BayAreaKiteboarding.com

So, I joined Jeff Kafka on his last weekend trip to Utah for some Snow Kiting. After living in Tahoe for the last two snowkite seasons I was a little put off on local snow kiting just because the conditions are so hit and miss. This was my second trip to Utah for snow kiting and once again, I rode every day.

To start, the flight out of OAK or SFO is direct to SLC and only takes about 1.5 hours. Jeff drives you from the airport to Fairview which is just a short 15 minute ride to the kite spot. He has a 5 bedroom house and cooks up some great meals! It's a ski cabin setting and the town has a couple local night attractions. Really you are there for the riding though, so night life is generally a non-issue.





After getting to Skyline from the airport we kited a bit and then wrapped up the day with some snowboard shuttle runs. The nice thing is that in the unlikely case that there is no wind, Jeff will run shuttles up and down the mountain so that you can take snowboard runs to your hearts content in the greatest powder on earth!



Before leaving Skyline, Jeff gave his 2-year-old son Zak a little ground lesson.



We wrapped up the day with an incredible sunset from the top of the ridge.



We returned to the cabin and Jeff whipped up some serious fajitas and we enjoyed a few cocktails before calling it an early night in anticipation of good wind on Saturday.

Saturday brought cold weather and cranking winds. We started out on 10m kites and moved on to 5m in the afternoon. To give you an idea of how windy it gets, this shot was taken from the ridge.



I was on a 5m Frenzy enjoying the berm right by the road at Skyline.



We rode until we could no longer move then returned back to the house for another high country gourmet meal from Kafka. After a bit more boozing, it was to bed for all in anticipation of another epic day for Sunday.

When wer reached the top of the ridge on Sunday, it was cold and even windier than the day before. We opted to drive down a thousand feet to a spot called Electric Lake...actually closer to the cabin than Skyline. This spot was heaven. While 5m kites were flying at the ridge, Jeff and I chose for 10m and 12m at the meadow. Steady winds and miles of powder in the meadow.



After a 1 mile downwinder in the meadow, Jeff and I decided to cross the road and head up a hill for some stronger winds and big boosting potential. This is where the serious fun began as we could pull ourselves up the hill and then boost quite a distance back down the hill...not to mention serious speed runs back down the hill. The snow was perfect powder packed on the hillside and the riding went on for hours. It was like a Sherman session...no joke!



We could barely move after this session and come 4:30 we got in the car and started heading back towards Salt Lake for our 9:00 pm flight home. We stopped at a great steakhouse in Draper on the way back and filled our bellies with steak and beer. Home by 10:00 on Sunday night and back to work on Monday.

Great trip!

I really am psyched on Jeff's program as it makes snowkiting easy. He supplies the kites, accomodations, food, snowmobile and transportation. You just get your plain ticket and bring your board and the rest is done for you. If you really want a great introduction to snowkiting or you just want to go to a place where you're just about guaranteed great conditions, The WOW trips to Skyline are the shizzle!

Check out Jeff's program at wowkite.com or email him for details at wowkite@sbcglobal.net

I'll be doing 2 more trips with Jeff this year fo sho!

wow.
i want some...
gabe were is slt?
or do you mean slc, airport?
where do we fly into..?

charlie wrote:wow.
i want some...
gabe were is slt?
or do you mean slc, airport?
where do we fly into..?

Sorry, Salt Lake City

thanks
SLC

Gabe,

That looks sick. I believe I'll be hitting it there in 18-22 of March. Nice writeup on the spot, the sunset photo is priceless - those mountains and ridges in the background are really something!

Thanks for the info,
Ollie

That area is really, incredibly beautiful. You can see for miles in every direction, and there's noone around.

Jeff probably got an awesome deal on that cabin. I read in the SLC paper that the county where Skyline is located is the poorest county in Utah, and there sure as hell isn't anything else happening there other than snowkiting.

BayAreaKite wrote:Gabe,

That looks sick. I believe I'll be hitting it there in 18-22 of March. Nice writeup on the spot, the sunset photo is priceless - those mountains and ridges in the background are really something!

Thanks for the info,
Ollie

I was keeping this one for something but since you seem to appreciate the sunset shot so much, check out this one from the same evening:

Say Gabe:
How do you think the family would fare at that spot?

Bob

Pablito wrote:
Jeff probably got an awesome deal on that cabin. I read in the SLC paper that the county where Skyline is located is the poorest county in Utah, and there sure as hell isn't anything else happening there other than snowkiting.

yeah, it ain't exactly California prices but I wouldn't call them poor and without economy. There is a huge snowmobile following out there. People travel from hundreds of miles to snowmobile Skyline. Go there over April 1st and you will be blown away...thousands of snowmobiles. The locals may not have as much money as we are used to seeing out here but they are just as stoked. Jeff is also hooking up some of the local kids with free clinics as they all have snowboards and are psyched to learn to kite and can make for good help out there down the road.

What Jeff is doing may actually stimulate their economy a bit. Once the word really get's out on Skyline, it may be hard to find a place to stay. The locals welcome the business and love to watch us fly.

Sometimes the poorer people are the most excited about life. These people are easy to talk to and stoked to see new faces.

whitecap wrote:Say Gabe:
How do you think the family would fare at that spot?

Bob

Bob, I think the fam would love it. Jeff had his wife Nicole, and son Zak out there and they hung pretty tough. If you're not kiting, you're either at the cabin, hanging out in the tent at the kite spot or snowboarding. You may want to start with just you and Alex to see how it goes.