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By Altafarian, February 27, 2010 4:06 PM

Friday February 26th was another blue-bird powder day up in Alta. The Backside, Ballroom/Baldy Shoulder and Devils Castle all had 18″ of untouched powder from the previous 2 days. The patrol let us at ‘em in that order, although we didn’t break out the camera until we got into Ballroom. This first clip is of Johnny getting freshies on the Ballroom/Shoulder rope line.

These next clips are of Johnny and Timmy’s run up in Eddie’s High Nowhere. You can see that the fracture line from the avalance several weeks ago has filled in nicely, but there’s still a bit of a drop off so be careful.


Tim finishes up the Eddie’s run by ducking into Suzy’s trees:

And on the next run in Suzy’s, we bumbed into Drew and she jumped at the chance to be on The Daily Pow:

It looks like it may be a while before the next big storm comes rolling through so I hope you all enjoyed Friday. Keep praying for more powder!

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By Altafarian, February 23, 2010 8:25 AM

Yesterday morning was another beautiful day up in Alta. While there was only about an inch of snow overnight, Devils Castle hadn’t been open in a few days so the snow collected nicely in there. Not wanting to freeze our ass off, we decided to take a couple laps on Sugarloaf until the castle was opened. Rob “to the wall or not at all” Rowley of course was waiting at the front of the gate for over an hour. Yet, our timing was good and we got off the sugerloaf lift just as the gate opened and must have been about the 10th and 11th people through the gate.

Rather than wipe ourselves out with the sidestep all the way to the wall, Steve and I decided to drop in early and take the easy powder that was right in front of us. I dropped first to test the snow and get set up with the camera. This first clip is Steve’s first few turns on this Lazy-Mans castle shot.

After Steve’s run, I gave him the camera to film me coming down the rest of the shot. Even though he got a bit distracted by another powder skier, he managed to get me coming off the little cornice and all the way to him.

As you can see, it doesn’t take long for the Castle to get tracked up, but it was still soft in there for several more laps. And if you’re not lazy and willing to go to the wall, you could even find untracked powder late in the day.

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By Altafarian, February 18, 2010 7:46 AM

Presidents Day was a great day of skiing, yet not so great for filming. However, the day after presidents day was sunny and beautiful with plenty of powder to be found. These first few clips are from the first run of the day out on Thirds. Johnny, Fred and Steve found some smooth turns up there.



This next clip is taken on the left side of High Rustler. High Boy was skiing great that day and there were still pockets of powder to be found on that left side. For this shot, Johnny perched himself up on one of the cornices while Jesse swings in below.

This final clip was taken towards the end of the day in one of the last lines of untracked pow above the traverse. It was Steve’s first time using the camera (well second as he actually missed some shots earlier). Johnny hiked up and got the goods with Steve yelling confirmation that the camera is rolling. Classic…

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By Altafarian, February 14, 2010 3:27 PM

What a beautiful day up in Alta today. With a good wind, 2″ overnight and 10″ in 24hrs, the skiing was, dare I say it, romantic for valentines day.

This video clip is of the first lap of the morning on west rustler. Piney gets himself some fresh cream for his coffee…

At about 11A, the sun came out and just lit up the mountain. The next 2 clips are of Andy Couch and Johnny B enjoying the sunshine and low angle pow on Greely Hill.


This final video is of JJ getting some turns in the Ho. Since it was valentine’s day, I let her get an extra run in the bus run and picked her up on the road.

Not a bad way to spend Valentine’s Day! I hope you all had as wonderful a day as we did up in Alta…

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By Altafarian, February 2, 2010 6:26 PM

Between Sunday and Monday Alta racked up about 11″ of snow. With only 4″ on sunday, we went looking for some low angle pow, since it was still a bit hard underneath. Mark, Jesse, Christian and JJ found just what we were looking for on Race Hill.

Then on Monday, with blue birds chirping and 11″ on the ground, the Backside finally opened after noon. Here’s a clip of Christian in the High Notch soon after the rope dropped and Titus let everyone in. We were probably #30 or so in the lineup but still managed to find the goods. Had to be careful down low though, as there were avalanche chunks buried underneath the pow. And I was pretty out of breath while filming so I apologize for the shaky hand and heavy breathing in the background.

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By Altafarian, January 28, 2010 12:24 AM

Over 80″ fell in this last Alta storm cycle. Below is some footage of the gang getting some POW on the last 2 days of the cycle.

Jesse and Johnny get some turns in the Ho on January 23rd:

Here are 2 clips of John Murphy crushing the fresh pow on January 24th:

Here are 2 more clips of Jesse and Johnny from the 24th:

We couldn’t resist the untracked powder on Goldminer’s Face above the gmd bus stop:

And finally, Tim Couch finds the last couple of face shots in the afternoon of the 24th:

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By Altafarian, January 2, 2010 4:17 PM

Gary lines up an early season gravity groove. He came in lower than normal but still managed to bank a nice right hand powder turn.

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By Altafarian, December 31, 2009 3:13 PM

Today was a gorgeous blue bird powder day up in Alta. The birds were chirping and the powder was deep. What a way to end the year!

The first clip is of me getting a couple untracked turns on Greely hill. Yes, I know, I was milking it. And it was also JJ’s first time with the camcorder, so she loses me on the first turn, but then I reappear with a face shot.

This second clip is of JJ getting an untracked line on Yellow Trail. You can see Lee Cohen standing in the middle of the run with Caroline, working hard to get a pow shot that will hopefully be his next cover of Powder Magazine.

While these turns on yellow trail were great, the ensuing turns in Glory Hole were by far the deepest of the season. Unfortunately no video of that though. All in all, a great day up in Alta. And with the second full moon of the month coming tonight, aka the blue moon, it is sure going to be a great torchlight parade. Happy New Year Everyone!

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By Altafarian, December 30, 2009 7:26 PM

Alta has received over a foot of snow today from this storm and it’s still coming down. While there was only about 3 inches reported in the morning, the snow was already piled up and there were still plenty of face shots to be had on the mountain. Check out the 3 clips below from 2 o’clock this afternoon. Lee, Johnny and Steve found some good powder on Greely Hill. Steve, also known as The Elder, went last, but his clip is first since he got the best face shot of the bunch.  And yes, the videos are a bit dark, but it was dumping!

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By Altafarian, November 19, 2009 2:35 PM

I posted these three segments back in August on Ski Bum Poet, but they need to be featured here as well. Little Cottonwood Canyon and Alta Powder Skiing at it’s best! When you see Jeff and Andy be sure to let them know how much you enjoyed this! It’s some of the best pow footage on the planet. Make sure you watch all three because the 3rd segment starts off with killer crash scenes. Enjoy!! -Gary M