We’ve been skiing our fill of mellow angle pow so far this season. This is a shot from last Saturday up near Alta. The Wasatch mountains take a fair amount of snow to coat them from all the sharp pointy rocks and season ending stumps. It’s good to take it easy early in the season and work up to big lines, chutes and drops.
This is where the 80 inch rule comes in. I believe it was Andy Jacobsen or Andy Rosenberg who introduced me to one of the most important rules in skiing. The 80″ base rule (we use the Alta ski area snow totals) is quite simple. Take it easy until there is an 80 inch base then let the badger out of the cage. This pertains most importantly to hucking big cliffs. I have seen many break the rule and end up broken. Anything before 80″ is just pre-season training time to get in shape. This is time to dial in the gear, make plans for the season and be patient. Not always easy to do, especially in a winter that starts slowly such as this.
I even tagged a rock on this little sunset shot.
Alta’s base at the time of this post=79″. And it’s still snowing. Bring on winter!