helping Sherpas Cinema through the filming of the Calgary […] Eric Behn | December 26, 2013 0 Comments
MSP Skis Peru’s Cordillera Blanca It appears that Red Bull has kicked MSP into high gear.Over the next couple of months, we’re going to be giving glimpses at our latest MSP project, Days of My Youth. Kicking it off is our trip to Peru’s Cordillera Blanca last June/July with James Heim, Sam Anthamattenn, Adrian Ballinger and the film crew of myself, Jason Ebelheiser and Canyon Florey. Enjoy! – MSP Director Scott Gaffney […] SnowBrains | December 26, 2013 0 Comments
“Keep Tahoe True” | Greg Lindsey “You could say that Lindsey is the typical Squaw skier, though he hates wasting a ski day to get his picture taken. For him, what many people see as ego and bravado at Squaw is actually just really good skiers having a really good time.” —Matt Hansen This is the last of a four-part series produced by POWDER TV that is based off the feature in our December issue, “Keep Tahoe True.” – Powder Magazine […] SnowBrains | December 25, 2013 0 Comments
VIDEO: East Vail Avalanche Buries Skier on Dec. 22nd An avalanche caught and nearly fully buried a skier in the East Vail Chutes in Colorado on Sunday, December 22nd, 2013. His brother captured the rescue on his GoPro camera. The East Vail Chutes are located between Vail Pass and Vail ski area. The skier caught in the avalanche, Edwin, received a knee injury. “Once I started sliding headfirst […] Avalanche SnowBrains | December 25, 2013 4 Comments
Squaw Christmas Day Conditions Report | Video & Photo Tour I’m not gonna lie, its not pretty out there people. Conditions in Tahoe are well, bad, meager, dry, not optimal, really just place any bad adjective here and it most likely applies. However, it’s what we got, and we have to make the best of it. While the conditions are not ideal per se, the skiing is still a lot of fun believe it or not. The holiday crowd was out in full force today, and from the looks of it, most […] Conditions Report Jesse Cassidy | December 25, 2013 2 Comments
Santa Delivers Deep Snow in Jackson Hole | 21″ in 48 Hours It appears that Jackson Hole was not naughty this year. Santa rewarded their good behavior with ridiculously fun skiing and riding, deep snow, and face shot. Jackson Hole has now gotten 21″ of snow in the past 48 hours. They’ve gotten 153″ this season. That’s not bad, especially considering how dry some other USA zones are right now. […] Conditions Report SnowBrains | December 24, 2013 0 Comments
California 2013 = Driest Calendar Year on Record by 20%… 2013 will be the driest calendar year on record. Not only is it the driest calendar year on record, but it’s the driest calendar year on record by a huge margin of about 20%. Ok, if you’re from California, that’s likely enough of that talk. What we really want to know is why. Why is California so dry right now California is so dry right now because of high pressure ridging. We’ve had high pressure in […] Weather SnowBrains | December 24, 2013 3 Comments
Alta, Utah Inbounds Avalanche Partially Buries 3 Today Three skiers were partially buried inbounds at Alta ski resort in Utah today. All three of the skiers were quickly excavated and all were uninjured in the avalanche. The slide was triggered by a skier at 11:45am today. The avalanche occurred in the Spot Slot zone above the famous High Traverse. Ski patrol assisted in the rescue. Avalanche danger was ranked at “HIGH” today in the Little Cottonwood […] SnowBrains | December 23, 2013 1 Comment
Pro Skier James Heim Discusses His Big Breaks… James Heim just did a great interview with SBC Skier and discussed his big breaks: 1. How he got his big break into MSP ski movies & 2. How he broke his back and pelvis badly at Whistler, B.C. We’ve excerpted those two portions of the interview. Read the full interview here: In the summer of 2002 our whole Rossland crew moved to Whistler to ski on the glacier. The rest went home afterwards, […] SnowBrains | December 23, 2013 0 Comments
San Francisco, CA = Driest Calendar Year in 164 Years It looks like 2013 for San Francisco, CA is going to be the driest calendar year since records began in 1849. Only 5.59″ of precipitation has fallen shattering the record of 9″ in 1917. California during 2013 in general had a dry water year (Oct. 1 – Sept. 30) but not the driest water year on record by a long shot. 15 other water years were lower than 2013. According to the chart above, the Sierra Nevada in January is predicted to receive a 200% increase from last January. Squaw only received […] Weather WeatherBrains | December 23, 2013 3 Comments
