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!
