Last Chair: The Ski Utah Podcast

It was an early autumn day in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the new futuristic Snowbird tram, we could see all the way down to the Salt Lake Valley. To the north was Mount Superior. In the distance, Jupiter Peak on the Park City ridgeline stood against the blue morning sky.After 50 years, the old red and blue cabins are being replaced with new floor-to-ceiling windowed cabins. To celebrate its debut, Last Chair hung out in the new tram 350-feet over the valley floor above the Cirque to chat with Snowbird President and General Manager Dave Fields and Mountain Manager Jake Treadwell about the evolution of the iconic tram and what the new cabins will bring for skiers and riders..When you dream about skiing at iconic resorts around the world, odds are you dream of trams. They are the classic signatures of some of the world’s greatest ski resorts – Snowbird included.The dream of Snowbird visionary Ted Johnson, he and Dick Bass collaborated to bring a tram to the resort from day one. Swiss workers moved to Little Cottonwood Canyon, working long, hard hours in the summer of 1971 to make it a reality.Following a retirement party last spring, the resort went to work retooling the tram machinery and cabins. Both new cars will be online in early December for the start of the season.For Fields and Treadwell, along with their entire Snowbird team, it was a project close to their hearts – rekindling historic memories of the original tram’s debut in 1971, and the countless stories in the memories of skiers and riders who have whisked their way to the top of Hidden Peak in just minutes.Here’s a preview of the conversations. Listen to the full Last Chair podcast to learn more. <<LINK>>How did the concept of the original tram come to fruition?Dave Fields: The idea for the tram came from Ted Johnson, who worked at Alta in the ‘60s and started buying up mining claims at Snowbird. And when he met Dick Bass in 1969 at a party in Vail, he started sharing his dream. Dick originally signed on to help him find investors and quickly he became the investor. And one of Ted's dreams was to have a tram going from the Snowbird Center all the way to the top of Hidden Peak. Dick and Ted traveled all over to get ideas of how to build the tram and what it should look like. Dick and Ted opened the place on December 23rd, 1971, with the tram on opening day. And it was amazing from day one. And it's been really the icon of this resort. The tram IS Snowbird, and Snowbird IS the tram ever since.As mountain manager, what does the tram mean to you and Snowbird operations?Jake Treadwell: So this truly is a unique lift as far as its operation and what it does for us. The tram is the center of the universe for the resort, for our guests and for our employees. This to me it's the best commute to work in the morning that anybody gets. We get to ride this first thing in the morning. We get to see what's going on. But this really is again, it's unique. It's a jig back tram. So as one car comes up, the next car comes down and they're tied together through a haul rope that runs the entire up and down of the system.What research went into the design of the new tram system at Snowbird?Dave Fields: We rode them all over. Some of my favorites were the smaller tramway systems that are actually used for residential passage through the mountains and hauling groceries. We rode one in Davos that had that old time feel to it. I really liked the Zugspitze. Things are happening in Europe with tramways that is just incredible. It's proving to be a great way to get through the mountains. We started brainstorming about not just the tram, but how we could make it a really exciting event for people when they come up the mountain. So floor to ceiling, glass glass, three panels of floor glass in each cabin in the summertime. And then the real kicker was the balcony (summer). People thought we were crazy, but there actually are some resorts in Europe that do that. So you'll climb up a stairwell from inside the cabin and you'll ride up on the roof of the tram as it passes through the Cirque, 350 feet off the ground. So it will be very exciting to take that ride. We'll have the balconies next summer and I can't wait to take that ride. It's going to be really good.What was replaced in the system for the new Snowbird tram?Dave Fields: We opted to replace cabins, track rope, haul rope, almost everything, including the drive system, the motors, the bull wheels – everything other than the towers has been replaced on ours.Jake Treadwell: So this was basically a complete reset of the tram, the machine room that you can see when you come into Snowbird Center, when you look down, almost all those components were removed this spring, completely pulled out. And we did that in a matter of about a week. And then, slowly but surely, we started replacing the electronic drive, the electric motor, the entire braking system, the drive wheel with a hydrostatic motor down there and a drive. All of these systems meld together in a modern tramway, and it gives us a lot more flexibility and a lot more safety factor, which is always what we're looking for. If we were to lose power at this resort, we can still run a backup generator, an electric motor to get this tramway moving. If we were to lose that system, we have a hydrostatic drive that bolts into the bull wheel and we can drive the machine that way. So we have all these backup systems to make sure that this machine is always ready to move.What’s your favorite run on the mountain?Jake Treadwell: I’m a Baldy guy.  You’ve got to go out to hike Baldy and ski Fields of Glory and make it the whole way down. It's the place to be great!Dave Fields: Well, Jake stole my answer. I really enjoy Northwest Baldy. There are a few zones in there that are really special. I'd love to go out there with my wife and have the hike. You just get such an amazing view down canyon and get to see the whole resort. You get to look over at Mount Superior and then you have the best skiing non-stop fall line all the way to the bottom.

