Powder Skiing at Snowbird and Alta

I arrived at Snowbird early enough to catch the first (public) tram to the top of Hidden Peak. Mineral Basin didn’t open yesterday, so I figured its south- and southeast-facing runs would be loaded with powder snow because of the storm’s strong west-northwest winds.

I was right. The 19 inches of fresh powder on White Diamonds was some of the deepest I’ve ever skied.

Read MorePowder Skiing at Snowbird and Alta

Snowbird Tour

I took the day off work to go skiing at Snowbird. My goals for today were to ski the Upper Cirque and to film the view from atop some of the Upper Cirque chutes. I succeeded on both accounts, but I didn’t ski my run very well. The conditions weren’t great, and it had been a long time since I last skied anything that challenging, but I figured I could put it all together for one run. I did not, but that’s OK. I also accidentally passed the chute I had planned to ski. It’s one of my favorites, so I cut back across the next chute to get to it, which didn’t make for great footage, but I wanted to ski that chute because it was more familiar.

Cruising

Today was a short groomer day at Alta. I also experimented with my GoPro camera setup. I think I now have a setup that works. It provides a good point-of-view camera angle with minimal shaking. Now I just need to start skiing some more interesting terrain.

With that said, the following GoPro footage only features some easy terrain off the Sunnyside lift. The skiing footage isn’t too exciting, but it was a beautiful day. Enjoy!

Oahu 2014

Last Thursday (October 30, 2014), I returned from a vacation to the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. The trip was very fun, but–make no mistake–Oahu is not a paradise. No paradise should be as crowded as Oahu! Kauai is a paradise. Oahu is more like an awesome playground, which is not a bad thing.

Over the course of my week-long trip, I hiked, surfed, kayaked, drove around the entire island (except for a 10-mile stretch west of Hale’iwa) and visited a lot of the major sites. I stayed very busy.

My only complaint about Oahu is in regards to the hiking. Oahu’s hiking simply cannot compare to the hiking on Kauai, in my opinion. It was difficult for me not to compare the two islands during this trip. For example, the biggest hike I did on Oahu was a portion of the Maunawili Trail. The trail did have a few excellent front-row views of the Ko’olau Range’s steep cliffs, but, overall, I was mostly bored by the scenery. The best parts of the Maunawili Trail were not even as good as the worst parts of the Kalalau Trail on Kauai. Oh, well. The hike was enjoyable, nonetheless.

Oahu does, however, seem to have more accessible water activities compared to Kauai. Waikiki is a perfect spot to learn how to surf. Kaneohe Bay is a calm bay great for a kayaking novice like myself. Hanauma Bay is a very inviting snorkeling area, although I do regret that I never made it back there to do some snorkeling on this trip.

Overall, this trip to Oahu went very well and I have very few regrets. So, now I’ve visited two of the six main Hawaiian Islands. I look forward to visiting the rest of the islands someday. Enjoy the photos and video!