Last Chair: The Ski Utah Podcast

Thinking back on it today, X Games champion Alex Schlopy still shakes his head. A homegrown product of Park City, Utah, in a month-long span in 2011 he won an X Games title in Aspen, became a world champion on his home hill at Park City Mountain and soared to Dew Tour gold in Snowbasin. In a roller coaster decade that saw the highest of highs and lowest of lows, today Schlopy is the happiest he’s ever been – an athlete ambassador for Ski Utah and looking forward to his first runs off Jupiter in the season ahead.Schlopy was born to athletic parents. His mother, Holly Flanders, was a U.S. Ski Team downhill star. His father, Todd Schlopy, played in the National Football League. His uncle, Erik Schlopy, was a Hall of Fame U.S. Alpine Ski Team star.In the mid to late ‘00s, Utah was the epicenter of the burgeoning new sport of freeskiing. Schlopy caught the buzz from his buddy Joss Christensen. They idolized stars like Tanner Hall and Simon Dumont. At just 17, Schlopy went to the Dumont Cup in Maine, outlasting over 100 amateurs just like him who wanted a shot into the event. He got it, launching a switch right double cork 1440, and soon found himself on the podium with his buddy Joss and future legend Tom Wallisch.The next season he cranked out win after win and found himself on top of the world in a new sport that was to make its Olympic debut in 2014. Then it all came crashing down.This interview is deep and emotional, coming full circle to the joy of skiing. Here’s a teaser:You're still having fun skiing?Oh, yeah. More fun than ever.Going back to your youth, what role did gymnastics play in your skiing success?Gymnastics has helped me throughout my whole entire life. And I think for any kid out there, having a baseline in gymnastics is huge. Just knowing how to use your body, learning how to flip and do all those things safely.What triggered your interest in freeskiing?When I transitioned into middle school, I met Joss Christensen and we started hanging out just as friends. He started showing me all these freeski movies with, you know, Tanner Hall, Jon Olsson, Simon Dumont. And I was like, what is this? I saw ski racing. I've seen moguls and aerials and I loved all that stuff, but this was the one that really clicked. It was artistic expression on skis. And I thought that was really cool.What role does Park City, Utah play in winter sport?I mean, this is the Mecca for that in my eyes. There's just so many kids out here learning how to do whatever winter sport they want and then having the facilities and the programs to push it as far as they want. And it's just a beautiful community.After the stunning 2011 season, what path did your career take?After winning those three events, X Games, World Championships, Dew Tour and then kind of stepping into that pro realm, big contracts started to come up and I kind of lost my drive to win. And I think that was my biggest problem. I hadn't really built the best work ethic. I had used a lot of natural talent my whole life, you know, and having overcome some of those injuries that really helped out. I didn't have to work as hard to get back, but it came to bite me after I did win, because I started to coast and I started partaking more in the party side of the sport. I was still doing okay. You know, I was able to stay top five, top ten, but I wasn't winning. And what it took for me to refocus was the announcement that the sport that we were getting into the Olympics for Sochi and I had a lot of ground to make up.In 2014, you missed that last spot on the Olympic team to your buddy Joss Christensen, who went on to win gold. It was a really beautiful yet bittersweet experience because Joss is one of the best people I've ever met in my life. He's incredible. I thought he was the best skier. He just couldn't put it down when it counted until that point. And he went and did it. So it was really cool. But behind the scenes, I was starting to struggle after that and watching him in the Olympics and my friends – it was like all that work I had just put in and I'd really changed my life quite a bit to make that happen and get that close. It shut off pretty quick and I started falling.You’re a few years past rehab and drug court. How did it help you get your life back?It's life changing.They always say, you know, addiction is like a broken brain and that means a broken person. So, how do you rebuild that? I mean, it's like your best chance because you can't rebuild everything in a short period of time. So there's something really beautiful about the recovery process.What's the sickest ski run that you've ever taken in Utah? Tiger Tail at Snowbird – lapping that last winter. It was endless smiles and joy.There’s plenty more from Ski Utah athlete ambassador Alex Schlopy! Buckle up for this episode of Last Chair as he takes us through the highs and lows of his career, finding sobriety and the sheer joy he feels today when he’s up on the mountain all for himself. <link>

It was a typical day at the USANA Center of Excellence in Park City, Utah as Olympic and Paralympic athletes were sweating it out on the training center floor, preparing for their winter competition seasons ahead. Sophie Goldschmidt, the president and CEO of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, talked to Last Chair from a meeting room looking out at some of the greatest ski and snowboard athletes in America.The U.S. Ski Team moved to Park City in 1974, initially setting up shop in the old Silver King mine buildings at the base of what is now the Bonanza six-pack at Park City Mountain. Today, the team is based at the USANA Center of Excellence with elite skiers and riders from across America making their training home in Utah. The centerpiece training center is just a short distance from sport training facilities including Soldier Hollow, the Utah Olympic Park and a host of ski resorts.Goldschmidt came to the team in 2021, just prior to the Beijing 2022 Olympics. A modern sport leader, she honed her management skills working for global retailer adidas, helping grow the NBC in Europe and Africa and running the World Surf League.Today, oversees one of the largest and most complex of the 50+ Olympic organizations in America with programs touching on XX different ski and snowboard sports programs – and now also included Paralympic sport.Last Chair covered myriad topics with Goldschmidt from her global experience to funding a team with no government support and, of course, the stars of skiing and snowboarding. 

