Ep 10. Ron Baldis: Park City Powder Cats

02/11/20 • 33 min

The bright red PistenBully wound its way up the switchbacks to the top of San Mateo Ridge. Inside, guide Ron Baldis joined the joyous revelry of his guests as they regaled each other with stories of their last run through the trees.

Baldis grew up skiing in California, making first runs at Big Bear and joining his family for long trips up to Mammoth. In the early 2000s, he got a call to help a fledgling cat skiing manage its business. He ended up buying the company and now, 16 years later, he still gets the same good feeling as he leads skiers and riders across the 43,000 acres of Thousand Peaks he services with his fleet of cats.

PC Powder Cats and Heli-Ski makes dreams come true. On the day we skied with Ron, we joined a group of old high school buddies from Minneapolis. Last summer they got a text chain going, rallying each other to come out to Utah for a guys reunion trip and a weekend of cat skiing.

It was a stormy, wet morning when we arrived at the lodge at the head of Weber Canyon. Soon the cats were charging up hill. That first run is full of apprehension. Then you realize, ‘hey, I can do this.’ Dipping off the ridgeline your skis carve into the snow, kicking up snow plumes.

Tom Kelly takes the Last Chair podcast to Thousand Peaks, getting to know Park City Powder Cats owner Ron Baldis from the cab of a PistenBully. Listen in as Baldis tells the story of Thousand Peaks ranch and what makes cat skiing such a social affair.

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E9. Rob Lea and Caroline Gleich: Ultimate Outdoor Couple

Imagine climbing Mount Everest. Then think about swimming the English Channel. If that's not enough, how about riding your bike across America. That was last summer for Park City triathlete Rob Lea. Oh, and let's not forget the August wedding!

Rob Lea and Caroline Gleich are Utah's true adventure couple. Gleich, a noted ski mountaineer, joined fiancé Rob for the Everest climb. On May 24, they stood together atop the world's highest peak, gazing out across the vast expanse of the Himalayas. Just six weeks later, Caroline was in the boat documenting Rob's swim from Britain to France - the first time anyone had done Everest and the English Channel in that short a span of time. Lea wrapped up his Ultimate World Triathlon in September, riding from the Pacific Ocean to Nantucket.

It all began when Lea learned that an injury was going to cause him to give up his passion for triathletes. So he wanted to go out with a bang. And, along the way, help raise awareness for gender equality.

Last Chair's Tom Kelly will explore Rob and Caroline's ultimate summer adventure, as well as diving into her own passion for big mountain skiing in the Wasatch. The couple will share their backcountry outing in Little Cottonwood earlier that day, plus fun things they love in the show-closing lightning round.

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Ep 11. Randy Doyle: Keeping the Family Feel at Brighton

Randy Doyle is that guy who always has a happy smile on his face - a fixture on the Ski Utah scene for decades. He literally grew up on the slopes of Brighton and has carried on the tradition of one of Utah’s most family-friendly resorts.

Across the Wasatch, there are few views that can match the alpine peaks of the Cottonwoods from the top of the Great Western chairlift down the ridgeline to Snake Creek Pass. Utah’s oldest resort, Brighton Resort, got its start in 1936 as a place for families to ski. Randy’s father, Zane, discovered skiing there and eventually bought the fledging tow rope and creating a Mecca for Salt Lake City families to learn how to ski.

This week Last Chair takes us up to the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon as Randy Doyle reminisces on the origins of the resort and how it’s kept its family-friendly culture for nearly a century. We’ll explore the evolution of the sport that has played out on the slopes of Brighton for 84 years and learn about live growing up in the mountains from one of Ski Utah’s favorite leaders.