Last weekend, after two days at the Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City, I snuck off into the mountains to try out some new ski gear on a big descent. Indeed, at almost 5,000 vertical feet, the Banana Chute off the west side of Mt. Ogden is among the largest sustained ski descents in the region.
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I went with a group of locals, including blogger Kendall Card; J.T. Robinson, a pro Telemark skier; and the photographer Steven Lloyd.
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Our day started with a car swap at 27th Street in Ogden, where we left Robinson’s stationwagon. It would serve as the shuttle at the day’s end. We drove the 17 miles to Snowbasin, jumped on the lifts, then skied off the back side of the resort into U.S. Forest Service land.
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Mt. Ogden, a 9,570-foot peak, drops precipitously to all points of the compass. The Great Salt Lake and the city of Ogden sit more than a vertical mile straight down looking west. Our route of descent, the Banana Chute, is a squiggle of snow through rocks, a 45-degree avalanche path that pinches down to just 15 feet wide between rock bands at points during the ski.
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