When Utah nurse Melody Forsyth learned her baby-to-be had Down syndrome, she and her family thought it would change their lives. And it did - for the better. Ruby, now six, has led the Forsyth family into a world of outdoor recreation, including skiing. Watching Ruby ride the Chickadee lift at Snowbird and ski down with her Wasatch Adaptive Sports guide is a life-changing experience seeing the joy that skiing brings to this young girl and her family.Before Ruby was born, Melody, her husband Vic, and three children weren’t exactly outdoor enthusiasts. But upon learning her soon-to-be-born Ruby would have Down syndrome, the family felt they would lose the future possibility for outdoor recreation. So with Melody pregnant, the family took off into mother nature, visiting parks, hiking and exploring Utah’s mountains and deserts.When Ruby was born a few months later, they never stopped. Today, they’re often tabbed as Utah’s ‘Adventure Family,’ on a mission to explore every national park in America and finding a passion for outdoor adventure around Ruby.Down syndrome is a chromosomal condition that impacts an estimated one in 700 newborns in America. Our genes are responsible for inherited traits, which are carried in chromosomes. Normally, each cell contains 23 pairs of chromosomes. Those with Down syndrome have a full or partial extra copy of chromosome 21. The impact of that varies from individual to individual.At first blush, you might think Down syndrome would be limiting. But when you meet Ruby you quickly learn that she is a young girl on a mission! At just six, she navigates the rental shop with ease and knows exactly where she wants to stand in the bus to get the best view. One can only imagine what she’ll experience when she works her way up to the Snowbird tram!Ruby’s genesis to snow was a product of the newfound active lifestyle of her family, led by Melody. But it also came to fruition through Wasatch Adaptive Sports at Snowbird, a program that has been introducing aspiring outdoor enthusiasts since 1977. According to program director Eileen May-West, children with Down syndrome are regular participants in the program.What’s so heartwarming about Ruby’s tale is that it isn’t just HER story. It’s the story of an entire family and about the love they have been spreading to motivate others. What Melody thought would be a story of limitations, actually turned out to be a story of possibilities and access. It’s a story about the opportunities we all have as humans to enjoy our world.When you see the smile on Ruby’s face as she comes tearing down Chickadee, you are reminded of the joy that sliding on snow brings to all of us.Here’s a preview of the conversations. Listen in to the full Last Chair podcast to learn more. Eileen May-West, Wasatch Adaptive SportsYou really cover a wide gamut here at Wasatch Adaptive Sports, don’t you?Our youngest student since I've been here was two and our oldest is 98. Yah, we serve anyone with an adaptive need. A lot of times that is physical mobility, requiring adaptive equipment. But a lot of times it's someone with Down's syndrome or autism who just needs some specialized instruction or a big bag of tricks from their instructor to have them find success in skiing. We have a lot of students with Down syndrome and people of all abilities, ages and really scenarios that we teach to ski. Ruby is one of our family here and we're happy to have her.With that wide range of individuals, what are the common motivators?I think the number one tool any instructor, especially in adaptive, can have is fun and being able to know your student. So it’s getting to know Ruby - what she likes, whether it's Frozen or whatever characters are fun things that motivate her. And at the end of the day, just making sure whatever she did, whether it was straight gliding down the magic carpet that she wants to come back and do more, and over time it might take longer, but we can really usually get anyone there.How important a role do parents play?A lot of times parents are involved, just like Melody is, especially with kids. You know, no one knows that kid better than their parents do. So we definitely lean on them to help us, give us tips that they've already figured out over six and seven years. But, at the end of the day, the biggest feedback is smiling. And if we're moving away from smiling, we go back to where we can find it.“At the end of the day, the biggest feedback is smiling.”- Eileen May-West, Wasatch Adaptive SportsWhat motivates you and your instructors?It's the joy we all feel on the mountain. Everyone on our staff and within our organization feels that joy. It's added so much to my life and everyone should have the opportunity to access that. And that's really the biggest piece of meaning for me is every single person should be able to enjoy why people live in Utah.Melody Forsyth, Ruby’s momSo, Ruby looks like she’s pretty comfortable on skis?Yeah, she's been doing awesome. This is her second season with Wasatch Adaptive and she's been doing just awesome and blossoming into a little skier.What was your perception when you heard that your unborn child had Down syndrome?I didn't know anybody with Down syndrome. Our perception was that we wouldn't be able to do anything as a family. I thought that Down syndrome would prevent us from doing anything fun or going anywhere, that we would be stuck at home with a child that had a disability. Obviously, you know, everything has changed for us. It changed our whole outlook on life. It changed our whole lifestyle. It changed the way we live, the way we plan family activities, the way we spend time as a family. It was just completely a total mind shift for us.How does Down syndrome impact Ruby?Everyone with Down syndrome is different. Somebody once said, ‘if you know somebody with Down syndrome, you know, one person with Down syndrome because there's just a wide difference in their abilities. Ruby is still non-verbal at this time, meaning she makes noises, she can make sounds. She has a couple of words. Luckily, one of her words is mom. So she will say mom, but really doesn't communicate any other way except through a communication device that she will use. She can point to pictures. As a family, we kind of just know what she wants. We know she'll go get it, but she can't actually communicate.How did she get started skiing?I just saw that there were programs like Wasatch Adaptive for people with disabilities and we'd already started doing other activities where we were surprised by what she was able to do. So it was kind of like, ‘well, why stop there?’ Let's try this out just because we'd heard really good things from other people that had been involved or had been teachers here involved with the program at one point in their life. And they're like, It's such an amazing program. And they just really get the kids. They work with them so well that it was like, well, let's give it a try. Let's see how she does.With your family’s newfound love of the outdoors, Utah is a pretty great place to be, isn’t it?We travel all over the state ...

