Snow Sports
ArchiveRain, heavy snow, and fluctuating temperatures contributed to avalanches that killed seven people in Italy's Dolomites over the past few days, reported the BBC. In the region of Trentino, two climbers were buried and killed in a slide, then four of their rescuers died in a subsequent avalanche. In the…
If you believe in science, you know that something fishy is going on with the climate and that it could affect the future of snow. TGR and The North Face also believe in science, so they came up with this video to help educate snowboarders and skiers on what could…
WADA, The International agency that oversees drug testing in sports, has done a solid job of cleaning up some rotten games. But a growing number of critics contend that it's become overzealous and arrogant, sometimes trampling the civil liberties of athletes in the process. As the case of Winter Olympian Zach Lund illustrates, they have a point.
One of the country's heralded Olympic hopefuls, skier Lindsey Vonn, nearly broke her left arm in a crash in a GS race in Lienz, Austria on Monday. Turns out it's “just” microfractures and a bone bruise, which may slow her down for a few days. She'll make the call as…
Two skiers from Hawaii were rescued from the wilderness near Leadville, Colorado yesterday. The duo, Kira Davis and Duc Ong, got lost while skiing seven miles between huts on Christmas Day. After spending a night out in minus-10-degree temperatures, keeping warm by moving and taking shelter near trees, the pair…
The Games' best broadcasts, straight from the thumbs of the athletes.
Glen Plake is arguably America's longest-standing professional skier. More than 20 years ago, he became a hero amongst the ski-movie-watching masses for his extreme skiinghe helped inspire the termpunk attitude, and signature two-foot mohawk. Since then, he has appeared in countless films and become one of the country's most…
After hearing of several recent incidents in which backcountry travelers spent an unplanned night out in the wilderness, Lou Dawson, famed ski mountaineer and backcountry-ski blogger, put together a basic primer on winter survival today. Is it poor form for a ski blogger to link to another ski blogger? I…
This season, Colorado resort Beaver Creek will be offering winter concerts in its very own Crystal Grotto — North America's only performing arts center made from ice. Even cooler? The instruments are ice, too. (Personally, we're dying to hear…
Winter X Games 14 will feature two new events this winter, according to ESPN. Snowmobile Knock Out and Skiing SuperPipe High Air will join other events in ESPN's 24+ hours of live coverage. This year's games will again be held in…
Looks like CMH Heli-Skiing and Arc'teryx got the memo that must be circulating around marketing departments these days: Hold a video contest! I've seen maybe a dozen this season. Not that I'm complaining. This one is particularly sweet for all you backcountry folks: Put together a video (max two minutes)…
After Vancouver chose an inukshuk as its symbol for the the 2010 Winter Olympics, workers set off to build a series of them at event sites. One of them sits atop Whistler Mountain, where Rocky Mountain Sherpas recently made this impressive time-lapse video. Hat…
Just in case you didn't take my post about brushing up on avalanche safety seriously (see Dec. 3), here is the most terrifying ski video I've seen yet. This guy got caught in an avalanche with a helmet cam (and, thankfully a Black Diamond Avalung), was fully buried, then dug…
Over the last week, it has dumped up to six feet of snow on the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, where, luckily, I live. The entire town of Durango looks like it has been frosted with buttercream.The sight of obese snowflakes wafting down from dark skies invariably provokes the…
Burton celebrated the victories of two team members as both Kelly Clark and Shaun White finished the first Grand Prix at Copper Mountain with first place wins. Clark, who is going for her third Olympics, landed back-to-back 500s on her first run, along with a frontside 900, two 720s, and…
It just dumped about two feet of snow here in Durango, Colorado (The Powder Feed Headquarters), and it got me thinking: What does El Ni簽o have in store for us snow hounds? To find out, I rang up a guy in the know: Mike Halpert, deputy director of…
Poles The Classic Scott’s Team Issue poles ($120; scottusa.com) are made from aircraft-grade aluminum (translation: twice as strong as cheapies) and have a really simple and durable strap. BACKCOUNTRY READY Need extra leverage? A quick flick is all it takes to extend Black Diamond’s aluminum Boundary…
First Descents, a nonprofit founded by kayaker Brad Ludden to benefit young adults with cancer via outdoor adventure sports, will hold a ski-weekend fundraiser December 10 to 12 at the Ritz-Carlton,…
Elyse Saugstad, 31, is one of the top women freeskiers on the planet, and The Levitation Project recently released a solo video of her footage. (Check it out below. Pretty badass.) I caught up with her this evening…
