Snow Sports
ArchiveWe 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.) …
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…
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…
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…
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
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…
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…
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.
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…
Rain, 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 skiing—he helped inspire the term—punk 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…
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…
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…
It just dumped about two feet of snow here in Durango, Colorado (The Powder Feed Headquarters), and it got me thinking: What does El Niño 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 Outside 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…
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…
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…
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 skier Matthias 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 Powder magazine, writer and photographer extraordinaire, and the brain behind The Adventure 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 followers—with 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 there’s one item of winter clothing to put on the wishlist this year, it’s Patagonia’s new Nano Puff Pullover. Here are three reasonswhy: 1. It has easily one of the best weight-to-warmth ratios of any syntheticjacket I’ve 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…
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,…
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 won’t see herat the Olympic Games.
'Tis the season of video contests, and the most entertaining one we've found so far is the Colorado Snow at First Sight Contest. The prize is three 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 don’t, and thatis: foam. Lots of it. In a huge landing bin. Learn the flying tomato’s new trickshere. …
In the name of giving ass-kicking skier Lindsey Vonn as much play as possible in the pages of Outside 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…