Backcountry.com grom and Utah local Leo Ahrens pulled together this self-edit from the last few days at Alta. I wouldn’t mind getting bounced off a lift into pow this deep.

via Backcountrycom Twitter

Artist and notorious prankster Banksy installed this dolphin ride at Brighton Pier in England. The girl with the plastic bottle who hops on for a ride? Couldn’t have scripted it better.

Thanks Austin

Don’t swing your skis on the lift…and lookout for falling trees. High winds at Sierra at Tahoe knocked over a tree that landed on the chairlift cable. The cable was never in danger of breaking, but it also didn’t stretch much. The tree took up all the slack in the line and began violently bouncing at least a couple of the chairs. Five people fell between 5 and 15 feet, I guess depending on where the fell during the bounce. Ski patrol arrived on the scene and the resort closed the lift temporarily. Sounds like a few people have lifetime passes in the mail.

Before we get too far into this story, let me be clear: It is highly unlikely that this actually happened, but on the off-chance that it did, I don’t want to miss out on sharing the joy.

According to the NY Post, a Serbian man vacationing in Egypt accidentally killed a shark that had been terrorizing Red Sea resorts for past few weeks. The man cannonballed of a high-dive at the resort, but instead of splashing down, he landed directly on the shark’s head killing it. The man was hailed as a hero and treated at a local hospital for alcohol poisoning.

It’s down to the wire. Greg Hill has just nine days left to complete his goal of climbing 2 million vertical feet while ski touring this calendar year. That means he has to log just about 10k every day for the rest of the year. No problem for a fit and driven maniac like Greg, right? But after a really long year of really long days, he’s feeling a bit worn around the edges. And there’s always the weather to deal with…

Greg’s good friend Francois Desrosiers made this short film for Greg’s 35th birthday last weekend. It’s nine minutes long, and it’s worth the watch. It’s an insider’s look on Greg’s mission, including interviews of his best friends, his wife and kids, and his mom and dad.

There’s still time to enter a guess on the date and time Greg will hit 2mil in the contest on Backcountry.com. Enter for a chance to win a dream setup from all of Greg’s sponsors.

Good luck, Greg! We’re cheering for you.

A camper in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area on the border between Canada and Minnesota happened upon a small pack of wolves. His excitement is evident in his erratic camera work. The video picks up at around 1:06 when the older wolves seem to rile the younger ones into howling practice. My dog did the same thing when I saw Call of the Wild as a kid. Thank god it wasn’t as high-pitched, these guys would not be good camping neighbors.

Alta’s packing a bit more heat. Since the U.S. Army no longer makes rounds for the old 105mm Recoilless Rifle that Alta used for avalanche control, they’ve upgraded to a 105mm Howitzer. The gun was installed in September and only cost UDOT $375k. Hopefully they don’t drop any rounds on people’s homes this year.

Since opening day 14 skiers and snowboarders at White Pass in Washington have managed to get lost outside the resort’s boundaries. White Pass takes an interesting approach to these rescues - they’ll find you once you call them on your mobile, but they’re going to charge you $500. So far only a few people have paid up and all the rest ended up making it out before the search party closed in. One group of snowboarders ended up riding and hiking 7 miles before reaching a road where they were able to get help outside the payzone.

They can’t describe how they got out (of the ski area); they’re completely clueless.

“They say things like, ‘I skied off the end of the run and got into the trees, and now I’m in some huge bowl that looks like it’s something out of (ski-film impresario) Warren Miller.’ “

I don’t normally have a fondness for videos featuring urban rails and gaps, but Dylan Thompson’s edits and bold riding are worth watching. His video The Arena is also for sale on iTunes. Check out the end of his promo for a bit of Alta that’s never open to anyone.

Thanks Ryan