Santa Cruz, CA Conditions Report: 3-4 ft. @ Pleasure Point Yesterday With the holidays in full swing and Christmas only a few days away most people are running around trying to tie up and loose ends to make the holiday complete. While those of us here at swell brains have that somewhere in our mind our focus and energy is still directed toward the pursuit of our true happiness. This is achieved by pursuing our passions. While my focus of as of lately, outside of school, has been all things ski related, […] Conditions Report Ryan Mulcahy | December 23, 2013 2 Comments
10 Big Mountain Gear Essentials If you want to go big, there’s a few pieces of gear you’ll need to help get you there. Here is our quick list of 10 big mountain gear essentials to get you out and down in the safest and most stylish manner possible: 1. Marmot Freerider Jacket When you’re in big mountains, you are going to want gear that can hold up to the elements. The Marmot Freerider jacket is a perfect fit featuring GORE-TEX and fully seam taped zippers. […] Gear SnowBrains | December 23, 2013 0 Comments
13 Human Triggered Avalanches in Utah in the Past 4 Days Between Thursday, December 19th and Sunday, December 22nd, there were 13 human triggered avalanche in Utah this past week. The avalanche depths varied from 5-feet-deep to 1-foot-deep with most of the avalanche being 2-feet-deep. High elevation zones in the Cottonwood Canyons in Utah were rated at “CONSIDERABLE” avalanche danger over the weekend. Mid elevation zones were at “CONSIDERABLE” as well. […] Avalanche SnowBrains | December 23, 2013 1 Comment
Candide Thovex Skiing Dangerously Through Trees We all know that Candide is amazing in park, amazing on the big mountain, amazing at ski resorts, and now we have videographic evidence that he’s amazing in trees. We suspect that some/most of these shots are sped up. Nevertheless, Candide can mob through trees. It’s fun to watch how hard Candide charges in marginal conditions. I think this season we can all take a tip from his style. Even if it’s not great out, you can […] SnowBrains | December 23, 2013 2 Comments
Sugar Bowl Conditions Report: Fun Chalky Snow | Photo Tour: One issue that keeps coming up at Squaw and Alpine is icy groomers. Many people ski and ride a run of man made snow and the run turns icy. Sugar Bowl isn’t experiencing this. Many of Sugar Bowl’s runs are natural snow only and they’ve been left to nature. Lots of fun chalky moguls made Sugar Bowl a good time today. The groomers aren’t icy either. Sugar Bowl has the chairs Lincoln, Christmas Tree, White Pine, Jerome Hill, & Nob Hill open. […] Conditions Report SnowBrains | December 22, 2013 4 Comments
Mt. Bachelor Conditions Report 12/19/13 Photo & Video Upon arriving to Mt. Bachelor at 9:30am, it seemed like the day would be a partly cloudy and beautiful day with glimpses of Broken Top and the Three Sisters through the wispy clouds. An hour into skiing, however, the weather turned for the worse socking the mountain into a blistery white out. The white out was only affecting the skiing […] Conditions Report Bevan Waite | December 22, 2013 1 Comment
Avalanche in Kicking Horse Backcountry, B.C. Claims Life of 29-Year-Old Male Yesterday At 2:30pm yesterday, Friday, December 20th, 2013 an out-of-bounds avalanche near Kicking Horse ski resort claimed the life of a 29-year-old Alberta man. The man was reporting missing by a friend on Friday who was with the man at the time of the avalanche. Search and rescue teams probed for the missing man for 60 minutes before finding his […] Avalanche SnowBrains | December 21, 2013 0 Comments
Siberia & Shirley Lake Open @ Squaw Valley | Photo Tour: Squaw Valley had announced that they’d open Shirley Lake today, but to everyone’s shock and awe, they opened Siberia as well. Let us qualify that. They opened the hike to Siberia. The chair never moved. This system made it pretty darned fun, though. The hike was refreshing and the snow was perfect. Recrystallized powder rewarded all the hikers of Siberia today. […] Conditions Report Miles Clark | December 21, 2013 2 Comments
Mt. Hood Meadows Conditions Report: 12/18/13 Mt. Hood Meadows is one of three resorts on Mt. Hood and holds the most advanced terrain Oregon ski resorts have to offer. This season seems to be starting off slow, however, and much of the lower resort facing south(ish) is completely melted out. There are many runs that looks like this.. as you will see documented. Snow coverage is something that cannot be forced (to a certain extent), and the resort is doing everything it can to provide the access to it’s most filled in areas. Ski patrol […] Conditions Report Bevan Waite | December 21, 2013 0 Comments
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