Visit any western resort town and you’ll find a robust LatinX community, sometimes making up 30% of the population. It’s a robust part of community culture. But oftentimes, it’s a segment that doesn’t ski. SOS Outreach, a nonprofit serving 15 resort and urban communities nationwide including Utah, is seeking to change that. Today, Last Chair will visit an SOS Outreach ski day at Park City Mountain to speak with leaders, mentors and participants about the engaging program.SOS Outreach was formed nearly 30 years ago and has operated in Utah since 2015. Its mission is to bring together underserved youth under a mentorship program and get them on snow, with supporting partnerships for equipment and lifts. And while the program introduces youth to the joy of the sport, it also brings life lessons of character and values.Central to its cause is inclusivity - ensuring that underserved youth in resort towns have a pathway to the sport. It’s especially important for the LatinX community where their parents and most of their peers have little or no past engagement in the sport.SOS Outreach event manager Abbey Eddy recalls a story of a 12 year old Mexican boy who was driving with his father and admiring the mountains. “‘Those mountains, they’re not for us, son,’” said Eddy of the father’s reply. “You just hear that and you realize that there's a whole population moving here for a different reason than most people think. And traditionally, like myself, it's white people that move here to ski. But there's a large population. It's about 20 percent of our Park City community that moves, not necessarily to ski, but to work and for other opportunities that primarily is our LatinX population.” On the March Saturday, Last Chair visited an SOS Outreach program at Park City Mountain, it was an industry day where representatives of the mountain and other businesses were there to introduce youth to potential career opportunities in the sport they loved. Earlier in the season, Olympians Steven Nyman and Brita Sigourney were a big hit with SOS participants.At the base of the First Time lift, the group of around 100 skiers, riders and mentors gathered for a briefing. Some of it was the logistics of the day. But more was focused on life skills and leadership as program manager Palmer Daniels deftly brought the group together with volunteer mentors to talk about values.This episode of Last Chair takes us inside a segment of our population that is a vital part of our resort communities. Listen in to learn more about SOS Outreach from leader Abbey Eddy, and especially mentor Justin and program participant E. And as you listen, imagine the big smiles on their faces as they headed up the mountain.Here’s a sample of the conversations. Listen in to the full Last Chair podcast to learn more. <<LINK>>Abbey Eddy, Individual Giving & Events Manager We ski because it’s fun. But SOS Outreach brings more than fun, doesn’t it?It's really an incredible organization that we can have this national reach with the same mission across the board to make sure that we're increasing diversity in our snowsports communities, increasing access and also being really intentional with our programming and our curriculum so that we're helping kids to transition the life skills that they naturally learn from being on the mountain into using them into their everyday lives and strengthening our mountain communities as a result.What’s fascinating to me is that SOS Outreach works in both mountain communities and metro areas.It's an incredible scene. We have these more rural mountain community programs, but then our urban locations are powerful and impactful. It's really a different challenge. In mountain communities, kids are looking at the mountains every day but might not be able to access them. And then in a place like Detroit, you're working with kids that have never seen skis before. And so opening their eyes to even the sport of skiing and snowboarding, it's opening their world into something totally new, different, exciting and impactful.How is this population different within the community?For a lot of our Latinx families that have moved here - their parents don't ski. Then you don't have that same comfort level with the sport of walking through the village. How do you carry your skis and what equipment do you need? There's a lot that goes into skiing. It's more than just having a lift ticket, but having to have all the right clothes and the right boots and socks and. And again, this clunky gear and how you're managing all of those different pieces just to get to the base of the lift can be challenging. And when your parents aren't helping you with that process of getting from the parking lot to the lift because they haven't done it before. We're really intentional with making sure that our mentors and adults and volunteers from the community are helping provide that kind of coaching and assistance to the youth so that they feel more comfortable and confident when they are putting their skis on at the base of the lift there.One word to describe what SOS Outreach means to the community?That's a really hard one, can I use three words? One phrase: spread the love. We say it at every ride day. It really encompasses what we do and the impact that we have.Justin, SOS Outreach alumni and current memberJustin is a first generation college student in his family, attending the University of Utah majoring in biology. He’s been skiing for a decade and now serves as a mentor for youth.What was the thing you first loved about skiing?I enjoyed the speed mostly. I'm a little speedster. I like to go down the slopes - I'm obviously careful with other people around me - but I like to go fast.What does it mean to you to be a first generation skier in your family?It's a privilege to have the opportunity to ski. It just gives you the freedom to do whatever you want. It relieves stress from your work, house and school. It's awesome.What motivated you to become a mentor?I became a mentor because I wanted to have an impactful meaning to my community. Mostly, my Latin American friends, I just want to show them that you can totally have fun. And I know life might be stressful for your parents and yourself, but it's good to go outside and enjoy.What does skiing bring to you?It's my only sport that I really love and enjoy. And that brings me happiness and joy. It's fun to hang out with your friends when you're skiing, too.E, SOS Outreach SkierE is a junior at Park City High School who has been skiing since fifth grade. Her big smile and joyous approach to skiing is contagious within the group.E, how did you get started skiing?SOS was one of the ways, back then when I was in fifth grade. I didn't have the opportunity or enough money to actually go into skiing. But SOS helped with that and it's been affordable. I have been able to go out and ski even more than I would have had.Did your family ski?I am the first person in my family to ski. They kind of find it cool, like they kind of want to try it out now because they see how much I...

Visitors to Sundance Mountain Resort this winter have found a wonderful new experience at one of Utah’s great hidden gems. Working with the experienced Sundance team, legendary ski industry leader Bill Jensen has helped them transform the resort with new lifts, terrain, snowmaking and much more. Jensen, a longtime visionary who has led some of North America’s most notable resorts, talked to Ski Utah’s Last Chair about his storied career and the fun he’s having coaching the team at Sundance.After stewarding Sundance for over a half-century, film legend Robert Redford sold his interest in December 2020 after carefully curating potential buyers to ensure his legacy would remain. The new investors included Broadreach Capital Partners and Cedar Capital Partners. But what was most important for skiers and riders was the inclusion of Jensen as a partner.While he didn’t discover skiing until he was 19 in southern California, Jensen quickly grew passionate about the sport, starting his career at Mammoth Mountain as a liftie. In the decades since then he’s hopscotched around in leadership roles from Vail to Whistler to Telluride and Intrawest. In 2019, he was inducted into the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame.In his new role, he fell in love with Sundance the day he hiked up to the top of Ray’s Lift and then up to Mandan Summit. His vision came clear in an instant when he soaked in the view of Mt. Timpanogos from Mandan.This winter skiers were treated to a host of positive upgrades:The new high-speed Outlaw Express taking skiers from base to Mandan Summit in just seven minutes.New beginner and intermediate terrain off Mandan offering stunning new views and options. Check out Broadway!A new beginner area with three magic carpets. A new return lift, Stairway, from the back mountain along with a new run allowing Bear Claw to base skiing or riding.The new Lookout restaurant with stunning views of Timp from the base.New snow guns as part of an upgraded snowmaking system, including a water holding pond.While he’s been the top executive of the biggest ski resort companies in North America, he remains a true mountain guy always anxious to take visitors up on the mountain. Here are a few teasers from the interview. Check out the full conversation on Last Chair, available through all podcast platforms.Bill, you had a bit of a non-traditional introduction to skiing.Unfortunately, later than most people I know. Born in Hawaii and grew up in Southern California. When I was 19, for some reason I walked into a Sports Ltd. store in Woodland hills. They were showing the K2 Performers video. I saw skiing for the first time and was fascinated. I just went, ‘wow, this is incredible.’ So I went skiing that winter one day, and that was it.I’ll bet you were pretty excited to get a job as a liftie?It just connects you to people, and, candidly, it was fun! So that's where it all started. It was all happenstance. I had no idea that a ski area was even a business. I just saw it as some great recreational fun pursuit. And I just - I fell in love. You know, I always say, I love skiing, but I became passionate about the ski industry and the business and that's where things unfolded.You’ve lived in some great ski towns: Mammoth, Sun Valley, Whistler, Vail, Breckenridge. What has attracted you to those towns?In small towns, you get to know a lot of people. And I also like the fact that people depend on each other, whether it was helping them split their firewood or snow removal or whatever. You built relationships and,in ski towns, there's a common denominator that everybody loves snow and they love sliding on snow, whether they snowboard or ski now. But, you know, I just felt very comfortable in that environment. Living in a ski town, to me, just fit my ... who I was and my persona. I really like small mountain communities.What did it mean to be honored in the Hall of Fame?It's touching. It's gratifying. It wasn't something that you aspire to. I really believe in the sport. I believe that the skier is important and I've worked hard over my career to mentor people and bring new people into the business and see their careers grow. And that has been the most fulfilling part of my career.When you visited Sundance in 2020, what stood out to you?You know the word, and I don't want it to be overused, but just the sense of arrival and walking through the base - there's something magical about this resort and part of it is the environment it sits in, Mount Timp and the views. It is truly one of very few unique ski areas that have this setting. And because it was Robert Redford's business, it really was a family business, is what I would call it. And you can sense that in the culture, the staff and the people who are here. My sense is everyone feels a bit of a sense of ownership of Sundance and how it's played a role in their lives.What was the vision for the new alignment of Outlaw Express to Mandan Summit?When you're on the top of Mandan, it feels like you can just reach out and touch it (Timpanogos). It made a lot of sense for us to actually implement that lift alignment and put it all together. It was a bit more expensive than just putting something back in the place of Ray's lift. But I think for the long term and summer and everything else, it was the right decision. I think the view of Timp from the top of Mandan is probably the signature view!As a resort leader over many years, any memorable powder stories?So, Whistler Blackcomb in 2010 at the Olympics. One of the sayings in the ski industry is if you want it to snow, hold it downhill. It snowed to beat the band and the downhill was canceled. And up on the high alpine, I'm not exaggerating, there was 30 plus inches of fresh snow. And because the Olympic Committee was controlling access, there were very few people there.And as the head of Whistler-Blackcomb at the time, you can be sure he was there!Bill Jensen may be new to Utah, but he does have a favorite Utah craft beer! Learn about that and more in a fascinating discussion with one of America’s visionary ski leaders about his newfound passion working with the team at Sundance. And while he’s going to leave it to the Sundance staff to announce future plans, he at least gives us a few hints. Take a listen!Chad Linebaugh: Blending Art, Nature and Skiing at Sundance Mountain ResortLearn more about Sundance in this earlier episode from 2020 with President Chad Linebaugh.When you look at Sundance Mountain Resort, you need to view it as much more than a ski area. Today, Robert Redford’s Sundance is a wonderful blend of art, nature and skiing. Sundance may be a small ski area, but it skis big. President and General Manager Chad Linebaugh will take you on a tour of his favorite Sundance runs in his conversation with host Tom Kelly, plus some little known facts about the famous actor.

Utah’s 15 resorts paint a majestic portrait amidst the winter landscape. So what if someone painted them all, with watercolors based in snow melt from each resort. That’s what passionate Utah skier Lexi Dowdall has set out to do with her Paint by Powder Project!Dowdall is a snow-loving outdoor enthusiast who actively seeks out the Greatest Snow on Earth in every corner of the state. But her skiing career got off to a rocky start. At her first lesson as a little girl, she became frightened of a yeti-like skier with a snow-encrusted beard. So she watched Sleeping Beauty in the lodge at Solitude instead. Not so today as she crushes the powder every chance she can - all with a big smile on her face.The artist in her came from her grandmother, a sculptor and painter in Sedona. She says today, “Art is in my nature. But I spent a long time ignoring that fact.” Her grandmother focused her art on her surroundings, the towering vermillion monoliths in Sedona. So Lexi looked around herself at the Utah ski resorts she loved and decided to make that her palette.In 2019, she took a rudimentary watercolor kit along on a rafting trip through the Gates of Lodore. A year later, she used the platform of COVID to start focusing on painting Utah’s ski areas. Looking out to the street one day, she saw her boyfriend’s pickup truck bed filled with fresh Alta snowfall he had trucked down to the valley after a huge snowstorm. And the idea struck her - why not blend her watercolor paints using snowmelt from each resort.And the Paint by Powder Project was launched!This episode of Last Chair is a really fun podcast with an exuberant powder-loving artist, Lexi Dowdall. She’ll win your heart with her stories of her continual discovery of the outdoor world around her, and how she’s sharing it with others.She also personifies the ‘support a cause’ energy that is ingrained in all of us as skiers and snowboarders. And, she’s doing something about it. She is a passionate volunteer with Wasatch Adaptive Sports at Snowbird, and she’s donating proceeds of the Paint by Powder Project to Protect Our Winters.In her day job, she’s the director of freeride for the International Freeskiers and Snowboarders Association (IFSA), helping young freeride skiers overseeing event series’.Here’s a little teaser of the Last Chair episode with Lexi Dowdall.