New kite spot in Utah!

[Jon Manwaring]

Its april 7th and Marty and I were plaaning to go to skyline to snow kite. Marty then calls me in the morning as tells me that it probably wont be good and the drive up there would not be worth it. My other plans for skiing at solitude fell through so I decided to drive back to park city with all my kite stuff. I have free passes at Deer Valley resort so I decided to ski one last day. I stopped by at home, grabbed my telemark equipment and headed up to Deer Valley. From silver lake village, I took up the stearling lift to the top of Bald Mountain. There were ridgetop winds about 10-20. I thought to myself, I got my kite stuff in the car at silverlake village, I should do it! So I went back to the car, grabbed my 12 meter and got back on the lift. At the peak i skied on a cat track the wound around the back facing the heber valley and bonanza flats. I ducked the ropes and headed down to a little valley between the mountains. About 300 yards from the ski run. I dont think it was tresspassing because there were tons of snowmobile tracks up there. I launched my 12 meter and kited for about three hours. The wind was from the south and blowing up bald mountain. So I was able to boost some big jumps right by the ski run. There was a crowd just about the whole time, one time it was up to thirty people. The snow was nice, the wind was a little gusty but not too bad. I was boosting 20-30ft jumps (I think). It was a good day. Then i quit about 4:00 and skied down the ski run to my car. Too bad deer valley closes on the 11 of april. That is a really good place to go. Lots of rolling hills, always windy and it is almost 10,00 feet so the snow is pretty good. The only bad part is that you need either a lift6 ticket or a snowmobile to get there, other wise its great!! It was also my first time kiting on telemark skis. Its was great!

Jeff Manwaring