MikeSandy.net
Writing
Ski Day Reports
The website where I continue my tradition of writing about my ski days.
40 photos sorted randomly
My name is Mike Sandy. That's me in the background photo for this website. In the photo, I'm standing atop Mount Baldy's Main Chute in Utah on March 28, 2010. The chute drops into Alta Ski Area at a pitch of about 40 degrees from a spot just north of Mount Baldy's summit. Mount Baldy serves as the boundary between Alta and Snowbird, and it's accessible via a short hike from either ski area.
I'm originally from New York state, but I moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2005 to ski at Snowbird while pursuing a graduate degree in finance. I completed my degree, despite Snowbird's best efforts at distracting me from my studies, and now I work in bank asset/liability management.
Outside of work, I pursue a wide range of interests, including skiing, hiking, travel, baseball, and photography. Those interests are the main focus of my articles and ski day reports. I also maintain a website that tracks the band 311's discography and their concerts I've attended, and a web-based app for creating custom PocketMod templates.
Connect with me on social media for my more extemporaneous content.
Thank you for visiting my website.
A Season of Exploration and Discovery at Snowbird
A Skier’s Journal is a book I wrote about my first ski season at Snowbird in Utah. It's about more than that, but that ski season is the basis upon which I relate other experiences (spoiler alert: also mostly about skiing).
Buy @ Amazon Buy @ Barnes & Noble More information @ ASkiersJournal.com
In July 2005, I quit my job and moved from New York to Utah to ski at Snowbird, a resort about thirty miles southeast of Salt Lake City. My lifestyle, however, didn’t fit the ski-bum archetype. During the ski season, I attended graduate school full-time at the University of Utah, and I lived on campus in a student apartment. I was just a regular guy living a regular life (as a student) while skiing some of the best snow and inbounds terrain in the United States.
After every ski day that season, I published a report on my website. While rereading those entries in late 2017, I felt detached from the experiences I had described. The passage of time allowed me to read them more objectively, and I enjoyed them for more than their nostalgic value. I thought other skiers might find the unspoiled nature of the entries compelling. In January 2018, I began compiling those entries into this book.
Stories in the skiing media often feature extreme terrain, impractical skiing-centric lifestyles, or easy access to seemingly endless fresh powder. This is not one of those stories. Instead, my story features terrain accessible to any advanced skier with a lift ticket, a skiing lifestyle tempered by school or work obligations, and the luck and persistence required to earn fresh tracks on powder days without the privileged access provided to pro skiers and the media.
I hope my story demonstrates what it took for a regular skier like me to explore a mountain and find the fleeting moments that make skiing special. I hope you can identify with the doubts and challenges I faced before, during, and after that season. Most of all, I hope my story leaves you feeling more excited about skiing after reading it.
Visit ASkiersJournal.com and the book’s Amazon and Barnes & Noble store pages for more excerpts.