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Well, it’s officially preseason in Utah, but the lines between real life and winter are beginning to blur. The second class gets out, I turn to photo and shred mode, and come Monday, I wonder why I have to bust a** so hard on-campus all week.

Spirits are high as this transition occurs, and Brighton has been open for almost a week (as of postdate), with new terrain (Crest Express) opening Wed., Nov. 18.

This past weekend was spent riding Brighton, and then when a storm hit on Saturday and didn’t let up until the wee hours of Sunday, a few calls were made and the next thing I knew I was hiking up Alta (THE BEST PRESEASON HIKING FOR POW) with a good crew and handful of camera gear.

On north facing aspects the snow was more or less bottomless as long as you could read what was shallow and what was filled in. This here is a collection of my preseason shred, including a recon “snow” camping mission [top photo] in Big Cottonwood Canyon, opening weekend at Brighton, and some 2,000 odd vertical feet of hiking at Alta.

Ski and snowboard fiends were getting very antsy after some midweek storms dumped an upwards of two feet in the Cottonwood Canyons. And then Ski Utah had to go out and release their “Best Of” footage from last year’s season. Take a deep breath, powderhounds — we’ve only got three weeks til open. Can’t wait? Strap on the skins and hike up.

With the first bit of snow now topping the Wasatch, there’s a bounce in the step of Powderhounds across northern Utah. For the layperson, it would appear as if the seasons had been flipped and May flowers were in bloom. And who could blame them? The dusting is a sign from Ullr that the upcoming season’s powder harvest will be bountiful along the Wasatch’s steep-sloped fields of terrain.

It’s also a good reminder to get your early-season discount tickets, if there are any left. For some of the resorts, the half foot of snow is a nice reminder of their Sept. 30th deadlines.

Did anybody out there get some turns in?

Date: April 12-27, 2009
Location: Snowbird, UT
Featuring: Me (Jake Kirshner), Carston Oliver, Kenjiro Matsuo, Eon Jarvis, Abe Fenichel & Nik Aksamit

Low-Res Vimeo Version:

High-Res Version: http://www.jakecast.com/helmetcast/helmetCast15.m4v
(right-click > save target/link as…)

Just some more skiing action of some of the University of Utah’s finest skiers shredding the gnar well straight into May.

Enjoy =)
Jake