Professor Powder and KUTV2 meteorologist discuss the record-breaking 2022-23 ski season in Utah, exploring the science behind the big snowfall, weather patterns, and the impact on avalanche danger. They share their personal skiing experiences and favorite ski days in deep snow, highlighting the efforts of ski patrollers and public safety workers in keeping everyone safe.

Over the past few years you’ve probably noticed the brand Stio on the slopes. Born in the Mountain West, the company has become known for its extensive colors and a serious focus on technical materials that are sustainable. Last Chair did a visit with Stio Senior Materials Manager Sandy Flint to learn more about its products, which are both revolutionizing outdoor clothing performance and utilizing technology which is more friendly to the environment we all love so much.Stio was founded in 2011 by Mountain West native Stephen Sullivan, who had previously started the Cloudveil brand. Stio quickly became known for its focus on core technical apparel, fun colorways and direct-to-consumer sales. Today, the company has its own Stio Mountain Studios at major resorts across the west, including Utah on Park City’s historic Main Street.Flint grew up in the Northeast, skiing around New England and taking family trips out west. “It was the mountains I loved – being able to hike, raft and ski.” He went to college in Colorado, then moved to Utah, teaching skiing at Solitude. With a degree in engineering and a background in art, he found his way into a graduate program studying fiber science and apparel design at Cornell. The combination of those technical skills with his passion for art landed him at Stio.What you quickly learn in talking to Flint is his passion for sustainability, and knowledge of how to find that pathway. Most of all, you learn that he’s not alone, working at a company focused on the future. Today, preferred materials comprise 48% of Stio's collection and the brand has a goal to meet 75% by 2025.We also learn that sustainability is about more than just raw materials. It’s an accounting of everything the company does from travel to manufacturing to shipping to recycling. Everyone in the company is accountable!In this episode of Last Chair, Flint dives deep into the science and history of membranes and other materials. One of the most notable transitions is the evolution from the polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-based Gore-Tex of the past to environmentally-friendly ePE membrane that is per- and poly-fluorinated chemical (PFC) free.

The Ski Utah Last Chair podcast takes a ride all the way up to Solitude and Brighton in Big Cottonwood Canyon with UDOT Cottonwood plow driver Shawn Wright. A veteran drive, Wright takes us up in a snowstorm riding shotgun in a 30-ton Mack plow truck as he talks about the life of a plow driver and how exhilarating it can be riding the canyons in the dark at 4:00 a.m. on snow mornings.

