Last Chair: The Ski Utah Podcast

If you love skiing, take 30 minutes to listen to this conversation with Marge from family owned, Beaver Mountain. This episode of Last Chair exudes what the lifestyle of skiing is about. It’s something you simply don’t find in other sports. It’s a special place in Utah with some mighty fine skiing and riding, and the most celebrated ticket manager in the state: Marge!

From their favorite Utah ski runs to their 2002 Olympic memories, Fraser Bullock and Nathan Rafferty provide great insights about Utah's 2034 Winter Olympic Games and everything in between. 

This April, Raelene Davis will celebrate 40 years with the organization. She has served in her current role as Vice President of Marketing and Operations for 10 of those 40 years. Her face lights up with the biggest smiles as she recalls all of Ski Utah's creative marketing campaigns as well as the impressive and innovative engagement programs that she started from the ground up. Most of all, she remembers all of the people she’s met along the way.

The lifts are spinning now at Deer Valley East Village! The first major destination ski resort to be built in America in over 40 years is taking shape with the opening of the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley. How did this pairing of a Manhattan skyscraper developer and one of America’s most renowned resorts come to be? Ski Utah’s Last Chair sat down with Extell Development Founder and President Gary Barnett and Deer Valley President and COO Todd Bennett in the brand-new Grand Hyatt Deer Valley to learn more.

On this episode, Last Chair grabbed veteran UTA ski bus driver Doug Malmborg for a ride on the 972 line up to Solitude and Brighton. Malmborg shared his vast knowledge of the UTA ski bus service, plus some fascinating ski and mining history that he has gleaned growing up in the Cottonwoods.

David Miller, director of operations at Ski Utah partner Wasatch Squatters Brewing, has long had a passion for brewing beer. But also for doing it in a sustainable way. The popular Utah brewery, born in the resort town of Park City in 1986, has put innovative practices in place to recycle cans, used grain, water, and more. Last Chair headed to the Wasatch Squatters taproom in Salt Lake City to get insights from Miller and to enjoy a Last One Down lager, a beer brewed in partnership with Ski Utah.Miller grew up in Oklahoma – not exactly ski destination. But his parents were Colorado skiers, so the family often hit small hills in New Mexico with a few trips north to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. His passion for brewing first played out when he volunteered to help out at Oklahoma’s Prairie Artisan Ales. His brewery journey took him to North Carolina and then Dallas. While in Texas, his boss was in Utah, and the lure of the Wasatch – both the brewery and the mountains – brought him to Salt Lake City just a few years ago. He sees the mountains as a great place to raise a family, and his young kids are already ripping around Solitude.But as much as he loves brewing, his real passion is being a steward of the planet on which we live. It’s ingrained in Miller’s life, from the lessons he teaches his young kids to the practices he puts in place at Wasatch Squatters.“Sustainability does not always come easy – it's not just a flip of a switch,” said Miller. “So if we're able to do something more efficient and more sustainable, even though it may be really hard to do, we're going to take that challenge on.” It’s mid-day at the Wasatch Squatter’s taproom as guests slide up to the bar for a lunchtime brew. Meanwhile, Miller is diving deeper into the myriad ways Wasatch Squatters is creating ways to innovate its operation to be more sustainable.It’s about finding an effective way to recycle cans that are kicked off the bottling line. Or reusing water used to cool hot tanks during the process. Or finding a new home for the tons of grain used during brewing – which makes for some happy cattle on Utah ranches. Wasatch Squatters also substitutes nitrogen for carbon dioxide.“I couldn't imagine being part of an industry that didn't care about this,” said Miller.The conversation often swings back to his kids, who have learned early the importance of loading up the truck with cans to take to recycling. “I have two boys and just instilling sustainability practices in them is really important to my wife and I. And they’re already taking note of it – throwing their banana peels in the compost pile.”Those practices carry over to their day-to-day life, including their time on snow up in the Cottonwoods.“Every time I’m on the slopes with my family, I know I have to take care of this place. I pick up that piece of trash or recycle that piece of cardboard. And that carries through our business. And we know we’ve got a lot of people who get up on the mountain who have the same mindset – which is great.”Beer is a part of the culture of skiing. This episode of Last Chair takes you inside the brewery to learn about how Wasatch Squatters keeps sustainability a key priority. And while the sustainability practices at the brewery are on a high level, Miller easily relates them to things each of us can do ourselves. So grab a Wasatch Last One Down and enjoy this conversation with David Miller.

