Your ultimate guide to snowshoeing in the Sun Valley, Idaho area. From renting snowshoes and wear to the best snowshoe trails to take we cover everything you’ll need to know for snowshoeing in the Wood River Valley!
El Niño Winter Stoke
El Niño or as Chris Farley referred to in simpler terms as, “The Niño”, brought about a mixed bag of early season predictions from meteorologists far and wide. Skiers and boarders throughout the west became overnight skeptics serving up their own myriad of prophesied forecasts as to whether it would be a lack luster winter or flashback to being like the “good old days”
A Winter of #SeekSunValley in 80 Instagram Photos From Our Fans
Sometime around December 1, we started asking our fans and followers what it was that they sought. Adrenaline, adventure, camaraderie, serenity, pristine beauty, family: the things that make a life worth living, knowing that the one place where you can find all of this is here in Sun Valley. We had over 2,000 photos posted with the #SeekSunValley hashtag and as the season wrapped up this past weekend we thought we would put a little highlight gallery together as a small retrospective on a fantastic season. Thank you to all of you for your photos and enthusiasm this winter. We will keep going with more #SeekSunValley this summer so don’t stop sharing the love!
Cornucopia of Awesomeness- March Madness in Sun Valley
March in Sun Valley is the best. The short, cold days of winter slowly fade away as the sun climbs higher in the sky. The daily routine slows down dramatically with the timing of snow conditions. So take it from me, first off, there is no rush. Start the day out right and drop by your local coffee house in town for an expertly made cappuccino before hitting the slopes. After that caffeine hits your veins, the day will start to blossom. It’s the time of year when the snow begins to soften around midday and you take comfort in knowing that it’s possible after a day of riding to slide your feet into the luxurious embrace of flip flops while having an après-ski beer on the outdoor patio at Lefty’s, Apples, or Warm Springs Lodge, sharing in the camaraderie of good friends. At times it’s a challenge to just live in the moment. So I advise relishing every second of every day.
20 Things You Didn’t Know About Sun Valley
A smattering of things you might not have know about Sun Valley, Idaho.
12 Characters You’ll Meet on the Slopes of Sun Valley
This group represents the majority of people you’ll meet in Sun Valley. They come from all walks of life, each with their own story of how they ended up here and what they do in order to stay. They’re the chefs, bartenders and waitresses, lift operators, ski and yoga instructors, and everyone else who works to live here and preferably keeps their days free so they can ski or ride as much of their waking lives as possible. You’ll recognize them by their wide smiles, goggle tans, and that sparkle in their eyes. They’re living the dream; their life is your vacation.
Hot Laps in the Cold Smoke
Earning turns the old fashioned way, one slogging skin track at a time, is how the original skiers to Sun Valley carved their way across the landscape, but today there exists a magic carpet ride to blower pow paradise, Sun Valley Heliskiing. Occasionally lottery tickets turn up winners, and as luck would have it mine finally came in. I am going to do the best I can to not sound smug, but when you get it this good, it’s hard not to brag.
Its the End of the Season As We Know It: Sawtooth National Gelande Quaffing Championships
Gelandesprung (v): German for a downhill ski jump in the style of Oympic nordic jumping, yet with fixed heels. Quaff (v): to drink rapidly with much vigor The legend of the Gelande Quaff was born back around the time snow was new. On a dark winter evening as the boys huddled for one last round, tipping back cold beers honoring their mastery of the backscratcher into couloirs in tight neon stretchpants, the bar tender slid frosty mugs down the bar to eager hands. It was a normal night until an order was called, the one who ordered got distracted, and the beer slid past only to leap off the end of the bar. Fortunately, stationed at the end of the bar, there stood one lone, alert skier who snatched the beer out of the air, pounded it back and slamming it on the table proclaimed, “Gelandequaffing!!” and the rest was history. As the story goes, a new form of sport drinking was born. It began to catch on in small mountain towns where long winters and poor odds lead to various devices of distraction. Like most new sports, the development of rules and competition formats would follow as well as the kind of innovation that was tracking in freeskiing and snowboarding. And today, after nearly a decade of progression Gelande Quaffing has evolved into a World Championship-level competition. Getting an invite to the said World Champs stands as one of the more coveted mountain town trappings anywhere.
Rites of Spring – Stalking Steelhead
Idaho is a landlocked state but what few realize is that it’s connected via one of the longest river systems in the US to the Pacific Ocean. For millennia, a certain species of traveler, the steelhead trout, has migrated through this river corridor, the Salmon, from the mountains of central Idaho to the ocean and back again. And a mere hour drive from Sun Valley lies the headwaters of the Salmon River, the origin of the steelhead run. Set amidst the awe-inspiring Sawtooth Mountains, these freestone waters play host to spawning spring steelhead.
The Best Day of Hockey. Ever. The Idaho Pond Hockey Classic
It may just be the single most indelible moment in all of Ketchum, Idaho’s sports history,” it was said of Team USA’s improbable silver shovel run at the 2014 Idaho Pond Hockey Classic . “One that sent an entire town into a frenzy.” American Pond Hockey came of age on January 18th 2014 on a pond in Ketchum, Idaho when an unlikely mishmash of hometown heroes and heroines, after a brutal first round loss, ran nearly 10 hours and six rounds straight into night and into the finals – and ultimately into our hearts. Why are we talking about the silver shovel winners and not the gold? Well, that is the spirit of pond hockey.