Utah gets a lot of snow! And as skiers and riders, our objective is to get up to the resorts as quickly as possible. But who takes care of that 30 inches of snow that fell overnight? And who mitigates that cornice hanging a thousand of feet above the highway? Last Chair took a ride with the Utah Department of Transportation Cottonwoods plow team, talking with Jake Brown and riding with Shawn Walker on a snowy Big Cottonwood morning.It’s just 13 miles up Little Cottonwood to Alta, 20 through Big Cottonwood to Brighton. But it’s some of the toughest snow terrain in the world. Little Cottonwood Canyon alone has nearly 70 notable avalanche paths which can easily take out a car or plow truck (yes, it has happened).When you walk into the plow shed tucked away in Cottonwood Heights, you are immediately struck by the enormity of the equipment. A fleet of 10 Mack trucks is complemented by two graders, two enormous snow blowers (and not the kind you use on your driveway), a couple snowcats and a handful of huge pickup trucks. Plus, there is an assortment of blades including a pull-behind that can add huge plow power behind the 35-ton Mack trucks. Brown got his start simply applying to a newspaper ad for plow drivers 22 years ago. He was working I-15 for UDOT when after work on a Friday he was told to report to the Cottonwood Canyons two days later to take over a new role. “My first day here was a storm and I got baptized by fire on what it would be like in the Cottonwood Canyons and never looked back,” he recalled. “I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”Shawn Wright is a Utah native who loves what he does. On a leisurely pre-dawn run up Big Cottonwood, he talks about his love for the state and its recreational resources. He chuckles as he talks about all he and his family do out in nature – “everything but skiing or snowboarding.”Jake and Shawn are typical of the men and women behind the plows. It takes a certain passion to report to the plow shed at 4:00 a.m. to open a road for skiers and snowboarders to get up the canyons.In this episode of Last Chair, you’ll learn about the challenges and the dangers. You’ll hear about trucks getting swept off the road by massive avalanches coming down from thousands of feet above. And you’ll hopefully gain an appreciation for what these crews do for us.If you’ve ever driven up Big or Little Cottonwood Canyon in a snowstorm, this podcast is for you. And even if you’ve dreamed about it! Listen in as Last Chair takes you behind the scenes with the UDOT Cottonwoods Plow Team. <<LINK TO PODCAST>>Here are a few snippets to get you started:Jake, what is it that you and your team do?Our role is to orchestrate and schedule the plows up and down the canyon and also take care of the freeway and all the roads leading to the canyons, basically all the state routes. So our responsibility is to make sure that we have enough people for the heavy equipment and the plows and to make sure that we have enough salt and and make sure that everybody's up and and going and need where they need to be and take on the storm. So we become a weatherman and a kind of a jack of all trades.As a plow driver, what have you seen change in the canyons?Well, we have a canyon road and we have great resorts and we have the Greatest Snow on Earth. And a lot of people like to come to Utah for that reason. And besides minor changes, we really haven't done anything to the road in the last 10 to 20 years. And so we were getting higher traffic volumes. More people wanted to come ski, the resorts were getting more people that wanted to ski their terrain. And so we had to change with it. We had to adapt some of our ways. We did things where we plowed, some of the traffic safety devices, different things such as islands, high-T intersections. We had to install them to make sure that people could flow out of the canyon and people didn't get stuck in traffic because we do have such a high avalanche area in the Cottonwoods.How dangerous is Little Cottonwood Canyon?There are 62 slide paths that can hit the road at any time in Little Cottonwood Canyon. And we've seen a lot of those run. I was actually buried in an avalanche with our communications manager in our pickup truck at Seven Turns. We were up there hauling a snow cat getting ready for avalanche control work that morning. And an avalanche came down and buried our truck completely. So at any time you can be hit by an avalanche. How about Big Cottonwood?Big Cottonwood Canyon? We deal with more what we call bluffs, you know, small little avalanches that come off the road. They can take up to a lane, and about five, 10-feet deep – enough to stop the road, enough to stop a car. We do have some bigger slide paths in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and those are monitored by an avalanche crew. Those haven't gone down and hit the road. But if they do, they will block the road in a major fashion. They are big slide areas and can go very big.What’s it like on a big snow day at 4:15 a.m.?So right around about 4:15, 4:20, the plows will enter the mouth of the canyon and start making their first plow up. Pretty amazing to see. They will have the front plow deployed with also two wings and heading up the canyon and pushing back as much as they can to get the road open. So they have a big responsibility to get all the way to the top of the mountain.Biggest storm that you can remember in your time here?Biggest storm? I think the biggest storm was probably the one that we got buried with the avalanche two years ago. It snowed over a foot in the valley and it kept snowing and snowing in the canyons. And I think we had almost 15 to 18 avalanches on the road. And some of those were 15 to 30 feet deep and some 50 yards wide. So it was a massive cleanup effort.How Can we Help?While there is roadside parking in some areas, pay attention to restrictions and always park to the right of the white line. Think about a plow truck with front and side wing blades coming through. Are you blocking the road? Will you be digging out later in the day?Get TractionKnow the Utah traction laws and make sure that your vehicle is in compliance before you head up into the Cottonwoods. Don’t be that person who is in the canyon unprepared!Give ‘em RoomIf you see a plow truck, give them some space. Don’t worry, they’re not looking to beat you to Milly Express. By the nature of what they do, plow trucks scrape snow, rocks and dirt. You don’t want that in your windshield!Park PrudentlyWhile there is roadside parking in some areas, pay attention to restrictions and park prudently. Think about a plow truck with front and side wing blades coming through. Is your car safe? Will you be digging out later in the day?Say Thank YouThe UDOT Cottonwoods Plow Team is a collection of men and women just like you – except they don’t ski. They spend their hours keeping the road safe for you. Give them a wave or flash your lights in appreciation. It’s a tough job.

