Snow Sports
ArchiveWe want to hear what you think. What has been the most defining moment of the 2010 Olympics so far? ext_script = "//s3.polldaddy.com/p/2719804.js"…
In case you haven't been glued to the tube, here's our recap of the best moments caught on camera from Vancouver over the last few days: 5. Shaun White's coach Bud Keene got caught with a…
If the idea of skipping a potential ski day–or, more specifically, a powder day–for your own wedding makes you cringe, then check out Colorado’s Loveland Ski Area. Every Valentine’s Day for the past 19 years, it's hosted a mass marriage ceremony,…
I recently went to Vail, Colorado, for a mini-vacation. I wanted to enjoy a nice day of beautiful vistas, blue skies, serene, wide-open slopes, and even an après beer in the sunshine that wasn’t a PBR. Basically, the opposite of my usual freeski urchin, storm chasing, all…
There will be no second gold medal today for Lindsey Vonn at the Olympics–she crashed out of the women's super combined. Maria Riesch of Germany, a close friend of Vonn's, ended up in the top spot.
The top entries from the Venture/Protect Our Winters snowboard art contest have been posted to the Venture Snowboards blog, states snowboarding.transworld.net. Members of the general public are encouraged to cast their votes. A…
I was reading the news today and came across an interesting headline on the BBC website: “Money-burning snowboarder rescued from alpine ski lift.” Turns out Mr. Dominik Podolsky, 22, of Munich took the lift down at a ski resort in the Austrian Alps…
Okay, so Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso are ostensibly rivals. But it's a fairly friendly rivalry, although the friendship has waned somewhat over the years, The New York Times reports. The two…
I recently got back from an epic weekend in Steamboat. I stayed at the swanky One Steamboat Place, a brand new ski-in/ski-out residence, located just steps from the gondola. The spacious yet cozy “gathering room” was a major…
In case you missed them, here's our list of the most stellar Olympic moments of the past few days: 5. On the snowboard circuit, Seth Wescott won gold for the U.S. in the men's snowboard cross final, beating out Canadian…
Overlooked mountain ranges, river beer, running album, gear of all time, and 47 other big ideas, accidental winners, and awesome things about the world outside we've come to love over the past 33 years. Introducing our first annual Editors' Choice Awards...
This may be your best shot to look like a world-class snowboarder. Beginning February 15th we'll be giving away 20 pairs of limited edition Bollé goggles signed by Olympians Lindsey Jacobellis and Seth Wescott. It's easy to win. All you…
Nodar Kumaritashvili, a 21-year-old luge competitor in the Olympics, died in a training crash today at the Whistler Sliding Center's track, The New York Times reports. He lost control of his sled 48 seconds…
Wild weather makes the next couple of months the hardest time of the year to plan an adventure. To help you out, we've worked up game plans for all kinds of conditions. Your job? Just check the doppler—then go.
Seventeen avalanches in Afghanistan's 12,000-foot-high Salang Pass area buried more than two miles of highway yesterday, after heavy winds and rain loosened up recent heavy snowfall. More than one hundred cars were trapped — many inside the notoriously dangerous tunnel — and at at least 64 people are dead or feared dead…
Skiers Keith Christien and Michael Wagener of Team Rampinnnggg took home gold last weekend at the first of several Helly Hansen Big Mountain Battles. The event, held at Taos Ski Valley Resort in New Mexico, challenged 47 two-person teams to an intense, big-mountain course of ascents and descents. The winners…
CNN reported today that alpine ski racer Lindsey Vonn may not be able to compete in the Olympics due to a crushingly painful shin injury. Her worst injury yet, it was sustained in a crash during a recent practice in Austria. Though there is…
Just days before Lindsey Vonn is slated to compete in her first event of the 2010 Winter Olympics. We just blogged that the skier revealed a shin injury she'd sustained Feb. 3 during…
Think of it as skiing's equivalent of a backstage pass: This March, Chugach Powder Guides will host a special heli-ski trip with pro skiers Cody Townsend and Elyse Saugstad in Alaska's Chugach Range. Let's just say that these two know what they're doing.