Lindsey Vonn, called the “Best Skier in the World” by 窪蹋勛圖厙 in 2008, was just .03 seconds off from sweeping the speed events at the first World Cup event of the season, reports the Los Angeles Examiner. Vonn won downhill events at the Lake Louise…
Chris Davenport, the pro who skied all 54 of Colorado's fourteeners in a year, is on to the next big project: Antarctica. At the moment, he and a team of skiers are cruising around the icy continent in a 75-foot boat with enough muscle to navigate through icebergs. Along the…
In the December issue, we looked at the “Most Underrated Ski Resorts” in Vermont. On the other side of the continent, Whistler Blackcomb is getting buried in snow. The resort reported 18 ft. of snow through the month of November. The previous one month record? A…
Are you a girl looking to get away? The Haywood County Tourism Development Authority is giving away a weekend for you and three friends, worth $1,200, to ski the Cataloochee Ski Area in Maggie Valley, NC. The package includes two nights at the Boyd Mountain Log Cabins, two days of…
Errol Kerr, 23, will be the only member of Jamaica's ski team for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Sponsored by Spyder, Kerr is predicted to be a medal contender in the skiercross event. Kerr moved to Tahoe when he was ten but has duel citizenship…
Professional snowboarder or indie skateboarder? We're not sure. But, it doesn't matter because we like it! The Burton uniform for the U.S. Olympic Snowboarding Team to compete in at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, that is. Can't you just picture…
Photos and videos from New Zealand's premier winter sport and lifestyle event.
Imagine this: You live in Summit County, Colorado and a local sheriff's deputy calls to ask if your ski-bum son is having a sex change. Um, what? That is precisely what happened when police busted a woman using a guy's ski pass at Keystone, according to the…
It’s hard to call an Olympic silver medal a defeat, but that’s what Gretchen Bleiler’s 2006 halfpipe loss to Vermont native Hannah Teter seemed like. Bleiler, the 28-year-old from Aspen, Colorado, has been the dominant woman in snowboarding for the past half-decade, but she’s entering this Olympic year as an…
Where would we be without the down jacket, high-altitude sunscreen, and some of the first waterproof/breathable fabrics? Luckily, we don't have to think about that, because we've got Klaus. The founder of ski/snowboard outfitter Obermeyer turned 90 this week, reports Skiing magazine, and it doesn't…
Powder days have already been flying in the Pacific Northwest, and they're not far behind in the rest of the country (hopefully). That means backcountry skiers and snowboarders across the land are dusting off the helmets, waxing up the old planks and… brushing up on their avy safety. I shall…
The National Ski Patrol is holding an online auction through December 9. Proceeds will go to the emergency care and safety service programs. You can bid on gear, ski passes, vacation packages, and collector's items. Check out nsp.auctionfrogs.org for…
Lange has teamed up with Freeskier Magazine for the Local Lange Girl Contest, a regional and national competition whose goal is to find strong, sexy women who can really rip on the slopes. Regional…
The first “Girls Can Shred Too” event will take place January 23, 2009 on ski slopes all over the world. Promoted internationally, “Girls Can Shred Too” is an entire day dedicated to getting girls out on the slopes and into snowboarding. Head organizer Kassandra Cassily, a certified snowboard instructor, started…
A study by the University of Rochester cited in Scientific American has reinforced what some of us might have already suspected: Spending time in nature not only helps our moods, it helps us become less self-centered and adopt more intrinsic values (relationships, experiences like powder days) as opposed to extrinsic…
The first of five World Cup events for American alpine snowboarders was canceled yesterday due to poor snow conditions. The events, held in Limone Piemonte, Italy, will also be used as Olympic qualifiers. The U.S. Olympic team…
Canadian downhill skier John Kucera may miss the Vancouver Olympics, thanks to a high-speed fall on Sunday, reports Reuters. Kucera, 25, was considered one of Canada's top medal hopefuls. The accident occurred during the season-opening World Cup super-G,…
Pro skierMatthias Giraud, 26, was the the first to ski B.A.S.E jump off Mt. Hood, Telluride's Ajax, and southwestern Colorado's Engineer Mountain. With his trademark charm-your-pants-off French accent, he dishes about managing fear, losing his mentor Shane McConkey, and how to take the leap…
It's Black Friday, a time to avoid stores if there ever was one. To aid you in this effort, we here at the Powder Feed put together a cheat sheet of items you can buy online for the ripper that holds a special place in your heart. After polling dozens…
My friend Steve Casimiro, former editor of Powdermagazine, writer and photographer extraordinaire, and the brain behind The 窪蹋勛圖厙 Life blog just reminded me of this insane video of Frenchie Antoine Montant skiing out of an enormous slide with…