As skiers and riders, we hate to think of melting snow. But to Dr. McKenzie Skiles, snow melt is the lifeblood of existence in the mountain west. Last Chair ventured up Little Cottonwood Canyon to join Dr. Skiles in a three-meter deep snow pit to talk about snow melt, the impact of desert dust and what the future holds in store.An Alaskan native who started skiing when she was two, Skiles had a long fascination with snow. She chose the University of Utah for college because of the snow-covered Wasatch. And when she learned there was a course of study in snow hydrology, she was hooked. She also discovered the Utah backcountry, bought a split board, and ultimately decided this was the place to stay.Today, as an assistant professor in the U’s Geography Department, her passion is the study of snow – its water content, factors that influence the actual melt and how that water makes it’s way through creeks and rivers down to life-giving reservoirs. Her research facility is a short skin up the lower flanks of Cardiff Peak across from Alta to the Atwater Study Plot, named for Monty Atwater, the father of avalanche safety. The study area is cordoned off from passing skiers and snow shoers to preserve the natural snowfall. A meteorological tower contains an array of instruments. And measuring devices in the snow weigh the snow pillow to gauge water content.Once a week or more, Skiles and student assistants head up the trail to dig a snow pit, taking a variety of measurements of snow cores and evaluating dark layers of dust in the snow white walls. The information is carefully analyzed on site and back at their University of Utah lab.The thought of melting snow is something we all hope is many months out. But this episode of Last Chair provides some fascinating insights into how our snowfall turns into water and fuels our lives here in the mountain west. Here’s a sampling of the interview. Listen in to Last Chair to learn more. <<LINK TO PODCAST>>McKenzie, what is the Atwater Study Plot?Atwater is a snow energy balance study plot where we are measuring how the snow accumulates and how it melts out and what is controlling the rates of those processes.What do you do as a snow hydrologist?I am really interested in snow after it falls to the ground and I want to be able to assess how much water is held to snow in the mountains. And, very importantly, when that is going to be available as water downstream. So when and how fast will that snow melt? And that's really critical here in Utah and over the whole Western us, because up to 80% of our surface water comes from snow annually. So it's a really critical component of the water cycle in the west.How did you get into the field?I was interested in studying climate and the impacts of climate on snow cover in particular. But I didn't really know that snow hydrology and studying snow was a career path you could have until I went to school at the University of Utah. My graduate advisor who was a snow hydrologist, and as soon as I figured out that was a job you could have, I didn't really ever look back.How do you evaluate the particulates on the snow?Actually you can see a dust layer in this snow pit, it's pretty varied. So we're weighing the total amount of dust that's in the snow pack. We get multiple dust events through the winter and then they get buried by snowfall. And so there are these individual dark layers within the snow pit. So we can track those individual dust layers, but then they don't get carried away in the meltwater they combine at the surface as snow melts. And that is a compounding effect where each layer sort of comes to the surface, the surface just gets darker and darker, accelerating absorption of sunlight and snow melt.What’s a good melting pattern in the spring?The ideal scenario is that as days get longer and sunlight gets more intense in the spring and into the summer, that we get a gradual melt. We want snow to come out slowly. And what that allows us to do is to capture it downstream. It allows it to infiltrate into the soils and it avoids flooding. And if you have some sort of event like a big dust deposition event or sort of multiple really warm days in a row or something like a rain on snow event, you can have really rapid melt. And when you get really rapid melt, it can lead to flooding downstream – so too much of a good thing at once.Are others working in unison with you?There are very talented and dedicated scientists that work here in Utah looking at this issue spanning institutions: Utah State, University of Utah, BYU. It's sort of an all hands on deck situation. The recharge for the Great Salt Lake is coming from the mountains that are right next door. So we have a unique opportunity here to study this, as a system, but then also understand solutions for other areas, because this is not the only place where a saline lake is shrinking and disappearing. So we have the opportunity here to provide solutions not just for us, but for other people in other locations as well.Dr. McKenzie Skiles has a personal passion for snow, be that split boarding down a backcountry line or spending hours in the field researching snow melt.