Steven Clark enjoyed the ideal skier’s lifestyle as a young boy living at the mouth of the Cottonwood Canyons. Today, he’s the avalanche safety program manager for the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT). As skiers and riders wind their way up Little Cottonwood Canyon, one of the most avalanche-intensive sections of highway in the world, he’s the one leading efforts to help keep us safe. Clark joined this episode of Last Chair from Snowbird to talk about innovative new technology that is helping to keep avalanche safety workers – and all of us on the highway – safe during winter storms.Many of us think about backcountry avalanche safety. Clark himself, when he was young, had the Utah Avalanche Center phone number posted on the family’s home phone. But it’s doubtful many of us think a lot about avalanches as we travel mountain highways every winter. We think about the plows that clear the roadway for us. But what’s up above might be largely out of our minds as we wind up State Route 210 for eight miles towards Snowbird and Alta.In those eight miles from the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon up to Alta, there are 64 identified, named avalanche paths that can impact the highway. While the ski resorts all manage avalanche safety in their boundaries, it’s up to UDOT to mitigate the danger on the highway. From howitzers to hand charges, UDOT avalanche safety teams work to keep all highways in the state safe for drivers and residents.For around 75 years military howitzers have played a pivotal role, lobbing shells across valleys to dislodge snowpack before it poses a danger to the highway. In 2007, UDOT began to look at alternatives to lobbing shells through the air. Today, howitzers are being phased out. As an example, in 2023 Alta retired its 105-mm cannon that had fired thousands of rounds of shells since being introduced in the 1950s by avalanche safety legend Monty Atwater.Replacing the howitzers is an array of remotely triggered devices installed on mountainside towers throughout the canyon. Towers from Wyssen Avalanche Control can be remotely activated to drop charges into the snow. Installations from GAZEX™ create a controlled explosion from which the concussive force triggers a slide. UDOT is using both systems, with new installations around Mount Superior will be in operation this season. There are now nearly 90 remotely-activated avalanche mitigation installations in the canyon between UDOT and the ski resorts. The new systems provide yet another level of public safety, eliminating the need to fire shells across the valley or to have avalanche safety workers conduct high-risk operations. In addition, UDOT employs a sophisticated array of avalanche sensors to analyze the snowpack and provide valuable feedback and updates.This episode of Last Chair provides some fascinating insights into the work done behind the scenes to keep us safe as we travel the Cottonwood Canyons to ski and ride. A well-known figure in the Utah snow safety community, Steven Clark is a great example of the dedication of the UDOT team that helps keep us safe.

When Dr. Jeffrey Rosenbluth left med school for his first job at the University of Utah in 2001, he already had a vision in mind. A skier himself, he wanted to bring that wind-in-your-face sensation of the sport to those who didn’t have the same personal mobility. Fast forward to today, Dr. Rosenbluth's pioneering initiative has led to TetraSki – a device that combines medical science with engineering to create remarkable opportunities for individuals with physical disabilities.In this episode of Last Chair, we head to the Mobility Garage of the University of Utah’s Craig H. Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital, speaking with Dr. Jeffrey Rosenbluth, along with program director of TRAILS Adaptive Tanja Kari, a six-time Paralympic champion cross country skier who was one of the heroes of the 2002 Paralympic Winter Games in Utah.TetraSki is truly a revolutionary mobility tool in sport. It features a customized chair attached to a pair of Rossignol skis. The engineering brains of TetraSki allow the operator to control the skis through a simple joystick. And if the skier doesn’t have the body functionality to manipulate the joystick, there’s a breathing tube – blow in or suck out, and the skis respond. A new innovation can also be attached to a functioning muscle, where muscular reflects are converted into ski movement.Yes, this is real! And there are now around two dozen TetraSkis around the world, providing mobility opportunities to those who might never have conceived that they might ski.Growing up in Los Angeles, Rosenbluth would always look for opportunities to get up to Utah for skiing. Wanting to spend his career in spinal cord injury medicine, when he saw a job opportunity in Salt Lake City he jumped at it.“After the first couple of years of getting settled here, it was obvious that we had this really tight, enthusiastic campus – people with engineering backgrounds and clinical backgrounds, other scientific backgrounds, and then the access to the outdoors is just unprecedented,” he recalled. “I don't think there's another academic center that has this. So there was just an obviousness to where we were heading and getting people excited about building new devices and getting out there and trying new programs – that was an easy sell.”Early in his tenure, he created TRAILS Adaptive – an acronym combining technology, recreation, access, independence, lifestyle, sports. TRAILS provided the first pathway to provide wellness programs and real opportunities for individuals. Kari was a young Finnish cross country skier when she visited Utah for the first time at the 2002 Winter Games. What stood out to her was that the same organizing committee managed both the Olympics and Paralympics – the first time ever! “We felt the difference in the Games for that,” she said, “in the level of expertise and perfectionism. It was just unbelievable for us.” Three years later, she found her way back and has now made Utah her home.She found a home at TRAILS Adaptive for very similar reasons. “As a Paralympian and being involved in this world for a long time in different roles, the fact that we have this mentality and space in the rehabilitation hospital – being able to meet those patients right when they're here with us and sharing the methods of active living – is really important to me.”It’s easy to geek out at the engineering in TetraSki today. However, the brilliance behind it goes back 20 years as Dr. Rosenbluth began mapping out the vision he brought from med school. “It was just this recognition that you couldn't just open up shop with just sports,” he said. “You had to really think about advocacy. You had to think about sports deeper than just participation – how could you be as independent at that sport as possible? And what if you didn't have transportation? You'd never be able to come and do the sport.“I thought at first we were really more of a think tank, going through all the different ways we could take folks, especially with more complex disabilities, and get them to participate more frequently to create life sports for some of our complex patients – and then do it at the highest level of independence and performance.”Ski Utah’s Last Chair podcast with Dr. Jeffrey Rosenbluth and Tanja Kari takes you inside one of the most innovative labs in the sport. It’s a fascinating – and emotional – journey showcasing the work being done at the University of Utah to provide the gift of skiing to those who can’t click into their bindings the same way that we do. 

Holly Booth, Beverage Manager at High West Distillery, Anna Seear, President of Ritual Chocolate, and Kayla Gaseau, Sensory Manager at High West, delve into the delightful marriage of whiskey and chocolate. They discuss the innovative process of aging chocolate in whiskey barrels, creating unique flavor profiles. Listeners learn about the evolution of the local distilling scene, exciting pairings, and the spirit of the American West. The trio also share personal adventures in Utah’s stunning outdoors, enhancing the experience of these artisanal treasures.