Skiing the World with Keely Kelleher

This weekend I had a pitcher of beer dumped on my head…in the middle of the day. Okay, let’s take a step back. Why would that happen do you ask? And where in the world could I have been? I am assuming you are wondering what kind of activity, an athlete such as myself, would be engaging in to have this happen.

Let me set the scene for you: 70,000 screaming, stumbling, for the most part drunk Austrian ski fans. The Hahnenkamm in Kitzbühel brings ski fans far and wide to watch the premier ski racing event in of the season. I’d say that if you wanted to experience true Austrian ski spirit go to the Hahnenkamm.  The streets are crammed with people blowing air horns, ringing cowbells, and cheering for the racers as they careen themselves down the craziest downhill in the world.  It is a spectacle of madness. Women don’t race the Hahnenkamm and for good reason. Speeds of ninety mph, dauntingly big air off jumps mixed with an icy, bumpy track. No thanks. I would cry if someone told me I had to ski that course.

Vancouver Olympics

Snowboarding icon Shaun White made more in endorsements last year (some $9 million) than any football or baseball player except for Peyton Manning - and that pretty much sums up the conflict that confronts a media superstar in an ostensibly counter-culture sport. A New York Times story today discusses the unease that White’s fame and fortune has created in the sport, though it generally credits White with balancing it all about as well as he does his double-cork backflips. He might have a secret half-pipe  

2010 Olympics

Vancouver’s acclaimed Museum of Anthropology, long known for its magnificent totem poles, has added a whole lot more, and shows its new face to the public this weekend, just in time for Olympic visitors, regardless of the snow pack.

The museum at the University of British Columbia has been crafting its new face for three years, expanding by 50 percent and adding new dimensions to one of the Pacific Northwest’s premier cultural showcases. The museum is a masterwork of Vancouver’s celebrated architect, Arthur Erickson, and is one of his most admired works. A formal launch of the new museum at 10 am Saturday begins three days of free admission to the public; hours are Saturday 10 am to midnight, Sunday 10 am to 5 pm and Tuesday, 7 pm to 9 pm. (The museum closes on Mondays.)

Snow Danger

A 54-year-old Ketchum man was killed Friday in an in-bounds avalanche on Sun Valley’s Bald Mountain.

The Blaine County Coroner confirmed that Timothy L. Michael of Ketchum had died.

Earlier the Sun Valley Resort made the following statement:

“At 2:31 pm today the Sun Valley Ski Patrol responded to a report of a buried male skier on Bald Mountain. Avalanche rescue procedures were instituted and at 2:46 pm the ski patrol located the skier. He was found in a slide below Fire Trail Lane above Lower Broadway. CPR was started and the skier was transported to St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the skier and his family. We would like to acknowledge the outstanding efforts of the Sun Valley Ski Patrol and the Ketchum Fire Department,” said Tim Silva, General Manager, Sun Valley Resort.

Skiing the World with Keely Kelleher

I spent New Year’s Eve on the United 902 flight bound for Munich, Germany. The flight attendant gave me a tiara sparkling with Happy New Year letters and I passed out on my neck pillow.
As you read, before Christmas I crashed racing in France. Unfortunately, that meant I did not get to ski Big Sky during my ten day Christmas break. I mostly hung out with my physical therapist, doing deep knee bends and ankle exercises.  “Patience young grasshopper,” kept ringing through my head over and over again.  Nevertheless, my therapy paid off and my ankle and knee are now ready to rock. I resolute to stay that way!

Outdoors Column

Five days after a nasty snowboard accident, Olympic hopeful and top-notch snowboarder Kevin Pearce remains in critical condition Tuesday at a Utah hospital.

Pearce, 22, was hoping to qualify for next month’s Winter Games in Vancouver when he mislanded a complicated jump on Thursday in a halfpipe at Park City, Utah.

Pearce was completing a twisting double back flip when he caught the front side of his snowboard and landed on his head. He was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.

Snowboarding has been an Olympic sport since 1998. Each year, and seemingly with each competition more extreme moves are attempted. For example, how many people on this planet could perform a twisting double black flip? If you’re not sure, let me clue you in - there aren’t many.

Skiing the World with Keely Kelleher

I escaped Val d’Isere luckier than most. The racing in France can be described no better than tough.  Four racers this week went home with either torn ACL’s or some form of injury.  I semi-injured myself after crashing into the nets, walking away with a sprained ankle and knee. Dear Santa: All I want for Christmas is a healthy body!

I am continually surprised by this sport, one day you are on top feeling unstoppable and the next day you’re crashing into the netting.  The most frequently asked question I get, “Hey Keely, so what’s going through your mind when you are crashing?” My response is always the same, “I try to cover my head, close my eyes and pray to the ski gods that I’ll make it out of the crash with my limbs intact. ”

HALE AND FAREWELL

It was a December day 68 years ago when Ralph Ball’s destiny changed.

“We were playing touch football on the fraternity house lawn,” he once told me. “One of our classmates came down and said, ‘Hey boys, don’t worry about what you’re going to do next year. We’re going to be in the Army. We just attacked Japan.’”

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