Since the day he found an old pair of skis in his family’s hotel attic, Henri Rivers has found a special joy in skiing. It didn’t matter to him that he was the only black skier on his high school ski team. He just loved to ski. Today, as president of the National Brotherhood of Skiers (NBS), Rivers is making a difference helping the ski industry better understand how to embrace black skiers with programs like Ski Utah’s Discover Winter.The first thing that strikes you when you meet Rivers is not that he is black, but the importance of family and his passion for skiing that comes through quickly in a conversation. Before they married, he told fiancé Karen that he would be skiing six months a year. Without hesitation, she learned to ski and is always at his side. And it became the same for their triplets, who have long been a part of their family ski trips to the mountains!Since he found that old pair of wooden skis with leather thongs when he was 10, skiing has been a part of his life. He long ago discovered NBS and passionately engaged in the organization’s mission to put a black skier onto the U.S. Ski Team. It was pretty natural for the outgoing Rivers to take on the presidency of NBS in early March, 2020. What was not natural was the pandemic that swept the world a few weeks later, or the Black Lives Matter uprising that came that May.Within NBS, he held the organization together through the pandemic. Outside of NBS, he became one of the most sought-out leaders in the sport as ski industry executives from every corner reached out to him for help navigating the diversity waters.This month he will preside over the 50th anniversary of the National Brotherhood of Skiers when it comes together for Black Summit.But what he’s most proud of is the undying support NBS has provided towards its mission of advancing Black athletes in the sport. He speaks proudly of athletes of the past, and with eagerness when he talks about today’s Team NBS. And he’s set lofty fundraising goals for the organization to support the cause.“We're always hoping that people can see the value of what we do and donate to our cause,” said Rivers. “So once we decided or once they decided to come up with that mission. That's when we got a different drive. You know, we went from just partying and having fun on the hill to gathering funds to support young athletes of color so that we could promote them and get them to training, develop them into elite racers.”This is a conversation that blends the passion for skiing we all share, along with a special message of diversity. Take a listen to this episode of Last Chair featuring Henri Rivers: Bringing Diversity to the Mountain. <<LINK TO PODCAST>>How did you discover skiing yourself?I grew up in Jamaica, Queens, in New York. Around ten years old, my parents moved us up to upstate New York – a little town called Big Indian in the Catskills, about six miles from Belleayre Mountain and 10 miles from Phoenicia Ski Center. By Thanksgiving, you had three feet of snow outside. Either you stayed inside from Thanksgiving to March or you found a way to make all that snow out there your friend. I found a pair of skis in the attic of my parents' hotel – skis, boots and poles. I tried them on and they all fit.But how did you learn?I had no clue what I was doing. I figured out how to lace up the boots and strap in. They were cable bindings. I would put them on and I would just push off and go straight down the hill until there was an obstacle. And whenever a tree popped up, I would just tip over and fall. As a skier in the Catskills back then, you probably were the only person of color on the mountain. How was that?That was part of life. That's part of the American society. In most areas, if you're outside of an urban community, you're usually one of the only persons of color. Now you ratchet that up a little bit more when you're in a mountain community. You're definitely one of the only people of color. I was fortunate there was a guy a couple of years ahead of me in high school. He was such a phenomenal skier. And I'm telling you as a kid, my eyes would be wide open. You ask how it felt. It really didn't have any different feeling because that was society at that time. That was the community you were in. So just because we're skiing now, it's still the same community. If you were the only person of color, you will look at it a little differently, of course. You develop a thick skin because just living life was hard enough. Now you're into the ski world, into their environment. And it was the same thing. So you dealt with it the same way.This year we’re celebrating 50 years of the National Brotherhood of Skiers. It’s quite an amazing history.You know, that is something that I think about often going back to 1973, 1972. These two gentlemen (Art Clay and Ben Finley) decided to get together, form