Articles by Mike SandyArticles that include video
ALTA, Utah, March 24, 2024 — Alta had received 17 inches of snow overnight. And another three inches of snow fell while we skied. Since it was late in the season, the mountain was uncrowded—we were one of the first to ride Supreme. My first run of the day was my favorite run of the 2023–2024 season:
Catherine’s Area is a series of small drainages at the edge of Alta’s eastern boundary. My friend Brendan and I were introduced to Catherine’s Area for the first time in 2007. A two-minute hike from the top of the Supreme lift brought us to a ledge that served as the beginning of a traverse. It hadn’t snowed for two days, but we still found fresh powder in Catherine’s Area.
We skied a few turns in one drainage, then crossed over a small ridge into the next to find even fresher snow. The run was short but sweet. Once we reached the flats, instead of following the gully back down to the Supreme lift, we stayed high and made our way out to the west-facing slopes below the ridge connecting Patsey Marley and Mount Wolverine. We found more fresh snow there too. That tour cemented Catherine’s Area as a go-to destination that season.
Although the runs in Catherine’s Area are short, especially for the effort required to reach many of them, the area remains a favorite of mine. It seems you can always find good snow there, even several days after a storm.
On the (first) closing day of Alta’s 2021–2022 ski season, I ventured into Catherine’s Area in the afternoon to see if I could find more of the four inches of creamy powder that had fallen overnight. I was pleased with what I found. I compiled a short video to capture the experience of skiing Catherine’s Area (complete with my heavy breathing from the short hike and long traverse). Enjoy!
On December 18, 2019, I interrupted a ski day with my friend Mark to order a concert ticket. My favorite band, 311, had scheduled a series of warm-up shows before their biennial 311 Day event and I wanted to get a good seat. The Saturday night show in Reno on March 7, 2020, looked like a perfect opportunity to attend my 36th 311 concert and squeeze in a day of skiing at a Lake Tahoe–area resort.
At the top of the Pioneer lift at Park City Mountain Resort, I left Mark and skied to the Summit House lodge to order my ticket as soon as they went on sale. I scored a front row seat to the show. Three days later I reserved a room at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, the venue for the concert.
My skiing and 311 weekend was booked.
On December 31, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) learned from media reports of a “pneumonia of unknown cause” in Wuhan, a city of 11 million in Central China’s Hubei Province.
I had read news about the mystery illness. It caused a brief pang of concern, but I figured it wouldn’t become a problem. A co-worker who traveled to Asia in mid-January told us about the new safety measures at the airports there. All the other new viruses that emerged in my lifetime either fizzled out or we learned to mitigate the risks and live with them. Why worry?
On January 30, with about 8,000 confirmed cases worldwide, the WHO declared the novel coronavirus outbreak (2019-nCoV) a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
Coronavirus Disease 2019, or COVID-19, a respiratory infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, was well on its way to becoming a global pandemic.
MRI machines make a horrible racket, like a jackhammer. I found the racket soothing. It was loud, but the cadence was at perfectly spaced intervals to lull me to sleep. (I also fall asleep in the dentist’s chair. Is that weird?)
The fall that put me in that MRI machine occurred six weeks earlier during my first ski day of 2019 on January 5. Snowbird wasn’t in great shape that day. The holiday crowds had scraped snow off the high-traffic areas, and the snow conditions were about as bad as it gets in the Wasatch—slick, crusty, and hard-packed.
On September 11, 1992, a category 4 hurricane named Iniki struck the Hawaiian island of Kauai, killing six people and causing billions of dollars of damage. (It also interrupted production of a big-budget film called Jurassic Park.) According to NOAA, the damage was so extensive that, after a month, power had been restored to only 20 percent of the island. Wind gusts as high as 175 miles per hour stripped the green from the Garden Isle’s lush vegetation. And the Honopu Ridge Trail hasn’t been officially maintained since that day.
Twenty-six years later, I hiked the remnants of the Honopu Ridge Trail to the most amazing view I’ve ever seen. Photos don’t do it justice.
I arrived at Snowbird early enough to catch the first (public) tram to the top of Hidden Peak. Mineral Basin didn’t open yesterday, so I figured its south- and southeast-facing runs would be loaded with powder snow because of the storm’s strong west-northwest winds.
I was right. The 19 inches of fresh powder on White Diamonds was some of the deepest I’ve ever skied.
I became interested in time-lapse photography a few years ago when I discovered the CHDK hack software for Canon point-and-shoot cameras. The CHDK software included an intervalometer script, which made time-lapse photography possible for the first time. I’ve enjoyed the process, and I have surprised myself with the results. Here are a few of my favorite time lapses:
There’s nothing particularly superlative about seeing four 311 shows in five days. There are fans that follow bands to every tour stop. And I know of one 311 fan who has been to hundreds of shows. I’ve been to a lot of 311 shows over the years, but seeing them four times in five days is noteworthy for me.
I received an early Christmas gift tonight: a row one ticket to tonight’s New York Knicks versus Utah Jazz NBA basketball game at Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. I’ve had a close seat to an NBA game one other time, but this seat was three rows closer. And those three rows make a big difference. In my opinion, watching an NBA game from close seats is the premier sports fan experience.
Last Thursday (October 30, 2014), I returned from a vacation to the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The trip was fun, but I wouldn’t call Oahu an island paradise. No paradise should be as crowded as Oahu, despite the more laid-back North Shore. Oahu is more like an island playground, which is not a bad thing.