Posts Tagged ‘Snowboarding’

Can you believe that there is still skiing to be found in the USA? Mid-June – that’s INCREDIBLE.

So where can you find snow?

SNOWBIRD is where it’s all happening  – ski enthusiasts will get one last weekend to hit the slopes in Utah.

That’s because Snowbird has announced today it will extend skiing and snowboarding through this weekend.

The extra days would extend the ski season to a total of 189 days.

The snowfall to date at Snowbird has been an impressive total of 603″ and there is still 72″ mid-mountain. Only one lift will be open – Little Cloud and it will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Expert skiers will also have limited access to Snowbird’s Hidden Peak during morning hours.

Snowbird is known for its long, continuous vertical runs and in season it, along with neighbouring Alta, share a dual-resort ticket providing 4,700 acres of skiable terrain. Located 29 miles from Salt Lake City International Airport, Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort is North America’s most accessible ski and ride destination.

Courtesy of Wikipedia I now know that Snowbird is a multi-facility winter and summer resort located in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah. Primarily known for its challenging winter powder skiing and snowboarding, the Snowbird resort also hosts hikers, mountain bikers, fishermen, sightseers, and mountain vacationers in other seasons. Set among spectacular crenelated granite mountain peaks, facilities include ski lifts, hotels, condominiums, spa facilities, restaurants, skiing and mountain-resort-related retail businesses, medical services, heli-services and others.

Starting next week, Snowbird will only offer summer activities including a ropes course and mechanical bull.

An area which obviously has it all…

So if you’re in the vicinity and very keen to boot yourself into your skis one last time this season, then get yourselves over to Snowbird. I imagine it will be pretty festive with everyone intent on having one last good schuss.

The season hasn’t even begun yet and have an eyeful of this pre-season snow…

Wow. Not bad. Leith Huffadine getting powder turns on Treble Cone’s famous summit slopes this morning.

With 35cm already on the upper mountain and sub zero temperatures providing perfect snowmaking conditions, opening day on 24 June is looking good! To keep up to date on the latest conditions check out the web cam at the new www.treblecone.com

You might be wondering whether it’s worth going all the way out to New Zealand to ski. Why bother? But, if you love ski-ing and you’re not into beach holidays, then why not? It’s a great place, great ski-ing, many world class events are now held there during the winter months, famous names and faces can be seen on the slopes getting ready for the northern hemisphere season and…. well read on and see for yourselves what’s on offer.

The New Zealand ski season generally runs from June through to late October. Conditions permitting, the major commercial ski areas usually begin opening in early June, with the smaller ski areas opening in late June or early July.

June and July are still comparatively mild months, but getting colder and can offer some good powder skiing. August is the peak month in which to ski, and September and October offer a variety of skiing, from spring ski-ing conditions to wintery powder – depending on the weather.

In a good season Whakapapa will open at Christmas (because of its higher altitude) for summer skiing, while some other areas open for mountain biking.

Commercial New Zealand ski areas, such as The Remarkables or Coronet Peak, all have their own distinct character. Most offer world class facilities including snowmaking, state-of-the-art snow grooming, and comprehensive base and dining facilities.

The smaller resorts  – like Temple Basin or Mt Cheeseman – are often run by a group of enthusiasts and have simple facilities such as rope tow or T-bar lifts, generally no snow grooming, but good day lodges and often a more social atmosphere.

Snowboarding in New Zealand is a popular winter activity. All New Zealand ski areas cater for snowboarding to some extent (in some cases better than skiers) and you’ll find good riding at them all.

Ohau in the central South Island, and Wanaka – near Queenstown – are both known as top snowboarding areas. In Wanaka, Cardrona is one of the most popular snowboarding fields, with a number of pipes and parks specifically for boarders of all levels. Across the valley, Snow Park has purpose-built facilities.

And being New Zealand, once there why not try your hand at any one of the extreme pastimes that they have to offer?

You’re spoilt for choice….

With all the hype over the Winter Olympics, other sporting contests out there tend to get overlooked and this is one that nearly passed us by: the 4th annual Burn River Bank Show … Italy’s best snowboard event of the year.

Burn River Jump is the only Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour event in Europe ranked with 5 stars and its fourth edition will take place in Livigno from February the 24th to the 26th, sponsored by Burton Snowboards in collaboration with Mottolino, APT Livigno and Skipassion Livigno. After the success in the past years of River Jump, the slopestyle and big air format is back at this delightful and unusual site.

“With an amazing park, open terrain, accessible off-piste, a warm Italian reception, and prices far cheaper than most other resorts in western Europe, Livigno is one excellent Italian job”

Yesterday, the 24th, more than one hundred riders participated in a qualifying race for the final being held today. These racers will be competing for the podium with invited riders and wild cards in an extravaganza that has become known as ‘the Grand Finale’.

The show starts at sunset with an incredible night show in downtown Livigno  with the jump over the river Spoel. It is a unique showdown, where the 10 classified riders of the 5Star Slopestyle Contest will compete against the 8 invited riders and the 4 wild card riders.

Swatch Mottolino Snowpark, one of Europe’s best snowparks, has prepared special courses on the Livigno area of over 120 thousand square meters and it is also giving, to all riders and week-end bombers, a brand new jibbing area,  the METRO.

Terrain Park on Carosello
Photo: Steve, WSG

The Friday event will be broadcast live on web page www.riverjump.it thanks to the support of Keepod.