a bond and bring as many Black ski clubs as they could across the United States and gather them and get them to ski together. They wanted to ski together for several reasons. Camaraderie and definitely security. Getting together with a group of people that enjoy the same thing you do, and that look the same as you do, tends to give you a little bit higher safety factor. And then you wouldn't have to worry about some of the rhetoric or some of the things that were said in your direction because they wouldn't be said when you were there in numbers. So as a result of coming together and enjoying the sport and finding that many Black skiers were proficient skiers, it wasn't like a bunch of people skiing down, bumbling and falling. And, you know, they were quite proficient. And after the ski community saw that, I think they accepted it more and more.Henri, what role did NBS play in the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020?Everything stopped. May 25th, George Floyd gets murdered in the street, and we all see this. My phone rang off the hook every single day from the ski industry. We had large resorts, large manufacturers write letters in support of Black Lives Matter. So they were looking to the National Brotherhood of Skiers for guidance on how should they move forward in supporting human equality and to try to stop the racist system that exists.Henri, one of the things I’ve learned from you is that sometimes racism isn’t very overt. Can you give an example.The first thing that comes to me is this. You have a black skier or a group of black skiers that will come to a ski area. White skiers will come to them and, you know, be a little bit too overly helpful. ‘Oh, let me show you how to put on your boots. Oh, your boot goes here into these little black things called bindings.’ And, don't get me wrong, if you've never been on skis, you do need some guidance. But just because they're just coming up onto the hill doesn't mean they've never skied before. So you get people that want to help them or direct them. And sometimes it's a little bit too much. And that can be thought of as microaggressions that are unnecessary.You’ve been a big supporter of Ski Utah’s Discover Winter program. What makes it unique?They've done their homework and the program is going well. I was fortunate that Raelene Davis reached out and invited this out to watch the program and to be involved with one of the weekends. What they're doing is hitting a different demographic. The other winter outreach programs, they're l...

With each successive two-foot snowfall, skiers and riders at resorts rejoice. But in the Utah backcountry with no avalanche mitigation, that fresh snow often sits on a sugary, crusty weak layer and can be prone to sliding. Last Chair headed into the Utah backcountry with Utah Avalanche Center pro Drew Hardesty for a conversation in a snow pit, analyzing those weak layers from storms going back to October and talking avalanche safety.A seasoned avalanche safety veteran, Hardesty was a gracious backcountry guide, offering insights into the weather and how to prepare yourself to be safe.Our outing was a simple one, heading up from the Guardsman Pass Road trailhead at the upper reaches of Big Cottonwood Canyon, climbing through magical aspen trees up a low angle ridgeline on the western flank of 10420. Finding a clearing amidst the snow-laden evergreens, Hardesty skillfully dug a nearly six-foot deep snow pit.The conversation covered a broad range of avalanche safety topics, with insightful analysis into the layering created by each successive snowfall, and the weak layers of sugary snow between each – potentially a hazard when the snow facets don’t bond and the new snow breaks.Hardesty is part of a dedicated team of professionals at the Utah Avalanche Center, providing daily insights and forecasts, as well as education, to help keep backcountry skiers and riders safe.Listen in to learn more. Here’s a sample of Last Chair’s episode 8: Conversation in a Snow Pit with Drew Hardesty of the Utah Avalanche Center.Drew, set the stage for us on the avalanche problem we’re facing.Early season we had quite a bit of snowfall in October. It continued into early November and it really started to stack up. But then the storm shut down there for a couple of weeks. And as I like to say, the weather does the devil's work. And by that I meant that snow sitting on the ground started to get weak, sugary, less cohesion at the surface. And that has become our weak layer for these subsequent storms.In your experience, what is one of the biggest red flags here in Utah?I did a study a few years ago looking at all of our avalanche accidents in the modern era going back to 1941 – almost 130 avalanche fatalities since then. And we have way more higher proportion of fatalities from people accessing the backcountry