I’m happy to announce that the next major round of Mountain Reviews changes is done! You can now become a Mountain Reviews member and use the site to track the days you’ve skied this season and all the mountains you’ve ridden. You can also track and manage all the reviews you’ve written in one place.

Here’s an example member page (mine :) ). Don’t miss the map of the mountains I’ve skied!

There’s lots more user features coming soon, including the ability to track your favorite mountains, see the mountains you’ve skied season-by-season, keep an eye on where your friends are skiing and riding, post your snowdays on Facebook and more!

Member pages will be improving all season, so please send any and all feedback using our contact page! Thanks for using Mountain Reviews!

Hey, so with the exception of one desktop wallpaper, I haven’t blogged at all in a year! My bad! Excuses:

1. I was busy skiing – I got in 32 days during the 07-08 season and took 3 trips out west. I could have easily broken 40 days had it not been for an unfortunate fever in February and THREE WEDDINGS in March and April. Not bad for a weekends-only skier who lives in NYC.


2. Weddings, weddings, weddings – I had to go to seven weddings between March and September. I’m not even kidding.


3. New job – I got one!


4. Mountain Reviews changes in the works – I’m back to working on Mountain Reviews, adding all kinds of awesome stuff like user accounts that you can use to track your days on the snow and the mountains you’ve skied at. I’m really excited to get this stuff finished up and am hoping to make it happen over the next three or four weeks.

Anyways, I am very excited to get back to working on Mountain Reviews and blogging about skiing. Bring on the 08-09 season!

This is the view of the Baldy Chutes from the Collins Chair at Alta, Utah, taken in March 2008.

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The Main Baldy Chute, dropping down from the top of Alta’s Mt. Baldy, is “one of the most prominent and classic chutes in the Wasatch“. Easily visible from Alta and requiring only a 30-45 minute hike when the lifts are spinning, it’s a popular and manageable chute for those who are less experienced with hiking and touring.There are a ton of great trip reports online, including this one from Adventures in Utah which has some really great pictures. I like this picture in particular. This site also offers several trip reports and some nice pictures that give you a good feel for the chute.In terms of difficulty, The Chuting Gallery puts it at 38-40°, which is pretty manageable for a confident advanced skier. It weighs in at a D8 on the D Scale — lower than the D10 given to the headwall at Tuckerman Ravine. This shot from Adventures in Utah is the best I’ve found for giving you an idea of what you’d be getting yourself into.All in all it looks really awesome, and I can’t wait to give it a shot.Bonus link: These guys attached a video camera to a radio-controlled helicopter last weekend and took a video of the Main Baldy Chute.Photo from robbaker on Flickr.

I came across a link to Harb Carvers over at The Ski Dva, and I have to say, they look kind of cool. They’re basically in-line skates that have two rows of parallel wheels, forcing you to “carve” turns similarly to the way you would on skis – by getting one edge’s worth of wheels up off the ground. Also, they’re made to be used with your ski boots.There are some nice videos and a quick-start guide on the site that give you a feel for how similar to skiing these are. Unfortunately, they’re kind of expensive — about $300 depending on which model you get. That seems a little steep to me right now, but we’re getting awfully close to ski season (eee!). Maybe next April I’ll be willing to give them a try.