I stopped by the Slug Games at Brighton today. I got there a little late because I spent the morning teaching my 3 year old how to shred, and then the lunch hours riding with my 14 year old neighbor. The Candyland Jam seemed well attended by groms, but, I ran into some friends and everyone seemed to be having fun. Check back here or check out Slugmag.com for the results.

via Slug Games – Candyland Jam | Ride Utah Blog.

One of the secrets though, is the tree skiing… The acres and acres of tree skiing. Glades, tightly packed, aspens, pines, they are all there and open to your tight turns. When we started, we cruised over to the Perseverence Bowl, this is on the 9,400′ Bald Mountain. People like to jump over the edge at the first chance they get, instead cruise down the shoulder looking for the trees. You get about 400 feet of untouched, untracked powder before jumping into the trees. We were still cutting fresh new tracks late into the afternoon on this little gem. As you make your way through the tall pines, take a minute to soak in the surreal beauty, and then look forward to the the next 5-10 faceshots that you are going to get.

If you want something new to look at, and want to trade pines for aspens, cross over to the Lady Morgan bowl, on the other side of this world class resort. Head up Empire Express, and then ride the north shoulder, following the signs over towards the Lady Morgan Bowl. On the top of the ridge, follow it past all of the tracks, keeping your eyes on the untracked lines that lie just beyond some trees. Once again, tree/powder bliss. If you are lucky, you will see the little booter that was built sometime this summer. My buddy Josh that I rode with hit it a couple times in the following video, even going inverted, inbounds… Don’t tell ski patrol.

After riding all day, there was still tons of powder. We didn’t even make it over to the Lady Morgan Express lift, or the Daly Bowl/Chutes. Bottom line, if you are looking for powder, cruise up to Deer Valley. It might be your favorite day of the year.

Deer Valley -Powder Day from Jake Spurlock on Vimeo.

From ABC 4

Two buddies, eighteen and nineteen year old from Cottonwood Heights were snowboarding down fresh powder and triggered an avalanche. One of them made it down safely, but the second was caught in it.

The force of the avalanche broke his snowboard in half as he tumbled down the mountain face first, then feet first, and even hit trees before coming to a stop, half-way buried.

His buddy helped dig him out.

Both of the boarders are okay, but they did get a warning from rescuers that they are very lucky to be alive.

They were in a very dangerous area and signs were posted warning that there was no avalanche control in the area.

To check avalanche conditions, go to http://utahavalanchecenter.org/.

Lets be safe people… When going out of bounds, wear a beacon, tell a friend, and practice avalanche safety.

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If you are on Twitter, make sure to follow me, Kendall and the SkiUtah Yeti…

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The day after Christmas we raced up to Deer Valley because over night they recieved 28 inches of blessed powder! We skied hard all day and Heather got some great pics of me jumping of cliffs, and I even did a back flip and landed and skied away, but the batteries were dead by then.

via Rags n’ Stuff: Happy New Year!.

Josh Ragsdale up at Deer Valley Utah from Jake Spurlock on Vimeo.

Well, it happened, the whole mountain is open at Brighton. That’s right, from Great Western, all the way over to the slippery slopes of Mt. Millicent; Brighton is all the way open. When I pulled into the parking lot today, Millie was running, but seemingly without any passengers. The lot fellers pointed me over towards Great Western, and I ran up the hill. Probably my favorite part of the day was charging down the face, being a little to confident in my turn, and falling over backwards and sliding down the hill. 

That’s right. I fell.

Gloriously.

In 

I got down to the lift to hear that Millie had just opened. Sweeter words had never passed my ears. After taking the short route across the parking lot, I found 21″ of fresh, new, virgin snow waiting for me. Christmas came early. 

The ride up Milly was quick. Even after a year, I don’t think that I am used to having a high-speed quad over on Milly.

With even more Snow in the forecast, this makes for a great week of skiing.

If have skied at Brighton in the last few weeks, you have likely been staring at Great Western and Milly, ready to trade a limb to get over to the fresh snow. Well, the day has half come with Great Western opening up. If you are headed up today, look for me taking powder laps around Endless Winter. If I’m not there, likely getting air on the huge roller at the bottom of Silver Spur.

Six inches at the base means lots of freshies up top… Viva Great Western!

Then head up to Brighton this Friday night! X96 and Brighton are sponsoring a best trick contest this Friday at 7:00PM. It will take place at the ever delightful, always Majestic Terrain Park. Some details:

• Ride for 60 minutes, the judges choose the best tricks throughout the session. 
• Top 3 tricks, plus best slam win prizes! 
• Contest is FREE
• Skiers and boarders welcome
• Register in the bus waiting area of The Brighton Center from 5:30-6:30 P.M.
• Must be 18 to enter or have a parent or guardian with you to sign a waiver
• Fireworks begin a 8:00 P.M.

Fireworks, free contest, and prizes. What could be better…

Brighton will opening for night skiing on Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Tickets will be $32. 
Night skiing is from 4 P.M. – 9 P.M. Monday – Saturday

If you are looking to save a couple of bucks, you can pick up 2-1 passes at Arctic Circle that are good on Wednesday nights.