More sad news to report: A slide killed at least 17 soldiers when it hit a military training camp near Gulmarg, a popular Indian ski resort, today. This border with Pakistan has long been disputed in one of the world's highest-altitude wars. The Christian…
I shamelessly swiped this VholdR helmet-cam video from my friends over at Skiing magazine. Check out these pretty (ahem) sweet-looking lines from Chamonix, courtesy of athletes Tim Dutton, Jackie Paaso and JT Holmes. —Kate Siber…
Eight skiers and climbers were killed by an avalanche in Iran's Alborz Mountains on a road between popular ski areas Shamshak and Dizzine, reported Iranian and international news agencies today. Rescuers saved another 49 victims, including three foreigners. Iran might not immediately conjure images of steep, snowy mountain ranges, but…
You already heard about the SnowSports Industries of America (SIA) trade show that happened in Denver, Colorado, last week from our Powder Feed blogger, Kate Siber! She gave you a round-up on some of the best new gear out there. But, wait. What…
Women's ski jumping will simply have to wait to become the next sport deemed worthy enough for the Olympics. Check out this awesome contender: —Kate Siber…
The New York Times Magazine features Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn this week. Of course, we're partial to our own profile, “Nine…
Injuries? What injuries? Both of America's great medal hopes for ski cross, Casey Puckett and Daron Rahlves, are ready to compete in the Olympic Games despite recent injuries, says U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association CEO Bill Marolt. In Aspen's Winter X Games last weekend, Rahlves sustained a dislocated hip and…
In my book, every trade show or conference necessitates at least a day or two of recovery, ideally in a ski town. So on my way home from SIA in Denver, I stopped in Breckenridge. I hadn't been there since a family ski trip in, oh, 1993. It wound…
When visiting one of the best ski towns in North America, it's worth it to splurge on a meal in one of the country's best restaurants. But these days such trips are in short supply, so what can you do? Not much, unless you have a recipe. I gathered up…
What does it take to make the U.S. Ski Team's Olympic roster? A lot, according to the new documentary “Truth in Motion: The U.S. Ski Team's Road to Vancouver.” After airing on Saturday, it's now free (in HD!) at iTunes, thanks to sponsor Audi. —…
There have been several trade shows in outdoorlandia in the past couple of weeks. I just spent the last two days at SIA, the big snow sports show in Denver. If you've never been to a trade show, it can best be described as a spectacle. Picture…
Just in case you were out and missed the 2010 Winter X Games, we compiled a list of our ten favorite moments. You don't have to agree. Tell us what you think in the comments section below. 10) Anything involving…
Daron Rahlves sustained a heinous crash in the ski-cross finals of the X Games yesterday, dislocating his hip. He was wincing as an ambulance sped him from the course, reported the Denver Post. This brings up the obvious question: Will he recover in time to compete in…
Ted Ligety has won the World Cup giant slalom in Slovenia for the third year in a row. This is his first World Cup win this season, and he cinched it with a combined time of 2:22. Austria's Marcel Hirscher took second…
The creation of the European-based Freeride World Tour has taken freeskiing (also called extreme skiing) competition to a whole new level. Athletes that areawarded one of the few coveted spots on this circuit get the chance to competeon massive, unskied faces in…
I'm picky about ski packs. My requirements: It has to carry well. It has to have enough pockets but not too many, enough straps but not too many, and a good weight-to-capacity ratio. I have to admit that I wasn't overly keen on the Deuter Freerider PRO 30 when I…
Chris Davenport has returned from his Antarctica skiing adventure. And the film crew that accompanied him (Granite Films) brought back some pretty amazing footage. Below is…
Live screenings of this year's Aspen X Games will be hosted in Denver, Colorado, according to…
Freestyle skiers were some of the last American athletes to find out whether they were Vancouver-bound this season. After the long wait, U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association President and CEO Bill Marolt, the U.S. Olympic Committee and Team, and Visa announced the official Olympic roster at Utah's Deer Valley Resort…
