So, this is an idea that has been a long time coming. I picked up a pair of these Zeal SPPX google and they are amazing. The goggle is photochromatic which means it gets light when its dark and dark when its light. Moreover, the lens is polarized and very wide. The beauty of this design is that the constantly shifting conditions on the mountain are now addressed. You no longer need to haul three pairs of goggle to be prepared!

Ski Magazine names three Utah resorts for being the best in family vacations. Park City, Alta and Solitude garnished praise for their efforts to provide families with a great place to spend their hard earned snow bucks. Actually, every resort in Utah is family friendly but it is a great to see the recognition. Each resort here spends a lot of time creating a family friendly atmosphere and most try to give discounts for the young ones.

Here is fun article that features Powder Mountain. I had the pleasure of trying both the bus and the cat track during my visit and I have to say, if powder is your thing, you MUST make the trek to Powder. Honestly, it is probably the best named resort in the state for this reason alone, you will find tons and tons of POWDER. As the largest resort in North America, you get all the fun of back country skiing without all the hiking. It is truly one of Utah's masterpieces.

In addition to offering development training, Team Utah will allow qualified snowboard athletes access to competing regionally, nationally and internationally within a team structure. Team Utah will also be working with community outreach and charitable programs, as well as volunteer service, to promote character development and a sense of responsibility to the community.

This is very cool. Young snowboarders who have the possibility of growing into a professional now have resources available to help them become Olympic champions. It is great during the games to support USA but it is even more exciting to support the local kid!

Just got a pair of Skull Candy FMJ (Full Metal Jacket) headphones for my iPod Touch. This nifty pair of headphones not only sound great, they have a microphone for use with your iPhone or Touch voice recorder. Moreover, the sturdy construction and sweet looks are the perfect companion for the on the slope tunes. Ear buds work great under a helmet.

Another cool thing to note is the Skullcandy is a Utah company based in Park City! Check out these headphones for rocking out on the slopes!

This photo released by Snowbasin: A Sun Valley Resort shows the downhill courses at the resort. (AP Photo/Snowbasin: A Sun Valley Resort)

(AP)

In addition to great powder snow and a long winter, Utah's ski industry is blessed by the lingering buzz of the 2002 Winter Olympics, plus a major nearby airport that makes getting to Salt Lake City easy from other parts of the country.

The Olympics brought international acclaim, dozens of new and faster lifts and thousands of more acres of skiable terrain. Traffic on the slopes was up by 37 percent in the six years after the Olympics, before the economy soured, making Utah skiing a $1 billion industry.

"That was our coming-out party," said Nathan Rafferty, president of the trade group Ski Utah. "We were always in the shadows of other resorts, like Colorado's. But hosting the Olympics put us on the map."

The most noticeable Olympic legacy has been nonstop development, most recently at Solitude Mountain Resort, which just added its fourth new chair lift since the 2002 Games.

Another legacy, say local skiers: It's getting crowded on the slopes. Forget trying to ski Saturdays at the most popular resorts, they say. The lift lines at Alta ski area, for one, are getting longer with waiting skiers more impatient.

Off the slopes, this season's biggest improvement is a new set of state liquor laws. The reforms broke up a private club system that made getting inside a bar without a membership a hassle. Utah still strictly regulates drinking venues, a quota system limits their numbers, and regular strength draft beer is banned, thanks to the influence of the teetotalling Mormon church.

But lawmakers are starting to ease up, in part to make the state a more attractive destination.

From the outset, no Utah resort built itself up bigger or faster than Snowbasin, the downhill Olympic venue near Ogden that dropped $200 million on a makeover with stately day lodges and high-speed chair lifts, gondolas and a tram. Snowbasin, still without any base lodging, rarely sees a crowded lift line.

The Canyons, a rival in development that was once the smallest Park City resort, now bills itself Utah's largest ski area. That claim might properly go to Vail-sized Powder Mountain, still something of a Utah secret, but skiers there have to climb, shuffle along mountain ridges or get pulled by a snowcat to reach much of the terrain.

Utah has always been on the map and still competes with Colorado for the skier dollars. If people would just open their eyes, they would find amazing resorts, easy access, good value and the best damned snow on the planet.