My Page: Jackie Williams

Snow gear

As the 2010-2011 snow season begins its descent, it’s time to start saving your money for next year’s gear. In that spirit, New West brings you a gear guide to help you figure out what’s worth it and what isn’t. Today’s entry: The softer side of snowboarding, from head to toe. Next time: hardwear.

HEAD
You’ll be seeing a lot of aviator-style hats and beanies, complete with the fur-lined ear tabs. Not your bag? Then opt for the baggy, long and loose beanies ala seven dwarfs’ style. Just about every line has at least one style that has some type of integrated sound system, whether you plug in your own or buy theirs, you can be bumpin’ on the mountain. If you’re looking in the kids’ market, they’ve got some cute animal inspired hats and beanies to make them look like bears and sharks and all sorts of crazy creatures.

Face Masks: Everyone needs a couple of these for those sub temp days and wind chills. Several manufacturers are making face masks with warm fleece layers and windproof overlays, complete with air holes so you don’t get all snotty on the inside. Another style has molded neoprene over the nose and mouth areas. And one more trend you’ll be seeing more of are bearded face masks so you can look a little more like Danny Davis…

Skiing and Snowboarding

At Breckenridge, with the snow falling again, the athletes conformed to the conditions and were able to bring it hard for the Superpipe and Snowboard Slopestyle finals. I had the opportunity to cover both.

Amid a downpour of powder the entire day, the athletes had a hard time riding the pipe. Louie Vito and Queralt Castellet prevailed and won first place. Vito threw out a lineup of tricks that consisted of a front double ten, cab double ten and a crippler that earned him a score of 90.25. Castellet won it with a back 3, front 9, back 3 grab, front 5, back 5 and a front 7, scoring 85.25.

New West Q&A

New West talked with Fisher, who grew up in Breckenridge and is part of the Winter Dew Tour, and Black, who’s currently training for the X Games, about what it’s like to be filmed for the most anticipated ski movie of the year.

NW: So when and where was the filming done for your segment?

Steve: Done in February in Breckenridge.

NW: What were the conditions?

Zack: We had one powder day and two sunny and perfect park days.

Steve: They were amazing! Couple of days of fresh snow, and a couple of bluebird days!

Maiden Voyage

So my husband and I recently bought a pair of snowmobiles and we’re praying for snow. After reading all the websites and looking up as much information about snowmobiling our minds could hold, we decided a great destination for one of our maiden voyages would be Grand Lake, Colorado.

Grand Lake beckons snowmobilers to ride over 300 miles of trails with its title of “Snowmobile Capital of Colorado.” Consistently rated in the Top 10 for snowmobile destinations in the U.S., this is where all of those pictures come from in snowmobiling magazines. The Gateway to the Western Rockies, in fact, is so snowmobile-friendly that you can access trails from many of the local hotels, some of which have onsite rentals.