from the ski areas and the lifts than any other state. Easily 20% of our fatalities have been people going and accessing the backcountry from the ski areas.What goes into forecasting by Utah Avalanche Center?Our forecasts are predicated upon the field work of not just our avalanche forecasters, but whole platoons of what we call professional observers. And again, just that great communication that we have with all of our snow safety brothers and sisters and again with Utah Department of Transportation, the guides out there, it's really fundamental to be out in the snow like we are today, to look and see what's going on with the snowpack, what's going on with the weather. Drew, as you look at this snow pit wall, what are the important points?As we're looking here, we have about two feet of our slab here. And the slab is nothing more than what we'd call a cohesive plate of snow, something that's cohesive and strong, that's sitting on something weak – sugary snow. It's just very crystalline and weak. What’s the heritage of snow safety here in Utah?Utah is the birthplace of avalanche science and avalanche mitigation in North America, upper Little Cottonwood Canyon in the late ‘30s and ‘40s. These grandfathers, Monte Atwater and Ed LaChapelle, really built avalanche science and avalanche forecasting that has set the benchmark for anyone else in North America. So it's an honor to be part of that lineage here.Do you have a favorite backcountry place in Utah?It's the Provo Mountains. The Provo mountains are some of the most radical and extreme and beautiful part of our Wasatch – seldom traveled. And it's very dangerous terrain in there. And you have to be right. You have to pay attention. And I'd have to say that the Provo area mountains are my favorite part of the Wasatch Range.Drew in one word can you sum up what it means to be in this beautiful Utah backcountry?Boy, I just can't Tom. But It's a good life. It's a good life.

In October it started snowing in Utah. And it really hasn’t stopped, with over 225 inches in Little Cottonwood Canyon by mid-December. So, what’s going on? Last Chair invited Open Snow forecaster Evan Thayer and atmospheric scientist Jim Steenburgh for a Special Snowfall Edition podcast to dive into the continuous powder forecast and share a few stories of their own.Deep powder is nothing new in Utah. But the 2022-23 season kicked off with a bang, starting in late October and continuing incessantly up to the Christmas holiday. A mid-December storm that was forecast to drop 25-30 inches tapped out closer to 70+ inches!Was it La Niña? Was it lake effect from the Great Salt Lake? Or was it the Ninth & Ninth Whale?Listen in to learn more. Here’s a sample of Last Chair’s episode 7 with Evan Thayer and Jim Steenburgh.Jim, what do you point to as you look back on the season so far?Jim Steenburgh: There were two critical periods that gave us the incredible situation we have right now. One was in early November. We got an incredibly high density wet storm that just coated everything and gave a great base in the mid upper elevations. And then now, you know, from about December 11th to the 15th, we had this really prolonged, very low density snowfall event. Alta got over seven inches of snow with a water content of 4%, which is like all time for skiing. I just think it's been a great start to the season.Evan, as a forecaster, where do you get your intel?Evan Thayer: It is people like Jim. It's the people in academia and doing the research who are building these tools, and they allow people like me to access the tools. And then I contextualize it into a forecast that's useful for skiers and snowboarders or, you know, any type of recreation analyst.Jim, what did you most like about how the early season snow set up for the season?Jim Steenburgh: That period from December 11th to 15th was really good. Early in the season, I don't care about quality. The only thing I want is quantity. The best start to the ski season is to have early snow that starts maybe in early November. You know, this year it came a little earlier in October. But I want really high density snow to build base to start the season. And we got that in early November.Evan, how important was that?Evan Thayer: Last week was the perfect setup because it came in a little bit on the warm side, so a little bit higher density snow late Sunday night. So on Monday, you were skiing snow that was more typical of Utah. That was like 8% water content. But then for Tuesday, Wednesday and into Thursday, it was so fluffy. But you had that denser bottom there. So even if you did sink neck deep in, as Jim said, you're going to feel the body way underneath that keeps you from hitting crust or any bumps like that. So it takes already deep snow and makes it feel just like completely bottomless. So it was the ideal setup for powder skiing.