There may not be much powder skiing in Antarctica. Nonetheless a team of eight women from Commonwealth countries set off on skis toward the South Pole yesterday. Hailing from Cyprus, Ghana, Singapore, India, Brunei, New Zealand, Britain, and Jamaica, they are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Commonwealth with the…
Expert-only Silverton Mountain in southwestern Colorado has its fair share of die-hard followerswith good reason. It gets stupid amounts of snow, it has steep and alarmingly (in a good way) wild terrain, and the atmosphere is, well, let's just describe it as laid-back. This mom-and-popper for the adventurous…
If theres one item of winter clothing to put on the wishlist this year, its Patagonias new Nano Puff Pullover. Here are three reasonswhy: 1. It has easily one of the best weight-to-warmth ratios of any syntheticjacket Ive tried. 2. It packs down smaller than an orange (in the…
Just in case you have a cool million or two lying around in your bank account (or really good credit), we here at the Powder Feed have divined a good* way for you to use it: Buy Elk Meadows Ski Resort in southwestern Utah. The non-operational ski resort is up…
The Subaru Freeskiing World Tour is on. Now in its 12th year, the tour kicked off this summer in La Parva, Chile, with Chopo Diaz and Jacqui Edgerly taking the victories. There are five more stops in the FWT,…
Lame news: The group of elite women ski jumpers looking to British Columbia's courts to help instate women's ski jumping events at the Olympics lost their appeal. Read the whole story…
Last year, ski jumping phenom Lindsey Van won the firstinternational-level ski-jump medal for the U.S. since 1924 and set the ski-jump recordfor both men and women at the Vancouver Olympic facility. But you wont see herat the Olympic Games.
Win the chance to snowboard with Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White byparticipating in an ebay auction benefiting the charity Right to Play.Right to Play is an organization focused on using sports and playprograms to improve health,…
'Tis the season of video contests, and the most entertaining one we've found so far is theColorado Snow at First Sight Contest. The prize isthree months of all-expense-paid skiing, snowboarding, sledding, ski-bar carousing, snowball-throwing, and hot tubbing in Colorado, but it's only open to complete snow newbies. Know any Samoans…
Snowboarder Shaun White knows something you dont, and thatis: foam. Lots of it. In a huge landing bin. Learn the flying tomatos new trickshere.…
In the name of giving ass-kicking skier Lindsey Vonn as much play as possible in the pages of 窪蹋勛圖厙 magazine and on this website, may I present to you a window into her workouts. Ok, boys, now you try to balance in a tuck on an exercise ball –Kate…
Breckenridge overwhelmingly passed a measure todecriminalize marijuana this week, which means it will be legal for folks 21 and up to carry an ounce or less in the high-(ahem)-altitude ski town. The measureis largely symbolic, since possession of pot is still an offense according tothe state. But its a…
Nissan and Japan's Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have put their heads together to try to come up with a pair of ski-less skis, SKI magazine reports. The design features boards that are short and have wheels as well as sensors to detect a…
Watch the full video of Straightline Productions's All or Nothing snowboarding film, above. And if you're stoked to try your own moves, check out what gear we recommend in our Winter Buyer's Guide videos here.
It's like Travelocity but for lift tickets… This year, Liftopia added a bunch of new resorts to its roster, including Winter Park, Keystone, and Killington. Now you can buy discounted lift tickets for 120 resorts across the country. A screaming deal we spotted…
Powder people, check this out: a contest in search of the ultimate ski bum (or snowboard bum). The prize: 15 days of heli skiing and cat skiing in British Columbia, season's passes to a slew of really awesome resorts like Kicking Horse and Revelstoke, accommodations, and transportation. All you have…
A recent survey released by the Ski Channel says that 41% of skiers admitted to skiing and texting at the same time. –Dave Costello…
In our November issue, on newsstands now, we list the 16 Best Ski Resorts in North America, categorizing them into the ultimate powder, partying, and off-piste destinations. We had local experts give us the lowdown, so you'll know exactly where to…
According to Transworld, Wisconsin's Granite Peak Ski Area has designated six runs in the park for skiers only. Owner Charles Skinner says there has been an increase in requests from skiers on the mountain to have skier only trails. Check out the…
REI and Arbor have released a “call for artists” to submit designs for their 2010 snowboard design contest. The competition is open to anyone who likes to draw, and the winning design will be featured in Arbor's 2010-2011 snowboard lineup and sold exclusively…
Two years ago at Kitzbühel, American downhiller Scott Macartney survived a high-speed crash that would've ended most skiing careers. He immediately began plotting a comeback, drawing on deep stores of willpower and courage to overcome a unique kind of terror that every racer knows. They even have a name for it: the Fear.
