editor's letter
BACK TO THE BEGINNING
In 2001, I was living in Portland, Oregon. I was in one of those in-between places in life, looking for the next thing. A family friend suggested that I give Utah a try. Back then, all I knew about Utah was something about a salty lake and that I hated the Utah Jazz. Hey, I grew up in Portland during the Rip City days watching my beloved Trail Blazers get crushed by Stockton and Malone’s pick ’n’ roll. Beyond that, I was headed to Utah, knowing nothing, equipped with little more than my skis and youthful exuberance.
As I drove east from Oregon, the desert gave way to a tidy cluster of tall buildings; here at last was Salt Lake City. And in that late November afternoon light, the city’s backdrop stopped me in my tracks. Jutting skyward, the Wasatch range looked like a giant wooden door guarding a castle within. I wound up Little Cottonwood Canyon’s Hwy 210 and in a matter of minutes the cityscape disappeared from my rearview mirror. The mountains exploded in every direction, the rock looked different, the forests were unlike anything I'd seen, with a balance of aspens and evergreens. But it was the dizzying mix of color at the end of the canyon that still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up—the deep blue sky contrasting the snow-capped Wasatch peaks.
This is my first memory of Utah, and I hadn’t even clicked into my skis yet.
Everyone who visits Utah goes home with a story much like mine—they come here and unexpectedly find themselves astounded, humbled and eager for more. We locals can easily grow accustomed to the mighty mountains, taking for granted the flotation of our skis on Utah’s powder—you know, just another great day. So in this issue, I challenged our writers and photographers to peel back the years and retell their first experiences in Utah. We had a blast going back to the beginning and hope you’ll enjoy the storytelling and personal narratives within these pages. Because if you’ve never seen what we’ve seen, you absolutely must. Make this the winter you earn your Utah first.
I promise: It’s a memory you will never forget.
Sincerely,
Brandon Ott, Editor @brandoslc
8
skiutah.com | 2016–17
Chris Pearson
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