<<ADD LINKS TO PODCAST WHEN LINK AVAILABLE>>Lexi, how did skiing get in your blood?I'm a fourth or fifth generation Utahn. I grew up here. My parents were big skiers. My dad was a ski bum who came here after college and never really left. So my mom always says we never had a choice and being skiers, it was that worked out so well.What has inspired you growing up in Utah?I come from a very creative family and we're always doing stuff yet scrapbooking or making terrariums, or we were just crafting all the time. And I may be biased, but I think Utah is the most beautiful state. We have just such an amazing diversity of landscapes and vistas and state parks and national parks. It's hard not to be inspired by the vistas that we're surrounded by out here.Why watercolors?It's an enigma. It's very simple, but it's difficult to master. And I would say I'm very much a type A kind of control freak kind of person. So watercolor has helped me to be a lot more open to outcome. You literally have to go with the flow. So that's a neat thing about watercolor is you can have an idea of what you want to accomplish. But in the end, the water and the paint are going to force your destiny and you don't have as much control over it as the acrylic or oil.And why mountains?I just knew I wanted to paint mountains - that's where I'm happiest, that's where my soul is alive. So it's funny. I still feel like I don't really know how to paint mountains or snow, but you know, I'm practicing as much as I can, and it's just going to be a work in progress.And why snow?Snow is water. I thought I could incorporate snow from each mountain into my watercolor painting, and you know, I'm really working on my technique with painting mountains. I thought, ‘oh, maybe this snow will make the painting a little bit better, and I can channel the energy of the mountain as I paint with its snow.’ So that was kind of how it got started.When you collect snow in milk jugs at resorts, do people look at you strangely?I had this very awkward interaction with a Powder Mountain patroller. I tried to explain what I was doing, and he was just very confused. But I will say the fastest response time was Deer Valley. They were on the scene in probably 34 seconds. ‘Ma'am, are you OK? Do you need assistance?’ I was fine. But again, I needed to explain what the heck I'm doing, and it was just all pretty comical.Like many of us, you’ve also been moved by Protect Our Winters.Yeah, if we don't start to make some pretty massive changes, we're not going to have a ski industry. The gauntlet of this fact is what kind of spurred me to action because I was just the thought of not being able to ski here in the winter was truly sobering. So I'm just hoping to galvanize folks around here. We need to vote. We need to change the legislation. There are lots of things we can do on an individual level that will help our air quality and contribute, in small ways, to the overconsumption that our society subscribes to. But the most important thing we need to do is change the legislation and vote climate. Protect Our Winters provides a ton of resources about that and ways to get involved and panels and discussions with legislators.We had a lot of fun with Lexi on Last Chair. Regular listeners will know that we often talk about our sponsor, High West. Lexi took that one step further. And, she also explains the concept of ‘interlodge’ to us and how it can work to a skier’s advantage when you’re stuck up Little Cottonwood for a few days. Tune in to learn more …Kapowder InkLexi Dowdall’s watercolor paintings offer a unique look at Utah’s 15 ski resorts from the viewpoint of a passionate skier. Her colors bring out the vibrancy of the sport, with snowmelt from each individual resort making its way back onto the canvas of the resorts we all love. You can learn more about Lexi’s Paint by Powder Project, and acquire a print yourself, at her Kapowder Ink website. You’ll have a wonderful and unique look at Utah ski resorts, and you’ll be helping to support Protect Our Winters, a cause important to skiers and snowboarders.

Cohen grew up in the east, hopping around small New York ski hills like Stony Point and Silver Mine. His father took him on trips to Vermont, skiing Stratton, Stowe, Killington, Mt. Snow and more. Mondays were a day off for his father, who owned a bakery, so it wasn’t unusual for young Lee to play hooky and head off to Hunter Mountain or other day destinations.Along the way, he started thinking about skiing out west. A friend brought back a trail map from Aspen Highlands. Then in eighth grade, he went with a friend’s family to Austria, skiing from village to village in Kitzbühel and experiencing his first powder day at Kaprun. A few years later, it was off to the Rockies, poaching slopeside lodging in tents and snow caves as he and buddies traveled around the west, eventually visiting Utah. He was hooked.In the early 1980s, Cohen got a camera and just started shooting his buddies. They traveled the west chasing powder. He still recalls vividly the record-setting winter of 1983-84. Photography was different then. There were no iPhones, digital cameras or autofocus lenses. It was all film, so you never really knew what you had until the film was processed. But he worked hard at it, figuring out his formulaic system. Soon, editors soon took notice.Photography was fun. It was an art form. And he was getting good at it. In December 1985, he made his first commercial sale, an image of a local skier who played hooky from school to ski High Rustler after a 42-inch storm. Soon his images were adorning the covers of SKI, Powder, Freeze and more.The next decades saw his work burgeon. His 2012 book Alta Magic captures the real spirit of the Wasatch in a magical collection of images and essays. Today, he still enjoys returning to old haunts - both in-bounds and in the backcountry - with willing ski models, including son Sam, and always looking for that new combination of sun, sky and snow to produce exhilarating images.While both photography and skiing have evolved greatly in his 40 years in the Wasatch, Cohen still has the touch. In the Alta marketing office, he proudly shows off his recent cover of SKI. Here’s a sampling of our conversation with photographer Lee Cohen’s. Listen in to the full  episode of Last Chair, the Ski Utah podcast, to learn more. <LINK TO PODCAST>As you drive up Little Cottonwood Canyon, what are some of your landmarks?I enjoy the whole ride. I like seeing the ridge of Monte Cristo and Superior when I first start getting above White Pine. That's unbelievable to me. Then it's Snowbird on the right and then there's Alta. High Rustler is one of the all time runs to be looking at from the bottom of any ski area.Do you recall your first trip to Utah?I don't even remember how I first heard about Alta, but I had this whole magical powder thing like it was fully in my head even before I'd seen the place. And then we got to ski here and I was sold by. We were here for about 10 days, and by the time we left, I knew I was coming back for good as soon as I could.<<PULL QUOTE>>“I always think I can get a better one, even in a spot that I've gone to before that. I'm always thinking I can get the best one ever today.”You really mapped out the perfect career for yourself, didn’t you?I got into ski photography because I loved powder skiing. That was perfect since, here I am, at Alta - the bastion of powder skiing. But at some point along the way, I feel like I get pigeonholed as the deep powder photographer.How do you make locations look different each time you shoot there?I find that you can always make a place look different. You shoot it with a different millimeter lens or from a different spot. If you shift your location even just a few feet, you're making it look different. And change lenses - it's way different. Just try to change your approach and make the same old thing look different.Any simple tips for recreational photographers?Concentrate on following your subject. Try to set up your shots to make the odds be in your favor and and have the light working in your favor, either being side lit, front lit, backlit. If you're shooting in the storm, go out when there's a lot of snowflakes falling.“Ski with style  - form is everything.”What are some secrets to great powder shots?The biggest thing that I would say to my skiers skiing powder is, don't lay it over because you want to. In Utah, it's deep enough. You don't have to fake it. Just try to ski with form and style. Don't bring your hands too high. Don't make your hands too low, no higher than like a little below your shoulders and alternating pole plants in the powder. Ski with style  - form is everything.Nikon or Canon??I think they're all great. I've been a Nikon person my whole life. I love my Nikon equipment. It's burly. It can take a beating. Like, I'm not like the most careful person, so I'm a little abusive of the equipment and it's done me well.Do you ever get nostalgic for the old days of film?Some of the best times of my life as a ski photographer, and for my skiers, were the old days. We would be over the light table at my house, just foaming at the mouth, like we crazed out of our minds. Oh, my God, I knew that one was going to be like that. Yeah, that was a very exciting time in photography for me.Learn more about Lee Cohen's career as Utah's ski photographer in this episode of Last Chair, the Ski Utah podcast. 

