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Skiing & Snowboarding Competition

Shaun White’s half-pipe skills were on display (again) during the most recent installment of the Winter X-Games when the red-headed snowboarder took first place in the SuperPipe final. His park prowess was another thing all together: White failed to qualify for the Slopestyle final.

According to a Jan. 31 ESPN Action Sports article, “White wins first W X Superpipe four-peat,” White took a one-year hiatus from competing in slopestyle events. It might explain why he didn’t make it to Slopestyle final this year.

Yet, it might also point to a potential trend—one that has been forming for some time—of snowboarders moving into areas of specialization or a dominant skillset in their riding forms.

Other examples of this shift were on display at this year’s Winter X-Games.

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…

NEW WEST FEATURE

A bipartisan team of legislators is putting forward a bill intended to make it easier for ski resorts to get permission for non-ski activities on Forest Service land.

Touted as a job-boosting measure and a way to improve year-round economies at ski resorts, the legislation is aimed particularly at summertime activities. On-mountain activities slow down in the summer, but ski areas are increasingly looking to summer recreation, like hiking, mountain biking and mountain boarding, to bring visitors during warm-weather months.

“You know that the last snowflake doesn’t signal the end of outdoor recreation,” said Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., the lead sponsor of the legislation. “Our ski areas shouldn’t have to close shop once the snow stops either.”

mountain town news

Consider it the grown-up version of the neighbor’s boy coming asking to shovel your walk for a few dollars, but Dominico Cianciotto hopes this unusually snowy winter will help him earn a college degree.

Financial trouble forced Cianciotto to take a semester off from his course work at the University of Montana. With jobs hard to come by, Cianciotto decided to start his own business with an eye toward earning enough money to complete his film-production degree. That’s where the weather stepped in to supply him an opportunity.

Snowfall in the Missoula area, like much of the Rocky Mountain region, has been heavy this year. That, combined with work ethic from a father in the lawn and landscaping business, was all he needed to start the “College Fund Snow Removal” in November.

Snowmobiling

Snowmobiles just aren’t made the way they used to be. For many, that might be a good thing.

For a vehicle that may not appear to need much in the way of improvements, manufacturers continue to refine the technology that allows snowmobilers to tear through the Rocky Mountains.

Mike Vandam has been riding and selling snowmobiles for more than 30 years, and said that although there have not been many major changes to the machines, snowmobile designers continue to develop sleeker and more user friendly machines.

Where Beer and Snow Meet

As more than 1,000 people gathered early this month in Whitefish, Montana, for the ski town’s annual winter carnival, a few hopefuls anxiously waited for their chance to win a year’s supply of Double Hopped Golden Lager in the Black Star Barter. 

Contestants had to submit what they would trade or give for a year’s supply of the Whitefish brew. The event had the judges laughing and the crowd yelling for the “talent,” which ranged from the clever to the absurd. 

“Its fun to challenge people’s creativity,” Minott Wessinger, founder of The Great Northern Brewery, said. Click the multimedia feature for more from the Black Star Barter.

Resort News

The “What’s new” question so far this ski season has produced some pretty varied answers around Rocky Mountain ski resorts. They’ve included the new heated bubble chair ("like riding inside a giant pair of ski goggles") at the Canyons in Utah, new ziplines at Montana’s Big Sky and EpicMix, Vail’s mobile app which allows skiers to record every vertical foot they’ve skied at a Vail Resort and then brag about it on Facebook.

“So what’s new at Alta this season?” I asked Connie Marshall, the resort’s director of marketing and public relations over lunch in December.

I asked this question knowing the skiing experience is pretty much limited to the skiing experience and celebrated in its simplicity at Alta. I was pretty sure the answer I got would not pertain to a 24/7 entertainment venue, an off-season draw, or a non-skiing diversion. So I was curious. What does a resort brag about when the main focus is the mountain?

“Nothing sexy,” Connie responded. “We’ve planted more trees and extended our snowmaking capability, reseeding the area with a special blend of native grass and flower seeds. While we could use a standard non-native ski area seed blend to revegetate, we don’t want to introduce plants to places they shouldn’t be.” This, I thought, was interesting: A ski resort so concerned with what actually lives under the snow that they’ve put time and money into planting the right seeds. 

Skiing & Snowboarding

Yesterday, Snow Blog ran a piece regarding the environmental impact of some types of ski wax. In the following item, the “other” side is presented, mainly why skiers choose to wax.

If you aren’t waxing your skis on a regular basis, then you probably aren’t getting the best performance out of them.  Plenty of skiers invest in top-of-the-line skis, but never bother to maintain them.

According to Matt McGrath, shop manager of Open Road in Missoula, Mont., the benefits of waxing are obvious: it not only protects and prolongs the life of your skis, but improves glide, helps initiate turning and removes dirt.

“People buy a pair of skis, ski on them for three years, never waxing them, then they wonder why their friend is going so much faster,” McGrath said.

New West Feature

All ski waxes are not created equal. Seasoned competitors know it’s unlikely a standard block of wax will suffice when it comes to reaching the velocity needed to win professional events. Fluorinated waxes, which come as blocks or powders, help speed demons get their fixes. But the synthetic compounds that give these products their water-repellant qualities remain under investigation for their potential health effects. 

Like many nonstick pans, “fluoro” waxes contain perfluorocarbons or PFCs. To help shave more seconds off the clock, some have Teflon mixed in. Some of the chemicals in the PFC family, such as PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), which is used to manufacture Teflon and Gore-Tex, are practically immortal. PFOA does not biodegrade. Instead, it endures in the environment and has been found in fish, birds, wildlife and people around the world, even in Arctic polar bears.

People are most likely exposed to PFCs through drinking tainted water, eating contaminated food or using PFC-containing products, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a study on more than 2,000 participants, the CDC found PFCs in nearly all those tested.

Skiing & Snowboarding

Before throwing away your used Aspen/Snowmass lift ticket, take a closer look: It’s art. For six seasons, the Aspen Skiing Company and the Aspen Art Museum have collaborated to bring art to unexpected places, including the radio-frequency-enabled plastic tucked into the pocket of your ski coat.

The initiative began in 2005 when Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson joined the Aspen Art Museum as director and chief curator. New to Aspen, she was watching the visiting skiers who flood the town each winter and was struck by the idea that their lift tickets were actually small canvasses. And, aside from a bar code and an expiration date, largely blank canvases.

From that simple idea, the partnership has expanded from visually interesting lift tickets to transitory on-mountain art.

Through Feb. 21, skiers and riders at Snowmass can hear singing as they cross the Trestle Bridge between the Big Burn and Sheer Bliss lifts. A tonal, a cappella melody, almost ethereal, greets them and then disappears. Except for a low-profile sign at the east end of the bridge explaining the installation by Susan Philipsz, there is no forewarning, no promotion. Skiers are left wondering if what they just heard was even real, or just the sounds of the mountain. 

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