Utah Life Outdoors

Mount Olympus, with its two summits, is the dominant peak looming over Salt Lake City in the Wasatch Front. The Mount Olympus wilderness, characterized by rugged terrain and narrow canyons, was declared a wilderness area in 1984 with the passage of the Utah Wilderness Act. More than 15,000 acres are protected.

The south facing orientation of the hiking trail at Mount Olympus allows for almost year-round hiking. Starting out steep, then switchbacking up hill the route to the summit is over 6 miles. The real trial is just short of the top when you gain a foot of elevation with every foot of distance in the final .1 mile. Don’t let this scare you off though. The views are spectacular of the valley floor below from the start and stretch from The Great Salt Lake to the Point of the Mountain.

To get there: Exit I-215 at the 3900 - 3300 South ramp and proceed south along Wasatch Boulevard. The parking lot is located on the east side of the street up a steep driveway at 5800 South Wasatch Boulevard.

Dogs are permitted in the Mount Olympus Wilderness area off leash.

Bring plenty of water and a camera.

Tags: hiking with your dog, Mount Olympus, Salt Lake City

PARK CITY PERFORMING ARTS FOUNDATION AND GREAT OLD BROADS FOR WILDERNESS PROUDLY PRESENT, AN EVENING WITH ARON RALSTON, AT THE ECCLES CENTER ON FRIDAY, MAR. 7. AUTHOR OF THE BESTSELLING MEMOIR, BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE, RALSTON WILL SHARE STORIES AND A SLIDE SHOW OF HIS ADVENTURES AND MISADVENTURES!

EVENT STARTS AT 7:30 PM.

Tickets are $30 (reserved seating) and $18 (general admission).

ALL PROCEEDS BENEFIT GREAT OLD BROADS FOR WILDERNESS.

CALL 435-655-3114 OR VISIT PARK CITY TICKETS FOR TICKETS AND INFO.

Tags: Aron Ralston, eccles center, great old broads for wilderness, the guy who cut off his arm

When consumers buy locally grown and produced products it helps the economy in Utah. For instance, when you receive your tax credit from the Bush administration this spring try spending it locally. If you take your $600 tax credit and spend it on local goods or services, these local vendors or service providers use the money they receive to purchase other local goods and services. Before you know it this cycle has repeated it self many times before the money is finally used to import goods or services from outside the area. If this happened only 5 times that would be like introducing $3000 into the community. Now, if you spent that $600 with a business outside the local area the money would have little effect on our economy. The $600 would only have the affect of $600 versus the $3000 on local goods and services.

Do you want to reduce your environmental footprint while supporting local farmers, food production facilities, restaurants and grocery chains? Lets work together Utah to keep small farms viable, create community food security and control a local food supply. Their are many local restaurants, farmers markets and other small businesses that we should all support. After all, they are our neighbors.

Just to name a few off the top of my head….

Beehive Cheese Co.

Tom’s Gourmet Dessert Sauces

Colosimo’s Sausage

Fat Boy Premium Icecream

Lehi Roller Mills

Norbest Turkey

Winder Farms

Oakdell Egg Farms

Condies Foods

Leatherby’s Family Creamery

Cox Honeyland of Utah

Harmons

Dan’s Foods

Maceys

Rico Brands

Cutler’s Cookies

Gossner Cheese

Meadow Gold Dairies

Miller Honey

Nicholas & Co. Food Service Distributor

Mount Olympus Spring Water

Tags: Buy Local Utah

The National Sports Foundation is partnering with the United States Ski & Snowboard Association to host the ski jumping and Nordic combined championships for the first time since before the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.The Utah Olympic Park and Soldier Hollow venues will welcome the nation’s best men and women ski jumpers as they vie for titles on both the normal and large Olympic ski jumps. The Nordic combined athletes will contest the cross-country portion of their event on the Olympic trails at Soldier Hollow.