Colorado's Arapahoe Basin will host its eighth annual Beacon Bowl and Avalanche Awareness Day on Saturday, February 6, according to skinet.com. The…
For a few seasons now, Salomon has been handily churning out mini ski movies and publishing them on its website. These bite-size bits of inspiration are the best antidote to the Tuesday afternoon blues I've found so far. The latest episode, #15, is one of the better ones—a story about…
The U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix at Park City was held last week. Kelly Clark placed first on the women's side, and Shaun White took the victory for the men. Oh, and White also landed the first ever…
“Truth in Motion”, a documentary on the U.S. Ski Team produced by Audi, will premiere this Saturday, 8 p.m., on NBC. The film follows the lives of the U.S. skiers as they prepare for the…
It's been dumping (again) here in Southwest Colorado, so last night I took off early from work to lap some runs at the local pint-sized home-town ski area: Hesperus. It has precisely one wooden-seat lift (circa 1958) that goes approximately 2 miles per hour,…
Last one up the mountain? Well, you can be the first down the pow with this handy skin-ripping technique. Veteran ski mountaineer Andrew McLean, who's bagged first descents on all seven continents, shows how in this recent video he posted to his blog. —Kate Siber…
Land of the Freebie If you're like me, 2009 left you a lot broke and a little fat—in serious need of some low-cost healthy outdoor activity. But that's tough to find when lift tickets are approaching $100 and on-mountain burgers top ten bucks. If…
A good piece of gear for off-piste skiers is an avalanche airbag system (ABS), but it seems that a lot of skiers who carry one aren't deploying them in the case of an actual avalanche. New Scientist writes about a new…
Snowboarder Danny Davis, 21, was seriously injured in an ATV crash this weekend and recently announced that, like his recently injured friend Kevin Pearce, he will not be able to participate in the Olympics. He is currently recovering after successful back surgery. With two strong snowboard contenders out, who behind…
Courtesy of Flickr The Whistler Blackcomb ski resort, host of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, February 12 to 28, will be up for public auction on February 19,…
You don't normally think of ice as something that increases safety, but SKI magazine explains how it does just that for alpine racers. The ruts caused by snowcats clearing the course can be dangerous for skiers, launching them off-course, so water is actually injected into the…
In 2010, the Vancouver Olympics will be the first to include ski cross. What is it? Going downhill. Really fast. This video highlights American Casey Puckett, who has competed in four Olympic games but has never brought home a medal,…
On December 29th, on the verge of the new decade, the skiing industry lost a legend. Bill Levitt, long-time mayor of Alta, Utah, and owner of the Alta Lodge, passed away after collapsing in the ski area's dining…
If you've got money to spare and a yen for skiing somewhere other than the Rockies, book a flight to West Virginia and hit the slopes at Snowshoe Mountain Resort. It's very family-oriented, so it's a great place to spend…
We live in a world of helmet cams, which is a beautiful thing. Freeskier Arne Backstrom snapped this footage on a qualifying run at the second stop of the Subaru Freeskiing World Tour in Revelstoke, courtesy of VoldR. Really fun to watch the cliff jumps. (He later won.) …
There will be 39 past and present Olympians competing in the Winter X Games this year, which will take place January 28-31 in Aspen/Snowmass, Colorado. There will be 250 athletes overall. ESPN will air…
Today the New York Times reported that Swiss ski phenom Lara Gut will miss the Olympics due to a hip injury sustained in a crash in October. Whenever I hear news like that, I feel a sharp pang of sympathy. In the past few years I have been plagued with…
Sandbox just released the first teaser from their upcoming snowboarding film, Now You Know. Transworld Snowboarding had the scoop, but you can watch it below:…
Because we all want to hear as much as possible about superstar skier Lindsey Vonn, I thought I'd post another video on her ridiculous workouts. Among the impressive tricks in this one: weighted squats on top of an upside-down BOSU ball. Take notes, fellas! …
I took a little sojourn to Snowshoe Mountain Resort in West Virginia and brought along some key items to test out on the slopes. Fortunately, for testing purposes, I was greeted with blizzard-like conditions on both days, so I could really see how the…
