Tree Skiing

  Jessica Cruises The Aspens 
  Originally uploaded by fredwilson.

My friend Pete taught me to ski the trees when I was in college. Up to that point, I had always skied the runs on the trail map. We had one particularly amazing day in the Aspens at Snowbird that I will always remember.

Anyway, as my skiing has become more family oriented, I've tended to stick to the trails, but as my kids have gotten better, I've taken them into the trees and they've gotten bitten with the tree skiing bug.

Today we woke up to 9 inches of fresh snow which was pretty quickly skied off. But not in the trees. So we spent most of the day in the trees and had a blast. Nobody got hurt although Josh did do a 360 flip when his snowboard hit a tree stump that was not visible under the snow. Too bad I didn't videotape that one.

Comments

[Jeffrey]

Careful, Fred -- remember that tree skiing is how Sonny Bono bought it.

[Toxic]

The place to be on the mountain is in the trees, and aspens tend to be thin and well-spaced, so as tree-runs go, they're a little easier/safer.

While you're in Utah, take the drive to The Canyons near Park City. Awesome mountain (and an awesome tree run there call "The Aspens" too)

[D. Lambert]

I was lucky enough to do some tree skiing years ago in Steamboat, and to this day, it's still one of the best skiing experiences I've ever had.

Not the most hard-core, hair-on-fire high-degree-of-difficulty stuff, but it was a complete escape from the busy slopes. Just a few yards into the pines and aspens and the noises of the hill melted away. The trees were perfectly spaced, too -- almost like they were planned for perfect skiing.

Have fun!

[Dmitri]

There are two things you've got ot remember when skiing the trees.
Think two turns ahead and never look at the trees, but always into the openings between them.

The other one that I learned this year in Alta is that you can ski through or on top of the bushes up to your waist height to get those last few stashes of powder. Feels like crud, but if you time your turns well for the openings, may be quite an enjoyable experience. Just remember to keep your feet together and not to fall.