Endless Powder! Rowdy Bars! Screaming Deals! Secret Stashes! Huge Steeps!
Whatever your riding style, we've got the board for you. Use our Terrain Meter to choose a pair based on the conditions you ski the most.
嚜 A robot the size of a small child has been designed by the Slovenian scientist Bojan Nemec to downhill ski, according to Telegraph. Just watch the video. The little guy uses cameras to plot a course down the hill and a couple gyroscopes and force sensors…
Two years ago at Kitzbuhel, American downhiller Scott Macartney survived a high-speed crash (“FLAT,” 窪蹋勛圖厙 Magazine, November 2009) that would've ended most skiing careers. He immediately began plotting a comeback, drawing on deep stores of willpower and courage to overcome a unique kind of terror that every racer knows.
I’m convinced Audi’s Q7 TDI was designed by German powder junkies. What else could explain the combination of features only a ski addict would appreciate? The all-wheel drive that lets you beat the snowplows up the hill on icy mornings. The heated leather seats for you and four buddies, plus…
According to Backpacker.com, the two year battle over lifetime passes at Keystone has finally come to an end after pass holders agreed to drop the lawsuit and settle for court costs. Lifetime pass owners at Keystone had sued for the rights to continue…
Loveland Ski Area opened one run at 9am this morning, making it the first ski resort in North America to open its slopes to skiing this year. The run has about 1000 feet of vertical. Lift tickets are $44. –Dave Costello…
The winners of the 2009 Banff Mountain Photography Competition have been announced. The judges in this year's competition received over 4000 images from 600 photographers from 41 different countries. You can check out the best in this years mountain photography here, at The Banff…
By Mary Catherine O'Connor Last month, we sang the praises of ski swaps as a great way to give new life to old skis and snowboards. But events such as swaps will never divert all old ski sticks and boots from…
If you thought the battle over the slopes was bad, wait until snowboarders hit the trails en masse. Will that ever happen? Watch some pioneers in the video above and decide for yourself. –Aileen Torres…
Bode Miller announced this past Thursday that he will be rejoining the US Ski Team this coming season with the goal of reaching the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. The former Olympic and World Cup Champ has been skiing independently…
I need a good, fairly cheap walkie-talkie. My main use will probably be skiing, so where can I get one that will guarantee reception in the forest? Thanks! Mark Brooklyn, NY
In April, after 55 days on a mostly frozen Arctic Ocean, John Huston, 32, and Tyler Fish, 36, became the first Americans to ski unsupported to the North Pole. The duo dragged 300-pound sleds, donned drysuits to swim across open water, and consumed roughly 8,000 calories a day—mostly in the form of pemmican. In the end, they made a 66-hour dash to reach the
Shane McConkey was already one of the most influential skiers in the world, changing everything from the shape of our boards to the way we ski powder. But when he learned to fly—combining skiing, BASE jumping, and wingsuits with spectacular results—he found his true obsession. Then one jump went horribly wrong.
I going on an eight-day ski touring trip in Patagonia requiring a pack with at least 65 liters. Which packs are designed for this use? Devin San Francisco, CA
For almost 70 years, former ski patroller and local legend Jim Blanning rode Aspens evolution from broken mining outpost to chic mountain playground. But when his hometown spit him out, he came back with a vengeance. And bombs.
What kind of masochist does it take to swim alongside the man who conquered the Arctic in a Speedo? Our kind.
I want to take up cross-country skiing again after a 20-year layoff. What's the latest in gear, not necessarily top of the line but not entry level, that will get me back there again? I'm a classic skier with a passing interest in skate skiing. Can both be done with two sets of skis and the se boots and poles? I remember waxing as something tedious to be avoided at all costs but the waxless skis back then were useless in some conditions—have they improved? Mike Wheaton, IL