Best in the West Archives

Snowbird Powder Porn

March 15, 2015May 21, 2013 by Matt

Snowbird is one of those resorts that in almost always included in best ski resort lists, and rightly so. It has one of the biggest annual snowfalls in the country, and it’s the legendary Utah driy powder. It has some of the most accessible in-bounds extreme terrain that I’ve ever seen.

I was fortunate enough to visit Snowbird a few times this year and shoot some of their sponsored riders. It was epic. I rode chutes like the ones I’d only previously seen in movies. Hucked sme pretty big cliffs as well. The conditions weren’t always great for photos, but we still got some pretty spectacular shots.

snowbird utah snowboarder

Is Wolf Creek the Best Ski Area in the United States?

September 15, 2015May 16, 2013 by Matt

Statistically Wolf Creek appears to be a fairly average ski area. It’s 1600 acres, which places it solidly in the middle of the pack for rideable terrain. It has seven lifts to serve that terrain and a vertical of just over 1,600 feet. There’s no terrain park at all.

There is one statistic, however, that sets Wolf Creek apart from other resorts

Sh*t People Say About Wolf Creek

March 15, 2015May 15, 2013 by Matt

We left Salt Lake City to visit Wolf Creek in February, excited to see how Colorado’s best snow stacks up against Utah’s self-proclaimed “best snow on Earth”. It was impressive. While there we got to ask the locals and visitors what they liked about Wolf Creek. Some people mentioned the super-chill small town atmosphere. Mentions … Read more

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Is Telluride The Best in the West?

March 15, 2015May 9, 2013 by Matt

Telluride has always held a certain mystique for me. Growing up we watched ski and snowboard videos every year in the months before the snow fell, while dreaming of the winter to come. I lived in a small town in British Columbia. The exotic names of the ski resorts we saw always got jumbled together, Vail, Squaw Valley, Chamonix, but one always stood out — Telluride.

Telluride Powder Porn

March 15, 2015April 25, 2013 by Matt

My expectations were high when we visited Telluride. It was my first visit. We arrived in a whiteout that had us driving 30 miles an hour on the highway there. The first night the hill received several inches of snow and it kept snowing all the next day. The second day the sun came out and I got to ride Telluride the way it’s meant to be ridden — on steep pitches with over a foot of fresh pow.

This is how it was: legendary.

Sh*t People Say About Telluride

March 15, 2015April 23, 2013 by Matt

Telluride is a town named after a rare exotic metal that became a rare — and in it’s own way exotic — destination. Telluride has been a mythical place for me ever since I heard about it in the ski movies that my family watched each year in the weeks leading up to opening day. … Read more

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Is Crested Butte the Best Ski Resort in the USA?

March 15, 2015April 22, 2013 by Matt

When I opened up the Crested Butte trail map for the first time in my hotel room I was awestruck. I had never seen so much black on a trail map. Black and double-black diamond runs appeared to occupy more than half of the resort. About one-third of the Crested Butte’s 1,547 acres was, it turned out, was in fact extreme double-black diamond terrain.

“Could this be my dream hill?” I wondered.