It’ll be a who’s who’s in the ski industry tonight when Powder Magazine unrolls the red carpet for the 15th Annual Powder Awards. The most talented in skiing, ski cinematography and ski photography will congregate at The Depot in Downtown Salt Lake. Curtain’s up at 8 as skilebs past and present honor their kind. Guest presenters include the likes of Aaron McGovern, Kent Kreitler, Ian McIntosh, Pep Fujas, and Kim Reichelm.

The nominees for Best Powder are….

J.P. Auclair, Tanner Hall, Riley Leboe – Oil and Water, Armada

James Heim, Michelle Parker, Richard Permin, Cody Townsend – Days Of My Youth, MSP Films

Pep Fujas – Coordinates, Nimbus

Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, Johnny Collinson, Dylan Hood, Nick McNutt – Almost Ablaze, Teton Gravity Research

Make a $14 donation to the High Fives Foundation and get an invite to one of the steeziest bashes of the winter. Or drop $64 to add a ticket to Alta, good for this Saturday or Sunday. Head to http://shop.powdermag.com/powder-awards.html to get your invite. If you can’t be here in person tune in to the live webcast from the Red Carpet at 6:30 p.m. MST.

http://bit.ly/1y6PVCD

Remember when you used to be able to ski everywhere on Thanksgiving; and November’s America’s Opening in Park City, Utah, drew crowds in the thousands? Yeah, not anymore.

Our winters are about 20 days shorter in case you haven’t noticed. Not everyone is super proactive about the environment but if you’re a skier or boarder you can’t help but be affected. So how do you get involved if you’re not a greenbean? Do things like bid on Leki’s one-of-kind eBay auction this week. You’ll help raise funds for Protect Our Winters, a non-profit organized to activate and unite the global snow community in the fight against climate change. You’ll also have a chance at taking home some really cool ski poles created by Leki’s athlete and Ski Utah postergirl Caroline Gleich.

“It was a labor of love,” said Gleich. “I had never done anything like this before and it was an opportunity to merge crafts, the environment and skiing- all things I’m passionate about.”

Gleich crafted six pairs of ‘art’ ski poles for the auction that would make perfect holiday gifts. “It took hours because I did them all by hand,” she explained. “I used super strong glue that’s intended to hold up over time and in harsh environmental conditions but these really are more meant to be art.”

Talk about your win-win. You get a new set of very cool poles, you get a tax write off for the end of the year and you just might be part of the movement that keeps our winters from getting any shorter.

The auction ends December 10 with all proceeds benefitting POW and the fight against climate change.

About POW

Founded in 2007 by pro snowboarder Jeremy Jones, Protect Our Winters is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to engage and mobilize the winter sports community to lead the fight against climate change. The focus is on education initiatives, advocacy and support of community-based projects.

For those of you who didn’t get into the January Outdoor Retailer Show in Salt Lake City, there is the Utah Adventure + Gear Expo opening today and tomorrow for the first time. “We had the first-ever show back in May but this is the first fall show,” said UAGE’s Josh Christensen. “The motive is really to help promote all the great outdoor recreation companies and activities in Utah. Outdoor Retailers comes to town twice a year but is obviously business to business and we felt there was a need for [something] for the public with a strong Utah focus.”

The event is supposed to be the largest public expo in the state for outdoor action sports, recreation, outdoor gear, and resources. So you’ve got something cool to do tonight or tomorrow if you’re into skiing, snowboarding, cycling, mountain biking, running, camping, climbing, and adventure travel. The Southtowne Expo Center will be filled with more than 80,000 square feet of vendors and manufacturers with raffles and special deals on outdoor gear. There are also Fat Bike demos by Mad Dog Cycles, an indoor mountain bike track by Wasatch Indoor Bike Park and Alpine Trails, longboarding and half pipe demos, indoor climbing walls, and an avalanche safety clinic on Saturday by Black Diamond and Utah Avalanche Center.

Extreme sports athletes from the X-Games, MTV’s Nitro Circus, and Fuel TV’s Thrillbillies are scheduled to showcase their skills on a 30-foot mega ramp. There’s also a 15-foot mini-mega ramp jump to a cushioned air bag landing and the Thrillbillies base-jumping experience open to the public all weekend.

Mountainfilm on Tour

Sandy City has partnered with the Adventure + Gear Expo as Utah’s exclusive host of the Mountainfilm in Telluride Festivals’ Mountainfilm on Tour. Tonight and tomorrow from 6:30 – 9 p.m. The festival includes two films (Desert Ice filmed in Zion’s and Off-Width Outlaw filmed in Indian Creek). Also screening at the expo is El Sendero Luminoso, a film created by the local film company Camp2Collective.

FUN RUN

Runners, hurry and sign up for the free Light Up Sandy 5K Fun Run tonight at 6:30 p.m. The 5K run will begin on the north side of the South Towne Expo Center and continue south for 1.5 miles on the Porter Rockwell trail. Hit up the dollar store for glow sticks and anything that lights up.

Show Detes:

When: Friday, November 7: Noon–9:00 p.m.

Saturday, November 8: 10:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m.

Where: South Towne Expo Center

9575 South State Street

Sandy, UT 84070

Admission: Adults: $10 at door

$8 online; Children 6–12: $5