“I'm so thankful for the people in town who founded the Youth Sports Alliance after the 2002 games,” said Fisher. “It was a community effort to get all of the youth from Summit and Wasatch counties out using these amazing Olympic venues and getting as many kids out and active in our community playground. The legacy absolutely still lives on.”And it has worked. Some, like nordic combined skier Jared Shumate and cross country skier Rosie Brennan grew up in [service name="park-city-mountain"]Park City Mountain[/service]. Others, like freeskiers Izzy and Zoe Atkin, moved to Park City because of the great sport opportunities. Some, like Olympic gold medalist aerials skiers Ashley Caldwell, Chris Lillis and Justin Schonenfeld, were brought together by the world-acclaimed freestyle training facility at the [service name="utah-olympic-park"]Utah Olympic Park[/service] that opened in 1993.But while Utah takes great pride in its Olympians in Beijing, Fisher is quick to point out the broader value of sport. These athletes are phenomenal PR stories for us, she said. “But for me, it's really about the 1,500 kids that we get out and get active every year. It's really important for every kid. A lot of their parents work in the service industry and they don't have the opportunity to use these amazing Olympic venues, to get out, to learn how to ski, learn how to snowboard. The most important legacy of our program is that these kids can grow up and feel part of the community because they participate in things that are so important to the community.”Jared ShumateNow a nordic combined Olympian, Jared Shumate grew up in Park City and tried a myriad sports through the Youth Sports Alliance’s Get Out and Play program. “Growing up in Park City, every day on my way to school, just looking out the windows, I could see the Utah Olympic Park not knowing when I was three years old that I'd be going to the Olympics for that sport. So who knows, maybe it's been in me since I was a little kid.”Rosie BrennanRosie Brennan did just about every outdoor winter sport before her mom made her choose. They had had a great time watching cross country skiing during the Olympics at Soldier Hollow during the 2002 Olympics, so that’s what she chose. Today, she’s one of the top-ranked skiers in the world and competing at her second Olympics.“Sport has brought me, honestly, just about everything. I am so thankful for the opportunities that I've had. It's putting a challenge out there and working hard towards it. Oftentimes you come up short and have to learn how to take that shortcoming, process it, figure out what went well, what didn't go well and then work up the courage to take what you learned and apply it again.”Brendan NewbyHalfpipe skier Brendan Newby was born in Ireland but grew up in Orem. When he was four, his father took him to Brighton. Young Bubba, as he is known to friends today, was hooked. He made his first Olympic team for Ireland in 2018 and is back again, along with countryman and fellow Irish snowboarder Seamus O’Connor, another Utah transplant.“Utah is probably one of the most fun places to grow up. I'm a mountain biker and dirt biker as well, and I can basically go 20 minutes in any direction and have insanely good stuff to ride. If you want to be a winter sport Olympian, Utah is kind of the place to do it for literally any sport because of the 2002 Games and because the [service name="utah-olympic-legacy-foundation"]Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation[/service] has kept up all of the facilities so well.”Izzy and Zoe AtkinThe young Atkin sisters, Izzy and Zoe, were passionate about winter sport. So a family move to Park City when they were young gave a dream playground and a strong club program to build their skills. Skiing for their mother’s homeland of Great Britain, in 2018 Izzy won Olympic bronze in slopestyle skiing. This time, she’s bring along younger sister Zoe who competes in halfpipe skiing.“It's just a really great place to be because everyone loves just to be outside and to do what they love to do like skiing and snowboarding, being outdoors. A lot of people have that athlete mindset. I went to the Winter Sports School - a whole school of winter sports athletes. It was great to be in that community. We all pushed each other. Everyone just kind of has that drive to be outside and have fun, but also to push themselves in sport.” - Zoe Atkin“Yeah, (PyeongChang 2018) was incredible. It was the first experience I'd ever had like that -  to have all those incredibly driven athletic people in one bubble and getting to know other people's stories, how they got to where they are today. That mindset in the village is super motivating. It was just an amazing experience for me to even go there.” - Izzy Atkin Nick PageStill a teen, Nick Page grew up in Park City skiing moguls with Wasatch Freestyle. In Beijing, he led Team USA finishing fifth as his family watched from home. He and friends like Olympic teammate Cole McDonald are the future of freestyle skiing - just fun-loving young athletes who love ripping around the mountain.“I think a big part of (the Utah sport culture) comes from the Salt Lake Olympics, and all the infrastructure that's been left in place for us to keep using. At [service name="deer-valley"]Deer Valley Resort[/service], we ski on Champion, the Olympic run. We train at the Utah Olympic Park. I know the Oval down in Salt Lake gets so much action. We're able to repurpose all that from 2002 and put it all back into the community to build these current level athletes, which is really special. I don't think that's something that always happens once a city has an Olympics.”Check out this episode of Last Chair to hear from Utah’s own Team USA athletes, and learn more about how sport is positively impacting kids in the state.Park City Nation As the home of the most concentrated collection of Olympic venues in the state, the Park City Nation boasts 54 Olympians in Beijing from a half-dozen nations. Since the 2002 Olympics and Paralympics, the Youth Sports Alliance has introduced thousands of boys and girls to sport through its Get Out and Play and other programs. While every four years it gives locals a source of Olympic pride, what’s even more beneficial is the positive impact that sport has in providing life skills to kids of all ages and backgrounds.Youth Sports AllianceFormed following the 2002 Olympic Games, the Youth Sports Alliance introduces kids to sports and inspires them to keep moving throughout their lives. It provides a wide range of after-school programming to keep kids active through Get Out and Play and other programs, while also serving as a pipeline to winter sport clubs and competitions. One of its most valuable assets is the Stein Eriksen YSA Opportunity Endowment, a $2-million need-based scholarship fund for competitive athletes.

