This is the time of year when conditions get really good. Most mornings the wind is light or nonexistent. And usually we get swells from a regular series of storms marching across the North Pacific. Not this year. There have been a few good swells, including one Saturday morning when a west swell hit from just the right direction to put the best of the north coast big wave spots into their zone of maximum potential. Scotts Creek was epic, Mavericks was epic and, when the tide dropped, every reef point on the West Side fired. But this week there has been no surf at all. The whole of Monterrey Bay a sheet of glass, perfect conditions, but literally no rideable surf.

See for yourself. Go here You’ll see that Steamer Lane is dead flat–an extremely rare occurence, believe me.

No swell and no Snowbird. That’s the worst!

My favorite image of the day is the snowcam Check the 24 hour loop and watch as the snow settles and stabilizes. We love a good base!

The book was designed to help newcomers to Snowbird quickly find terrain that suits their abilities. It also aims to help those familiar with Snowbird’s terrain learn the often obscure–and changing–names for the various runs.

The book is a 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ perfect bound paperback with 144 pages of information. There are 32 black and white panoramic photos of Snowbird’s terrain with captions that point to almost every one of the runs, traverses, lift lines and avalanche gates. The book describes over 250 runs; the official Snowbird ski map shows just 60.

I sell all three and use the same PayPal account to process the orders. All the orders use this acknowledgment page. You will be receiving an email from PayPal with a receipt for your purchase shortly. (If you don’t, something went wrong with the order. Call me if you can’t figure it out).

I’ll get your purchase in the mail right away. I ship via USPS First Class mail, which claims that it will deliver the product within four business days. If it doesn’t show up in a week, please call me at 831 332 6069.

Thanks again,

Brad Asmus
Author, Olive Grower and Beekeeper

The Powder Hound’s Guide to Snowbird
144 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2″, perfect bound.
ISBN 9780980131819
$25.00

The Powder Hound’s Guide to Skiing Alta
160 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2″, perfect bound
ISBN 9780980131802
$25.00

Buy Them Both For Less!
Buy both Powder Hound’s Guides at the same time and save ten bucks!
The Powder Hound’s Guide to Snowbird and The Powder Hound’s Guide to Skiing Alta
$40.00 for the set, shipping via First Class Mail included

The first is The Powder Hound’s Guide to Skiing Alta. It names, describes and shows every one of the important powder runs at Alta. I wrote it. It’s a great book. If you want to ski Alta, you should get it before you go. If you ski Alta, you can use it to learn the more obscure run names. You’ll also want a copy to look at during the summer or when your skiing days are done to remind yourself of just what an epic place it is.

I didn’t write them, but I love them anyway. The Ski and Snowbird Guide to Whistler Blackomb Advanced/Expert Edition and Beginner/Intermediate editions can really save you a lot of time and frustration as you try to find terrain you like at this giant resort. I used the Advanced edition on my first trip, found my way to Spanky’s Ladder and skiied untracked steep stuff within a half hour of getting on the lift. Without the book, I doubt I’d ever have found it. To buy direct go to Quickdraw Publications.

Click here for the Beginner/Intermediate edition.
Ski & Snowboard Guide to Whistler Blackcomb: Intermediate Edition

Once you get my two books you’ll have almost all of the good powder terrain in Little Cottonwood Canyon covered. Almost, but not all. For that, you’ll need to get a copy of The Chuting Gallery by Andrew McLean. It describes the best of the out-of-bounds chutes in Little Cottonwood and nearby terrain. It was written right after I published my Alta guide in 1992 and was out of print even longer than my book. The only place you can get it is at the AltaStore.

You can buy it directly from me by going to the Purchase page.

A special introductory price of $19.95 is offered through the rest of this ski season at the following locations:

Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort:
-Cliff Sundries in the Cliff Lodge
-Center Sundries in Snowbird Center
-Legend Demo Center on the Plaza at Snowbird Center
-Wings On Line Store

The Alta Store, Alta Lodge

You can also get it at full price from Amazon.com and by special order from your local book store.

But wait! The option I like best is to buy it direct from me. That way I get all the cash. Go to the Purchase page!

I fell hard for Little Cottonwood Canyon the first time I saw it. I’ve lived there, working the lodges, and I had the good luck to fashion a career that includes frequent trips to Salt Lake City. Still, I’m no local. If I were, I might have grown tired of the place and lost the sense of fascination, wonder and adventure I get every time I enter the canyon.

The Powder Hound’s Guides to Alta and Snowbird are my testament to what I believe are the two most extraordinary ski areas in the Americas, if not the world. They’re love notes, of course, but they are also works of geography that capture place names that are ephemeral and of little interest to the world outside the community of powder hounds. If you’re part of that community, though, you’ll understand and even sympathize with the obsession that helped bring them into being.