kendall card 2.0

I love skiing. Surprisingly, to some, I also love the ski industry. Yes they are two separate things.

I’ve heard some tell me that they have enjoyed skiing more once they left the ski industry than while they were working in the ski industry. Perhaps that’s because they, along with most who live to work in the industry, don’t realize that there is a difference. Trust me, there is a difference.

Knowing that, I was very intrigued when Jared Richards from Bluehouse Skis called me up and wanted to chat. He and a partner Adam Hepworth had spent two years and a pile of cash developing and building a new ski brand and were going “live” with 2 different models - the MR and the District

After a couple of chats with Jared, Adam and Shane I wanted in and knew it was time to once again work in the ski industry. I’m stoked to be a part of the Bluehouse team helping to push the brand forward and embrace existing and future customers.  Most of all I am looking forward to pushing a quality home grown Utah ski company forward and enjoying the ride.

The title of this post may throw some of you off, but for those that know me you’ll know that I’m a part of an online ski community known as the “Maggots”. It’s a long story which I’ll save for another post but I was reading the other day an essay I wrote over there (TetonGravity.com) this past winter and wanted to post it here to give you and insight into how online communities both impact as well as transition from online to real time.

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This past Friday I headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon for a dawn patrol with some buddies of mine (non mags). It was a peaceful morning, and a great skin up through a storm that was delivering double the snow that was predicted. After a great run down meadow chutes and a click of the poles bidding good-bye to my buddies, I headed up to Solitude for an early meeting.

As I walked through the village the snow was falling lightly and it caused me to reflect upon the last time I was here. It was New Years Eve 2 years ago when in the PNW they were suffering a most heinous dry winter and I was to meet up with Squirrel, GirlSki and others from the PNW who had driven all night in search of snow.

I remember meeting Splat for the first time that day, right there in the village center, and coincidentally riding the lift with Yeti who just weeks before I had been in a slight flame war with and how during that ride and the couple of runs that followed the flame was extinguished somewhere amidst the powder and the trees.

I thought about sharing those few sweet runs with MD9 and phUnk as we upped the ante each time through a cliff zone and on the last run through, me scoping out a landing zone the size of an elevator after which MD launched blindly 40 feet to a perfect landing followed by P Phunk himself. They trusted me, they trusted themselves.

As I walked past the Inn I sorely wished that Woodsy was still “keeping shop” so that I could stop in and enjoy a conversation or two. But not so, here on this Friday morning in November before the lifts were even turning it was silent in the village, mine one of only a few footsteps in the freshly fallen snow. What had previously been an unorganized meeting of maggots on my last visit to Solitude was now a lonely locale.

While hanging out in the ticket office near the rental and repair shot, waiting for the other half of my meeting to arrive I noticed a guy on the other end of the shop looking out the window, intensely watching the snow and the sky, studying the weather. He’d steal a glance back at me as I was enjoying some idle chit chat with the ticket guy. A few moments later I heard “Are you powstash?” and turning noticed the guy from the shop had made his way over to greet me.

Sure enough, a maggot. Skifishbum to be precise and with the shake of hands we’d become friends. As he tuned skis we chatted about my tour that morning and he told me of his day’s plans - a tour to Twin Lakes Pass and beyond. The sticker laden and well-used Bro’s in the ski rack told the story that he was a fellow maggot.

“Hey man, do your skis need a tune? Got any core shots I can fix for ya?”

Sure enough my Havocs were in serious need of a tune. After grabbing my skis from the car and handing them off my meeting was starting. A few minutes later I was back in the repair shop as SFB was just finishing up the tune and headed out the door. “Don’t worry about it, great to meet you man” he said as I shouldered my skis and headed back to the car, another meeting to make.

Walking back through the still mostly deserted village I couldn’t help but think about all the random “change for a nickel” stories there must be out there and how in the world of skiing, which is pretty small in itself, that there is a brotherhood of maggots to which I proudly belong.

Thanks Dave for that reminder.

Doug Coombs was an icon for me and many others that grew up skiing in the late 80’s and 90’s and for whom skiing steep terrain became a passion. I don’t really categorize what I do as “Big Mountain Skiing”, I just ski. A lot of the time I search out steep terrain, rock lined chutes and yes, I like to climb big mountains and then ski down as evidenced in the photo to the right.

Sadly, Doug died last year, doing what he loved - skiing steep terrain in one of his favorite places on earth, La Grave, France. I never had the opportunity to meet Doug Coombs. I saw him at Snowbird one time in passing and just missed a chance to interview him for a documentary that my friend was working on called “Teton Skiing: Legends of the Fall Line“. Perhaps it’s selfish for me to wish I had met him, to recount the moment that could have been but either way I’m left inspired and in awe of how he lived and what he loved.

I just watched this trailer about Doug Coombs and I was pulled in by what he says when skiing steep lines “you can almost get a feeling of flying”. I’m looking forward to watching this film “STEEP” when it comes out as this little teaser below leaves me wanting more. It’s a documentary by The Documentary Group which is associated with PJ Productions.

I just got back from a dose of winter that has been missing from the past three weeks. I was starting to actually say to myself and others that I was over winter and that I no longer needed to ski. What a crock!

I had a long night on Wednesday thrashing around the Uintas hunting for snow to ski, finding only a bunch of mank that once resembled skiable snow, so Thursday morning found me unable to get out of bed and sore from an encounter with a tree. But a call from Derek telling my that I had missed out and the remote opportunity to slip up to Little Cottonwood Canyon from my work in Salt Lake City today was all I needed to put all my gear in my car as I was leaving home.

Meetings and work stuff kept me in Salt Lake all day and 5pm found me weaving through traffic, east bound on I-80 and contemplating if I should take the 215 exit and head south to LCC. It looked like it had been snowing all day and cold so I opted for the outing, arriving at the top of LCC by Alta as the storm was breaking. I changed into my ski gear and walked over to the snow covered summer road where I bumped into a good friend Jim Stefan and his friend Lorenz.

What followed was some great conversation, trail breaking, amazing sunset views, alpenglow snow and nearly 3000′ of fantastic powder skiing from 2 laps - one on Patsy Marley and one on Twin Lakes Pass (the peak to the north of the pass). It was so good I’m going back for more tomorrow morning!