63-year old Charlie Toups, who has been called “the ultimate ski bum,” has been imprisoned in Georgetown, Colorado, for more than fifty days because he won't plead guilty to several federal charges, reports the Denver Post. Since 1976, Toups has skied 120…
A new study published in Ecological Applications found that cleared ski slopes are more environmentally friendly than graded ones, according to the New York Times. Cleared slopes are created by cutting down trees to open up an…
I've been looking for some gloves or mittens that will suit me for the whole ski season for both the east and west coast. So far I've come down to the Scott Cocoon and a Level Mitten. What do you suggest? Brian Boston, MA
Lindsey Vonn is the first American to win three races on three straight days, reports the New York Times. Vonn conquered the task when she won the Super G event in Haus im Ennstal, Austria, on Sunday. Even with…
Having lived in the same climate for the last five years, which is a new record in my adult life, I now feel adequately informed to finalize (for the moment) my quiver of ski gear and technical clothing. Here is one of the most recent jackets to earn a…
Shaun White is the second to make the US Olympic Team, Burton announced Saturday. White snagged the win at the Grand Prix in Mammoth with a pair of double corks and a first-run score of 47. Meanwhile, Gretchen Bleiler came…
At 25, Ted Ligety already has Olympic gold under his belt: He was the 2006 winner in the Alpine combined. His other major victories include the 2007-08 World Cup season title in…
Jackson Hole ski patroller Mark “Big Wally” Wolling is still in critical condition in an Idaho Falls hospital after an avalanche buried him yesterday morning, reports the Jackson Hole Daily. Many Jackson residents' thoughts go out to the longtime ski patroller and his family. Wolling was doing routine avalanche-safety work…
Here are the answers to the Me Talk Snowboard One Day quiz: 1. B 2. A 3. B 4. C 5. A…
Kelly Clark became the first snowboarder to qualify for the Olympic team, ESPN reports. Clark sealed her position with a win at Mammoth on Wednesday afternoon. The men will compete in their second Grand Prix event this…
The good, bad, and totally wrecked moments in the life of America's most decorated skier.
The U.S. squad heads into Vancouver this February 12 stacked with veterans, including Kris Freeman. They've all got something to prove, but none more than Freeman, who plans to break our 30-year cross-country medal drought—diabetes be damned.
Last winter, snowboarder Shaun White, 23, spent some time riding a clandestine halfpipe”the best ever”built just for him behind Colorado’s Silverton Mountain. Known as Project X and funded by Red Bull, the 22-foot-deep superpipe incorporated a foam pit for White to bail into as he concocted five new moves for…
A crash-course quiz on the slanguage you'll hear blaring over the halfpipe (or, rather, "stunt ditch") in Vancouver.
So far this season I've heard of two skiers dying in tree wells within resort boundaries. One was a University of Colorado student at Wolf Creek in December. The latest was a 23-year-old ski instructor for Arapahoe Basin who was skiing at Steamboat on a day off. Tree wells can…
Vail Mountain and the U.S. Forest Service are running a joint sting operation to detect and nab instructors and guides who work on the mountain without a license, the Denver…
Tomorrow, there will be a World Cup slalom race in Zagreb, Croatia, but U.S. skier Bode Miller won't be competing, according to the AP. Miller will instead use the break to rest his ankle, which was injured during a team volleyball game earlier in December.
I think one of James Bond's best unsung talents was eluding bad guys on skis. In honor of 007's schralping capabilities, I put together three of his best ski-chase scenes for your viewing pleasure. My vote for top honors is The Spy Who Loved Me, which…
Olympic hopeful Kevin Pearce, 22, suffered a traumatic brain injury while practicing a double back flip (aka “double cork”) in the halfpipe at Park City Mountain Resort in Utah last week. He remains in the ICU at a Utah hospital but is reported to be in stable condition. Support…
What happens when three snowboarders catch the last chair of the day but the lift stops before they make it to the top…and no one knows they're there? (Cue foreboding music.) That is the premise of Frozen, a new horror flick and Hollywood's next crack at a snowboarding movie, to hit theaters…