WASATCH STOKE, CONDITIONS, OBSERVATIONS and ASSORTED DRIVAL 20-21

**zion zig zag** · 03-27-2021, 12:54 PM

I love this time of year. Stable snow, big peaks, and home by noon.

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**Foggy_Goggles** · 03-27-2021, 01:05 PM

That looks rad!

**whyturn** · 03-27-2021, 04:15 PM

Really great leftovers today. It was empty and snow was soft until 1

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**criscam** · 03-27-2021, 05:28 PM

How’d N facing hold up today?

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**BobMc** · 03-27-2021, 06:21 PM

That had to be the most vehicles I’ve ever seen at White Pine this morning. How long till White Pine parking nudges into Snowbird road parking?

The canyon top to bottom road parked?

**jtran10** · 03-27-2021, 06:23 PM

Brighton side country, in costume.

Telefree - east castle tomorrow? Want to know if i should bring the skins

**zion zig zag** · 03-27-2021, 06:26 PM

Originally Posted by Foggy_Goggles

That looks rad!

It's such a fun ski. And between the nuclear winds that peak gets and the obvious avalanche problem, it seems like a rare treat to get on that face.

**tgapp** · 03-27-2021, 06:30 PM

Originally Posted by criscam

How’d N facing hold up today?

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Upper elevation north facing was still dry today. Mid and lower elevations got damp. Phenomenal skiing.

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**telefreewasatch** · 03-27-2021, 07:38 PM

Originally Posted by jtran10

Telefree - east castle tomorrow? Want to know if i should bring the skins

Skins for the win.
Fuck if I wanna sidestep that far once, let alone laps...

**whyturn** · 03-27-2021, 08:12 PM

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**CirqueScaler** · 03-27-2021, 08:25 PM

Originally Posted by DLD in UT

S Face got tracked out fast this AM. Glad to be one of the first few down. Super fun.
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The skiing was fun, but the ambiance wasn't for me. It felt so angsty - probably 25 people on the summit when we got up there at 8:15 (our fault, I guess) and everyone rushing to ski at once. That, along with generally 4+ people skiing at the same time, makes it a one-and-done for me, at least on a popular day.

I actually like meeting people in the BC, but in a different way.

**peace_coast** · 03-27-2021, 09:03 PM

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Fantastic morning.

**Lone Star** · 03-27-2021, 09:16 PM

if every saturday this season could have been a wednesday.....

the year of the weekend warrior!

**telefreewasatch** · 03-28-2021, 08:36 AM

Powderbirds flew the Flagstaff rig back up this morning for no charge.
Pretty psyched about that...
Kudos given.

**Orash111** · 03-28-2021, 12:13 PM

It been a great week with good snow, stability, and light winds in the wasatch. In fact pretty much over the entire last month following our mega storm/base builder cycle. Slowly sifting through footage and going to be trickling it in here over the coming weeks.

Here are some more speedriding (ski+speedwing aka really tiny paraglider) stoke videos. Longer versions of footage from the video I already posted about a week back, with a lot of added footage. And yes, I definitely need to improve my ski form. But hey, I'm an OG snowboarder.

Bighorn:
https://vimeo.com/530019031

Hellgate with snowboarder flyby (well planned out with my buddy on the board):
https://vimeo.com/530031723

Tanner's with one full on faceplant 500ft down the top chute:
https://vimeo.com/530035964

**hbfs** · 03-28-2021, 02:39 PM

Wow, that is some incredible footage. I hope to see more of it in the future!
A few curiosity questions came to mind watching it -

Do you wear any special equipment i.e. impact vests to protect against high speed impacts, for instance if that faceplant had been harsher or at higher speeds?

How do you manage avalanche risk for others below your speedride path?

**Lone Star** · 03-28-2021, 03:25 PM

Originally Posted by telefreewasatch

Powderbirds flew the Flagstaff rig back up this morning for no charge.
Pretty psyched about that...
Kudos given.

info@powderbird.com

lets all take a minute to send them a quick thank you!

**mall walker** · 03-28-2021, 03:41 PM

^ done

**Skidog** · 03-28-2021, 05:41 PM

Originally Posted by Orash111

It been a great week with good snow, stability, and light winds in the wasatch. In fact pretty much over the entire last month following our mega storm/base builder cycle. Slowly sifting through footage and going to be trickling it in here over the coming weeks.

Here are some more speedriding (ski+speedwing aka really tiny paraglider) stoke videos. Longer versions of footage from the video I already posted about a week back, with a lot of added footage. And yes, I definitely need to improve my ski form. But hey, I'm an OG snowboarder.

Bighorn:
https://vimeo.com/530019031

Hellgate with snowboarder flyby (well planned out with my buddy on the board):
https://vimeo.com/530031723

Tanner's with one full on faceplant 500ft down the top chute:
https://vimeo.com/530035964

Did I see a crash in last vid? Damn, what's it like to crash a rig like that? Speed must be insane.

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**Orash111** · 03-28-2021, 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by hbfs

Wow, that is some incredible footage. I hope to see more of it in the future!
A few curiosity questions came to mind watching it -

Do you wear any special equipment i.e. impact vests to protect against high speed impacts, for instance if that faceplant had been harsher or at higher speeds?

How do you manage avalanche risk for others below your speedride path?

Answers to these and others questions:

1) Yes, that was a crash in the tanners video. But I was going quite slow then and there was super deep soft powder. My goal that day was to not ski too fast so I keep my skis on the ground. Which was quite hard to do as that glider really wants to fly when it gets fast and steep. I told myself no biggie if I crash at those low speeds in the deep pow. It is the only way I'll learn to speedride better.

2) A crash at high speeds when I am fully flying in not so soft snow could be very bad or during the summer foot launching when there is zero snow, could very well be fatal. I've been at it for almost 7 years now, both paragliding and spreedflying. Very slowly progressing to smaller and smaller gliders. Flying 300 days a year that whole time. It is deceptively easy to get in way over ones head going into this. I took it very slow going into the speed flying/speedriding part of it for that very reason.

3) I always wear a helmet and a garmin gps tracker. Helmet is mostly just for the launch and landings. Crashing at full flying speeds is as I said really not an option.

4) I make sure no one is below me on a speedride path (for avy danger) as much as I can when just skiing or boarding. I am also way lighter on my feet when speedriding, so the risk of setting anything off is much less than if I hand no glider over my head,

5) There will be more of it appearing on my vimeo channel. Keep your eyes peeled. I'll probably spare the repeated posting of every single one in this forum, unless you guys don't want me to stop?

I figure those interested enough can just check on my vimeo.

**Orash111** · 03-28-2021, 07:23 PM

Last share and then I'll stop.

This professional edit just came out. Yours truly and my buddy Carl speedriding in the Wasatch over the last month. Keep your eye on this particular account speedflying.com on vimeo for more sweet edits to come and many already online. Drone footage and all of the dope editing done by my buddy Ian.

https://vimeo.com/527655599

Finally if you are interested of getting into speed flying/riding, get on speedflying.com and send them a message. Carl and others are teaching and are going above and beyond to make sure everyone learns as safely as possible and with as much info on how to fly well. Much more than any other school geared towards paragliding can provide/has provided for speed flying/riding. In fact, until now there actually hasn't been a very good/structured way to learn speedflying/riding in the USA. It has mostly just been focused on paragliding. One typically had to go to europe to get quality speed flying instruction.

**hbfs** · 03-28-2021, 08:33 PM

Thank you for the thorough answers!

Awesome edit. Personally wouldn't mind seeing more on this thread. Speedriding and wingsuits are two sports that I've always been fascinated by but have never seriously considered doing due to fear of death.