Returning after a six-year hiatus, the event will draw approximately 75 of North America’s best athletes including World Champion and World Silver Medalists, Johnny Spillane and Billy Demong. This event will also provide another opportunity for the women athletes to showcase their abilities as they continue their quest for inclusion into the Olympic Games.

The 2008 National Championship will run March 14 – 16, with competitions on Saturday and Sunday.

Deck side viewing will also be possible during the Nordic combined cross-country race at Soldier Hollow. Saturday’s 7.5km Nordic Combined Sprint race will begin at 6:30 pm, once the sun hides behind the hills of Soldier Hollow. The course and stadium will be moved near the Soldier Hollow Lodge offering superb amenities to view the event.

Admission is free. For additional event information, please call 435 645 7660 ext 101

Tags: Backcountry jumping, Backcountry.com, nordic

Tags: Backcountry.com video, ski and snowboard

Cross country skiing at night has become one of my new favorite things to do. Once a week my friend Jen and I meet somewhere after sun down and ski. It is a great time to go and relax because your days work is done, the kids are in bed and dinner is in your tummy. Last night was exceptionally fun because of the full moon. We never use flash lights or head lamps because the whiteness of the snow makes it pretty easy to follow the trail once, your eyes have adjusted to the darkness. The best part of the whole experience is that you can not see every little up and down in the snow, icy spots in the track and other obstacles so you have to feel your way along as you gracefully (some times not so gracefully) kick and glide down the trail. For example, last night I suddenly started going down an icy hill through the trees really fast. The dogs were running along me excitedly because I was laughing so loud. Then to add to the chaos my hat slid down in front of my eyes, so I started screaming, even louder. Which of course upset Jazzmine, who then bit me in the leg as if trying to get me to stop acting that way . Oh, Jazzmine is a dog. All in all we made it out alive even with the scary stories of wolves, mountain lions and boogie men that we told each other along the way.

Tags: cross country skiing, full moon

Shreddin’ the Wasatch, the Park City Telemark Tribe is a tele club for youth. All ages are welcome but the most popular is grade 6 - 9. They meet every Sunday at The Canyons Resort in the Red Pine Lodge at 12 noon and ski until 4 p.m. White Pine Touring offers $15 rentals for participants.

Tags: Park City telemark, tele club for youth, White Pine Touring

Based in Utah, Backcountry.com carries high quality outdoor gear and equipment. During February 15 - 29, 2008 they are having their semi annual sale. If you need any outdoor gear or equipment or even think you might, this is one sale that you do not want to miss. I was checking it out earlier today and found some things 80% off even though they are advertising up to 70%.

Tags: Backcountry.com

At Park City Mountain Resort on March 8, 2008 they will hold the World Superpipe Championships. If you missed this contest last year you are going to want to catch it this year. The 6th annual contest is in the same pipe that the 2002 Olympics were held, the Eagle Super Pipe. The pipe is cut by a 22 foot Zaug pipecutter, there are only 4 of these in the world so it’s pretty special. This championship is invitation only with divisions for men and womens snowboarding plus mens skiing. There is a $90,000 purse so these pros will be going all out. This will be a lot of fun to watch so bring the whole family for this event.

Event Schedule

SATURDAY, MARCH 8
9:00 AM - 9:30 AM
WOMEN’S SNOWBOARD WARM UP

9:30 AM - 10:30 AM
WOMEN’S SNOWBOARD COMPETITION - 12 WOMEN, 3 RUNS, BEST RUN

10:30 AM - 11:15 AM
MEN’S SNOWBOARD WARM UP

11:15 AM - 12:45 PM
MEN’S SNOWBOARD COMPETITION - 16 MEN, 3 RUNS, BEST RUN

1:00 PM - 1:45 PM
MEN’S SKI WARM UP

1:45 PM - 3:15 PM
MEN’S SKI COMPETITION - 16 MEN, 3 RUNS, BEST RUN

3:00 PM
AWARDS

Tags: park city mountain resort, world superpipe championship