The 2002 Olympics transformed Salt Lake City and its neighboring venue communities into a stage that welcomed the world. For 17 days, the Games captivated spectators and television viewers as athletes dazzled fans and shed tears of joy. The Games also brought a richness to Utah communities that is very much still alive today.When now Utah Senator Mitt Romney, who headed the 2002 organizing committee, needed a right hand man, he tabbed his colleague Fraser Bullock for the job. It was a crazy adventure managing thousands of staff, tens of thousands of volunteers and global entourages of teams across more than a dozen sports.In this episode of Last Chair, we reminisce on 2002 memories and look into the future with Salt Lake City-Utah already America’s Choice.Before we get into the Olympics, let’s talk skiing.My favorite sport is being on top of a mountain, looking at the beautiful views and just letting it fly down the slope. Doesn't get any better than that.What was the key to assembling a strong team to run the 2002 Games?When I first started, the team was 225 people and there were some really, really capable people that were there already. But we needed to grow to 50,000 at Games time, including volunteers and contractors. One of the things that I have realized during my career, it's all about the team. You have to have incredible capability. You have to have a team orientation of working well together. You have to have unity.You went on the torch relay not that long after 9-11. What did that mean to you?I went just a few days before Christmas and I was able to go to Philadelphia, and this was right after 9-11, and Washington, DC and then New York. All very significantly impacted by 911. And we would go down the streets and see thousands of people gathering and cheering us on, and we'd pass by a firefighter station and and and just thank them for their service. But then going to the White House and being there with President Bush. And then up to New York and having the torch run through Manhattan with tens of thousands of people is something I'll never forget.Many say one of the keys to the success of the 2002 Games was the people of Utah.Yeah, it really is. Our secret sauce of how our games became seen as so special is because of the people we have here, the welcoming attitude, the friendliness, the hard work. It is a state of volunteerism in helping and we just tapped into that potential and magnified it and showed it to the world.The legacy of 2002 is still felt today. A full third of Team USA in Beijing makes Utah home!Its legacy at its best - because the athletes are the heart of the Games. They're the top priority and we kind of live a little bit vicariously through them. But this legacy continues forward because now this next generation that is competing in Beijing. It's so exciting to read about their stories that they're the kid that grew up down the block. That's amazing. But then it also lays the foundation into a potential future Games and can we continue that legacy or even better, expand that legacy?Where do we stand on a future Games in Utah?We're in the midst of putting a plan together for a future Games. A lot of it's done. But we are the choice of the USOPC for a future Games. Now we just need the IOC to select us. Ideally, 2030, if we can make all the pieces come together to work for that. But regardless of which year will be pushing hard? Very much this year, and we think the second half of the year will have a lot of interesting activity.What other international cities are you watching?I have the philosophy of cheering on any city that's willing to step forward in this important Olympic movement. So when I hear their names, I'm saying, good for you and we wish you the very best. We want the IOC to make the best selection, and we think that we are a marvelous selection. 

The legend of Alf Engen goes back to the 1920s when Alf brought his brothers to America from Norway. In the midwest and later out in the mountains, they found a home in America as skiers. Alf became a great ski jumping champion and world record holder at Ecker Hill, near Park City. He spent time at Sun Valley but ultimately settled in Utah. In the 1930s, he was hired by the U.S. Forest Service to scout potential ski areas as the sport was booming. That led him to the mining town of Alta in Little Cottonwood Canyon.Years later, Alf Engen would become intimately connected with Alta as its director of skiing. He became a figurehead for the sport and a friendly face who floated through powder on the flanks of High Rustler. He introduced thousands to the sport through his engagement with the Alta and Deseret News ski schools. He would later turn the reins over to son Alan, who succeeded him in the role.Father and son both became iconic figures in Utah ski history, both inducted into the Intermountain and U.S. Halls of Fame. Alan became an instrumental figure in archiving the history of skiing in Utah with his books, the 1998 For the Love of Skiing, and 2002 First Tracks."As I was growing up, I saw my father and uncles as living day representatives of winter legends of Norse mythology. I imagined all of the Engen brothers with their great physical strength, competitive drive and love of winter as evolving into skiing icons. And in truth, they actually have." - Alan EngenThis episode of Last Chair offers fascinating insights into the legend of Alf Engen and the lore of skiing in Utah. Here are a few snippets of the interview with Alan Engen. Listen in to Last Chair to learn more. <add direct link to podcast when you have it posted>Alan, as the son of Alf Engen I suspect you began skiing at an early age in Utah?I'll tell you a little story that comes from my mother, not me. But my mother was always fond of telling how I came into this world. The doctor who delivered me put tongue depressors on the bottom of my feet and then proudly handed me over to my father. So, that being the case, I've added a little extra to the story by saying I came pretty close to being born on skis.Growing up in Utah in the ‘40s and ‘50s, how did you see skiing grow?I knew that skiing was growing. I was going up to Alta just about every chance that I had to ski and I could watch the traffic and I could see more and more cars coming up to Alta all the time. So I knew the sport was on the map, but I didn't know exactly how it was going to grow. And I think my father played a big role in helping to develop that growth through the Deseret News Ski School. Because it was a free ski school, it was a community outreach. And that brought in virtually thousands of people that got their first start of skiing through the Deseret Ski School.Your father was a competitive athlete and later an instructor. How did that influence you?I taught, but I taught as an amateur, not as a professional. And I grew up in competition. Dad told me at a very early age, he said, ‘Alan, you don't have to follow me in competition if you don't want to. But, I'll give you one piece of advice. If you want to be an instructor, be an instructor. If you want to be a champion skier and in athletic competition, do that. But don't try to do them both at the same time because the temperament isn't the same.How did your father Alf Engen get connected with what was to become Alta?Dad was hired by the Forest Service in the mid-1930s to go up and start taking a look at potential ski areas. One of the first that he talked about was Alta, because it had been around for a lot of years as a mining town. They knew it had plenty of good snow, but they wanted to see whether it would actually be good for a ski area. And dad skied up over Catherine's pass from Brighton into Alta. And stayed with a couple of miners by the name of the Jacobsen brothers. That was the only way dad could get into Alta at that time. He did it in the middle of the winter, so he had to hike in. That was a powerful skier. He had strong legs so he could go through that deep snow all the way over Catherine's Pass. He dropped into the Albion Basin. It was a great place for a ski area, but the miners had denuded all of the tree coverage that held back the avalanches and dad. He went back to the Forest Service and said, ‘You know, yes, let's go ahead and develop the area. But for gosh sakes, we've got to put new trees in there, so it'll hold back the avalanches.How did Alta’s signature run, High Rustler, come to be attached to your father?In the early days of Alta, in the 1940s, the run itself, the mountainside, was actually used and skiers would come up and they would hike up. They even put a little tow in there. But it eventually developed into a place that was very prominent at Alta. People would see it firsthand when they would come in. And in the 1980s, as a tribute to my father because it was such a prominent run, they renamed it Alf's High Rustler.Did you take a lot of pride in following in his footsteps?Well, I don't think anybody really follows in my dad's footsteps. He said some pretty deep tracks for me to follow, but I always had him as my idol. I truly felt that of all of the athletes I had the privilege of knowing in my lifetime, I thought my father was the one that I'd like to most closely emulate.Alf Engen Ski MuseumToday’s Alf Engen Ski Museum, located at the Utah Olympic Park just off I-80 in Park City, is considered one of the finest ski museums in the world. In addition to showcasing Alf’s hundreds of trophies, it features an in-depth history of the sport, especially in the Intermountain West. The museum is free and features a host of interactive exhibits that are especially fun for kids. “When we were talking to dad a little bit about having a ski museum, he says. ‘you gotta make it interesting for the kids,’” said Alan Engen. “He said, ‘build it around the kids so the kids have an interest and they can see what is happening with the ski sport and they will want to become a part of it.’”