The Japanese national team have set up a BAGJUMP in Cardrona, New Zealand which is allowing valuable training for themselves, the German, Canadian, American and Kiwi snowboarders in the run-up to the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games in 2010.

“It’s a good opportunity to get the feeling on the take-off, get control in the air and being confident to land on my feet every time!“ Stefan Gimpl, pro-snowboarder.

This 15m x 15m multi-chambered airbag is giving riders the opportunity to practice new freestyle moves and double tricks. It is a revolutionary way to push the limits of extreme sports.

The BAGJUMP is the most cool invention ever and is not restricted to snowboarders. It can be used for  snowboard, ski, freeclimb, mountainbike, BMX, freefall, slackline, parcour, skateboard BigAir, SMX and pretty well anything else you can think of.

Imagine – instead of anticipating every bone in your body being smashed or at least bruised when trying to master a new trick – with the BAGJUMP you can practice ever more impossible tricks because you know that your landing will be on a soft absorbing cloud!

It allows jumps up to 50 meters (164ft) and off-center landings and it even has an adjustable landing softness. It looks such fun!

The material is strong and very resiliant – witness this video with BMXs using the BAGJUMP

“… being able to try new tricks for big air contests with the assurance of the BAGJUMP I’m more concentrated on my take off and airtime” Georg Engel, pro-biker

Thank you to Bagjump for the videos.

Because of the high-tech design, developed by pro-snowboarders and stuntmen, there is no way you can break through the bag onto the ground or bounce  off it like on a trampoline.

As well as being a training aid it is also a fun-device for all freestyle orientated athletes of ANY skill level and for this reason resorts, sports centres and campus’ around the world are beginning to invest in them.

Air bag training is the wave of the future for high level action sports athletes attempting to raise the standard in a controlled environment and national teams from around the world are lining up to get training on air bags in an effort to prepare for the Olympics.

OK, I’m a few days late, but if you’re into wild and wacky – then I suggest you think about going to New Zealand about this time next year for the 12th Columbia Peak to Pub race on Mount Hutt.

It happened on the 4th October and 100 people were not in the least deterred by the wild weather and the wacky new course features.

Huge weather swings are typical to New Zealand, but the competitors were certainly not expecting four different types of weather during the course of one day, including blizzards.

This was a triathlon style event involving skis or snowboards, bikes and shanks pony which started high on the slopes of Mt Hutt Ski Area with a mass start/run to the skis or snowboard, followed by a giant slalom style race down to the base area through gates.

Following that came the 19km bike ride at breakneck speed down the Mt Hutt access road where racers dumped their bikes and ran the next 11km, with a quick swim en route…

… to Methven to finish outside the iconic Blue Pub in the centre of Methven, for a very well deserved drink!

Steve Gurney, multi-sport athlete and ‘famous’ for the new kite buggy record of 2,500 km crossing the Sahara Desert with 3 friends (Craig Hansen, Geoff Wilson and Garth Freeman)  with wind power only, helped design the new course and it was his idea to add the ‘water feature’. “The course will be extra fun and extra competitive,” he promised.

“The Peak to Pub is so popular because it’s got that fun factor. It’s a bit whacky and it’s nice and short but still has a massive sense of achievement at finishing it. It’s also ideal for teams,” reckons Steve, three times winner of the event.

“The weather definitely added to the excitement and the water crossing was incredible to watch – the water was freezing!” said Event Organizer Paul Marks. “It added such a fun element to the event this year and will be seen again in the future.”

40% of the field decided to hit the water instead of taking the “dodgy” purpose-built log bridge further up stream!

We’ll keep you informed about race details for next year…

Image captions:

1) Ski to bike at Mt Hutt,

2) Jos Hoetjes, men’s winner, takes the plunge.

Both credit Tetsuro Mitomo

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We were lucky enough to be in the mountains again this weekend with some great snow to be found in the mountains above the Val d’Allos – as we watched the pistes from our chairlift we saw something new – something bobbing its way down the steepest of mountains and going at break neck speed – not a snowboarder, not a skier – wait a minute that thing has handle bars and yet it is on a snowboard – it was, we discovered later, a snowscoot – the result of marrying a snowboard with a BMX.

What incredible fun it looks – you are able to experience the same sensations of snowboarding, riding a scooter and riding a BMX all at the same time. The snowscoot is the brainchild of Frenchman Frank Pitou who in the mid 1990s developed the concept of riding down a mountain on a scooter.

The first video from 8ogcrew below will demonstrate what we are talking about in a better fashion than our humble words can describe – thank goodness for Youtube. It shows the great manoeuverability of the snowscoot – how you can jump, slalom, race and scoot in any conditions.

Yes thats right, any conditions – smoothly bashed pistes to powder fresh snow and the steeper the mountain the better. The snowscoot consists of two skis, the front one being the same width as a snowboard but not much more than 35cms in length, and it is this ski which gives you the ability to turn so very sharply. The back board is narrower, being no more than the width of a monoski, but it is of course longer – the whole snowscoot being approximately 1.60 metres and weighing in at 9 to 13 kgs ( 20 to 30 pounds).

We only saw one of these snowscoots the whole weekend so it is not like we are going to be swept off the mountains by this latest toy but if it does take off – like snowboarding did 15 years ago – then you can expect to see a few more.