Mallory Duncan likens his skiing to smooth jazz - something I bet we'd all like to see more of. Duncan uses jazz to explore his experience as a black skier in a predominately white sport, creating one of the most beautiful short films we've watched in years. Here's an interview with Duncan talking about the film's background.

11/21/23 - This week’s stoke:

What we’re watching:

• The Long Wall Full Film - Is this the climbing film of the decade? I mean Cedar Wright has called it "visionary." Filmmaker, climber, and king dirtbag Drew Herder finally released his groundbreaking film The Long Wall, chronicling his attempt to complete the longest rock climb in the world with his buddy Ben Wilbur. We're not talking the Karakoram, or even Yosemite - it's actually about two hours north of New York City.

• The Fifty: Polar Star- Vivian and Cody finally showcase their time up on the shores of Baffin Island chasing the ever-more-famous Polar Star Couloir. Seems like it's been a busy few years on the ice out there, but this episode dives deep into more than just the stunning ski descent. The team talks a lot about what it means to undertake such a massively complex expedition to a far corner of the world for just one ski line.

The Beta:

• Pretty Dry Start to the Season, Some Snow For Thanksgiving - It's been a pretty measly start to the season for most areas (except some parts of the Wasatch), with low snowfall totals and mild temperatures. Luckily, there seems to be a large cold front and low pressure system headed to the Mountain West by Thanksgiving, streaming in from the north. OpenSnow has low confidence, but are calling for some snow (possibly 5-10") in ID/WY/UT by the weekend.

• Utah Ski Resorts Start to Open - While snow totals have been on the low end for the second half of November some ski resorts managed to open in Utah. These include Solitude, Park City, and Brain’s Head.
  
  

Elevating the Craft:

• ISSW 2023: Re-wording the Destructive Scale of Avalanches to Increase Consistency - Researchers analyzed how different practitioners categorized avalanches on the destructive scale. The destructive scale is the standard used by forecasters and observers to note the size of an avalanche. For example, D2 currently means it is big enough to bury, injure, or kill someone, which is admittedly a wide range of outcomes. The researchers found that different observers would give the same avalanche a different size based on their experience, the situation, and how they were observing it. In order to increase consistency in reported observation data, they made a number of suggestions to update the destructive scale. These include changing the wording and including volume estimations.

Sidetracked:

• Are Colorado Skiers Ruining Skiing By Partying Too Much? - Trish Zornio of the Colorado Sun thinks Colorado is partying too hard on the ski slopes after her opening day experience at Winter Park. Stoners, lol.

Thanks for reading and see you next week,
Max Ritter and Andrey Shprengel