Famous Internet Skiers » Skiing

TR: Skiing Between The Lines

Greg — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:06:47 +0000

For Super Bowl Sunday, myself and a crew of adjunct FIS including Pete, Jake and Jessie, along with two fellas from EasternBackcountry, Austin and Drew, had big plans to ski big(ger) lines (than we’ve skied this season). The mountain had other plans however, and it generally doesn’t like to compromise.

Click the picture or here to read Skiing Between The Lines

Wanting what you get

Peter — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 09:47:21 +0000

It’s not always about getting what you want. Especially this season, it seems to just not be happening (yet!).
It’s about WANTING WHAT YOU GET.

And, this past Monday what we got was just a little refresher of pow on top of the old rain crust. Did we want to ski? You bet!
So, original-FIS got busy in their backyard. And adjunct-FIS got in the car at 5am, in order to get in the skin track an hour before dawn. It was a work day after all…

No epic powder day for us, or amazing new line. But, it felt good, because whether it was over head blower, or just a few inches, we wanted it.

The sun came up as we reached the top.

Gear was readied as we noshed some breakfast

and a favorite old line was seen for the thousandth time, but made fresh again with just a touch of snow. Who could not want to ski this?

So, get after it, and want what you get. The gettin’s pretty good.

Busy Monday

Greg — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:13:17 +0000

After a Lazy Sunday, we all had to buckle down for a busy Monday.

Ain’t gonna get dun itself. So we’re gonna have two git er dun…

…AND GIT SUM!

Thanks for readin FIS! Pray that Lionel’s Dream #59 bears fruits of powder snow.

Lazy Sunday

Greg — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:05:33 +0000

Sometimes after a long week of work and snow and rain and snow and rain and work, you just need a lazy Sunday to chill out.

All you want to do is just sit back, relax, and watch the boob-tube.

Monday will be here soon enough, so be sure to enjoy the ride today on Lazy Sunday.

Visions of…

Greg — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:58:55 +0000

“Ain’t it just like the night to play tricks when you’re tryin’ to be so quiet?

“Lights flicker from the opposite loft

“But there’s nothing, really nothing to turn off

“The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain

“And these visions…

“…are now all that remain.”

The Moose That Schussed!

Greg — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:32:59 +0000

Ahhh… First chair at your local ski hill. No matter what the weather has been–good or bad–you can be sure the groomers made something fun for you to zoom down, and you can be guaranteed of solitude as you schuss the pistes. But wait… what’s this… someone else is here too?

I guess you can only be guaranteed of solitude so long as the local moose isn’t looking to get some early morning turns in as well. Sadly for us, that wasn’t the case:

I hate it when I get snaked by a moose…

Thanks for reading FIS!

Famous Internet Whiteout

The F.I.S. — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:03:51 +0000

Well, by now you’ve probably all heard about the Blackout on Wikipedia, and Google’s sad censored logo. Here at FIS we’re in “Whiteout Mode” to take a stand against internet censorship.

Click here to access a tool that will help you contact your US Representative(s), and let them know you care about Internet Censorship. We’ll get back to the pure ski stoke and snow forecasts shortly, but for now, thanks for caring!

It’s about god-damn time: Pattern change brings western snows

Lionel Hutz — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:12:27 +0000

I can’t believe it’s January 15th, and I haven’t written one exciting storm forecast for Utah or the entire west. That’s impressive. Espically so since I sorta expected this winter to be above average (after a very slow and bad december). Well regardless of what we all predicted and expected, we got what we got and looking foward next week will bring a period of stormy and unsettled weather to the west.

Follow the passage of a weak front, a moist zonal pacific moisture induced pattern will unfold next week. Looking a global models for the North Pacific it’s clear that a surge of warmer, wetter air will flow up and entrain into a steady westerly flow just off the Wash/Oregon coast. Waves of moisture and embedded shortwaves will ripple inland over the Cascades, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. As the flow fluctuates naturally north and south, moisture will move into the Northern Wasatch and Northern Sierras.

Taking at look at the time/height series for Jackson and Alta we see the pattern played out over their air colums.

Alta:

Notice the difference? Clearly we see sustained heavy upward vertial motion through a heavily saturated enviorment straight through the middle and end of next week at JH. Alta’s graph shows more burst like precip with off and on snowier periods.

I think this is fairly representative of the overall system described above and looks rather well modeled.
Overall we’ll likely be looking a many new feet of snow across the Northern Western mountains and 1-2 new feet across the Wasatch and Sierras. If I had time and a car to go find some deep powder, I’d look to Jackson Hole, Targhee, and anything in Idaho. At least that’s what it looks like now.

Let me add a little more timely data here. As of sunday morning it looks VERY wet out west.
Here is the precip total for the next week:

So this pattern is looking a little better for Utah that previously mentioned but still Idaho and Jackson look to get SPANKED.

Lionel’s Payday

Greg — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 23:11:36 +0000

Who called this one? Lionel did, that’s who. That’s why this update is all Lionel…all the time…reaping the fruits of his forecast. Honestly, I’m not even sure that makes sense, but whatever, it’s time for some pow shots.

To start it off, here is the man himself Tebowing (or is that TePOWing?) to give thanks to the one and only divine Ullr.

Now let’s get a little bit o’ tele SOUL, replete with three part harmony and a gaper-neck-warmer.

Peak-a-boo-a-pow

And to close it out, here’s just some good old fashioned VTah Classic Deepness.

Thanks folks, and THANKS to Lionel for the forecast (feel free to thank him below yourself in the comments)! Hope you got/git sum! Earn your turns (and then “like” on Facebook).

Behind The Schuss(ic)

The F.I.S. — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:42:17 +0000

People often ask us: “how does one go about famous internet skiing?” Well, today all of your questions will be answered. You see, this past weekend–lucky for you–the cameras were rolling, documenting the madness behind the schuss(ic).

Q: How do you get such bright clothes out on the hill all the time?

A: A lot of folks think we get love from Backcountry.com or Columbia Sports. The truth is though, we mostly ski in pajamas.

Q: How do you forecast the weather so insanely accurately?!

A: We don’t just forecast the weather… Lionel actually makes it on occasion.

Q: How is it possible that you are constantly the raddest skiers and riders on the mountain?

A: Constant vigilance…

…fresh wax daily…

…and tail gunning.

Q: How is FIS so incredibly pertinent in all times and eras?

A: We’re constantly checking Twitter for trending topics to match our stoke with the pulse of the nation as seen here.

Q: Did one of the FIS shoot the photo on the cover of Abbey Road?

A: No. We were on the short list, but at the last second our shot got scraped, and our idea was stolen by Paul and photographed Iain Macmillian. What a buncha jerks.

Hopefully that answers all your questions. I really can’t think of anything else off the top of my head. Thanks for reading FIS!