LAKE EFFECT: Is SLC Skiing's HQ?
It’s prime hunting season for the Northern hemisphere’s snow safari. Tahoe recovered from an epic holiday letdown of drought and flood. The Pacific Northwest is this year’s Boner City for powder sluts and Colorado and the Ice Coast had some fairly respectable storms to appease the masses. In addition, the Canadian Rockies, Tetons, Selkirks, and Kootenays have all provided enough dumps to call out a good season.
Yet Salt Lake City remains the one stop along the powder road that consistently pulls in the killer fluff, year after year, la Nina after El Nino. Small wonder the town is fast assimilating an amazing amount of the industry’s energy and growth as well. Is the town of the “Greatest Snow on Earth” poised to become the industry’s and sport’s future US headquarters?
On a roadtrip to Little Cottonwood Canyon in January I answered the question for myself. At every turn, both on and off the slopes, I encountered a constant flurry of industry players who have shaped skiing’s past and influence the present and future of the sport. As Chamonix has long been home to the large and extreme, Salt Lake is positioned to flourish not only as the destination mecca for the deep and light, but as America’s single location where athletes and industry muckity mucks share chair rides and buy residences.
Arriving on a midnight flight from Vegas, I was in town to catch a glimpse of Gordy Pfieffer’s Straightline Adventure Camp, a three day all-encompassing instructional seminar taught by some of the best athletes in the business. I stayed at the Cliff Lodge, where Chad Zurinskas, the first skier to clear the gap that bears his name, works as a sous chef. As Gordy gets his group set up for some training with Jeremy Nobis, I call Seth Roller who tells me he and Derek Weiss are about to descend off Superior, the omnipresent face of beauty that overlooks Alta and Snowbird. Twenty minutes later, Derek and Seth find me on the tram dock, show me some pics and then head off to work. Later in Gordy’s hotel room, photographer Adam Clark walks in with a carousel of slides. I sneak out just as fast to attend a party downtown at the SkyBox, where a gaggle of PowderMaggots has come together to honor one of their more distinguished members who is moving from Salt Lake to New York.
In addition to the personalities catapulting SLC into the country’s skiing HQ, more and more companies are relocating here as well. Goode moved into the ward last year. Now Quicksilver, parent company of Rossignol and Dynastar is setting up shop in Park City. Ski manufacturer Revolution is just down the road. Black Diamond has been here for years. Throw in Internet retail giant BackcountryStore.com and it looks like half the town will be dependent on skiing before long. Salt Lake’s Outdoor Retailer show has been said to overshadow SIA’s traditional Vegas show the last few years too.
Throughout the day I bump into an old friend from Las Lenas, Rick Greener and Chuck Loeffler before attending an avalanche seminar taught by top gun Jim ‘Sarge’ Conway. Best known for preventing the world’s top skiers from getting buried on the steeps of Alaska and across the world, Conway’s tutelage on snowpack analysis and beacon search techniques is widely considered the best condensed instruction available anywhere. The class is taught in the Backcountry Access beacon park, a short walk from the Cliff Lodge.
Later I cruise to Alta to meet some friends and run into Pep Fujas and friends downing nachos in the Goldminer’s Daughter bar. After I run into to a bunch of IFSA competitors getting ready for this year’s circuit. By the end of the day, I feel I’ve just taken a tour of the state of the sport without ever leaving Little Cottonwood Canyon.
It appears that if any place in America can claim the title of SkiTown, USA, Salt Lake City has it in the bag.