What do ski lifts mean to skiers? Ask Doppelmayr USA President Katharina Schmitz and she’ll tell you ‘freedom.’ In this episode, Last Chair host Tom Kelly chats with the leader of Utah-based Doppelmayr USA to explore the evolution of ski lifts and future trends, not only at resorts but as a vital form of mountain and urban transportation.Doppelmayr, which is located not far from the Salt Lake City International Airport, has a  history in Utah going back to the 1970s. One of its predecessor companies, CTEC, was founded here. It later morphed into Garaventa, and then became a part of Doppelmayr, an Austrian company with a history going back 125 years.Utah is a big customer itself for the company, with over a hundred lifts in the state including the Garaventa-built Snowbird tram, now over 50 years old and still one of the most iconic ski lifts in the world, and the brand new Outlaw Express high-speed quad that opened at Sundance just before Christmas.In many ways, the future of lift technology is already here with products like Doppelmayr’s revamped detachable technology in D Line lifts, which are soon to come to Utah. Its tri-cable 3S line, featuring high-capacity, long span gondolas like the new Eiger Express in Switzerland and Whistler/Blackcomb’s Peak-to-Peak Gondola, may also find a future home in the state.A passionate skier herself, Katharina Schmitz grew up in Austria, coming to America with her engineering degree to forge a career in the automotive and aerospace industries, before landing in Utah with Doppelmayr in 2018. It’s a fascinating interview that will explain current trends in uphill transportation, showcase future innovations and even take a look into the proposed Little Cottonwood Canyon gondola and how Doppelmayr’s triple-cable 3S technology could make a difference. She even speaks to the growing importance of WiFi in lift cabins!Katharina, tell us more about Doppelmayr.We have around 3,500 employees, about half of those are in Austria. The rest of us are scattered throughout the world across about 50 subsidiaries. The North American market is a key part of that, so we typically make up around 15 percent of the group's revenue. In really strong years, we were a little bit closer to 20 percent, so we certainly have a lot of attention from our group's headquarters and a lot of support as well.Why is Utah a good home for a lift company like Doppelmayr?Having a very business friendly environment certainly is a factor now. In addition to that, having several world class resorts right in our backyard is a real benefit. It helps us to collaborate closely with customers, not only in Utah but throughout the West. And having a Delta hub here is really nice to visit the rest of our customers throughout the country.The history of aerial tramways in Utah goes back to hauling mining ore in the 1800s. How has the ski lift industry evolved from there?Yes, it started with material transport and Doppelmayr still has a material transportation segment. But the core market for us is transporting people. We have seen a lot of evolution from the first surface lift in, I think, 1937, that Doppelmayr built in Austria that really started the company's ropeway business. Then if you look from there and how fast we came to the first detachable around 1970 or so, the innovation since then has just been mind blowing. So I think it shifted the profile as to what ropeways are used for or used in.What’s the coolest lift installation you’ve seen in the world?I have a personal favorite, which is the Stoosbahn in Switzerland. It is a funicular and it has barrel shaped compartments that have a leveling floor, so you always stay horizontal. It's the steepest funicular in the world and it is the most unique ride. You're going up this amazing incline and then through a little tunnel and come out on the other side. It serves as public transport, as well as access to a smaller ski area that's car free. And it's just an amazing installation, a really fun ride.In your three seasons here in Utah, any favorite runs?Well, I'm not as territorial since I'm not native Utahn, but I very much enjoy long runs. So I really do like some of the runs up at Snowbasin - off John Paul or Needles - that are just making for a good, long, fast run.With the move from quads to six-packs and now to eight-packs, what are the important factors?Terrain and alignment certainly are the big and obvious ones. Capacity is a big topic these days. And how many people do you want to move up the mountain per hour comes with a few different factors. Lift speed is certainly a factor, but also how many carriers you have. While you typically want to go up the mountain fast, you want to be really slow going through the terminal. And so we found in recent years that having slower carriers through the stations, having longer loading intervals really helps with keeping the lift running and not having any misloads as you go. So that also explains a little bit why you see lifts with, let's say, six or eight seater chairs so you can have fewer carriers, longer loading intervals, and you would still have the same capacity doing that.So it’s not just about capacity?In essence, with an eight seater, you would have a higher ultimate capacity. Most resorts don't strive for that per se. They're trying to get a certain capacity. And then it's a question on how comfortable you want your load interval to be. Increasing the load interval is a big topic and it ties into one of these other big factors - the level of skier that really uses that lift. If you have a beginner area, that's maybe one of the most important factors is making sure you can load them. If you have, you know, an alignment where it's all expert skiers, that's probably not your concern and you'll be looking for some other factors.I recall the old Park City gondola being a great place to develop a relationship with a 25-minute ride. Modern lift technology has really changed that, hasn’t it?<laughing> Yes, you have to be efficient about your conversation, that's for sure.