Pete Thomas Outdoors

June Mountain to re-open for skiing, boarding next winter

In news sure to please skiers and snowboarders, June Mountain in the Eastern Sierra will re-open for the 2013-14 winter season.

The resort, which is owned by Mammoth Mountain 30 miles to the south, was closed this past winter for financial reasons. It was losing money and Mammoth was hurting financially because of slow business caused by poor snowfall and a struggling economy.

But what a difference a year makes.

Last June, Mammoth CEO Rusty Gregory stated in a news release: "June has operated at an annual deficit each year since its purchase in 1986. It is time to invest some of this subsidy into the analysis and planning required to position the resort for a sustainable future, then secure the approvals and financing required to create it."

On Tuesday Carl Williams, general manager at June, stated: "We couldn’t be more pleased to announce that June Mountain will be back in operation for the 2013-14 season.

"Next winter we look forward to bringing skiers and snowboarders a great on-mountain experience while also planning for June’s future, including the possibility of a new lift and enhanced snowmaking."

There were few details offered and and the long-term strategic plan for June Mountain has yet to be finalized. It probably will be announced in early summer.

But for skiers and boarders the only important news is that this remote hidden gem of a resort will again open its slopes. The opening is slated for mid-December.

Mammoth currently has eight lifts operating and will remain open at least through Memorial Day weekend.

--Images are courtesy of June Mountain

Right or wrong, skier's monumental crash is put to music

 

Let the first video clip (posted above) serve as example to skiers that trying to obtain huge air for the first time could result in major consequences for those who are not fully prepared.

And let the second video clip (posted below) serve as an example that someone who possesses basic editing skills, and knows how to poach original footage, might poke fun at the fallen skier.

The skier in both clips is Sebastian Olsen, a Norwegian, who (according to the original video description) was fortunate only to have suffered a broken leg during the crash. Watch these if you will, and either laugh or sigh.

Skier, 17, videotaped falling 45 feet from chairlift

 

A 17-year-old skier who might have been trying to throw a snowball from a chairlift at a New Mexico resort was videotaped falling about 45 feet.

The teen, who dangled for several seconds before plummeting to the snow, was airlifted to a local hospital after the Feb. 2 mishap at Ski Santa Fe, but he's said to be OK.

"Basically, the kid is home and he is fine," Cody Sheppard, the ski patrol director at Ski Santa Fe, told the Santa Fe New Mexican. "It was kind of a dramatic deal. I guess he was attempting to throw a snowball to the chair in front of him, where some friends were, and when he threw the snowball, the momentum just carried him out of the chair. He did hang on for awhile, but then he had to drop."

Footage of the incident was uploaded to YouTube this week by a user named TriipyHD, and has since garnered more than 500,000 views.

Sheppard did not identify the teen. TriipyHD stated in the video description that injuries included "a concussion, skull fracture, collapsed lung and a lacerated liver."

Sheppard, however, said none of the injuries required surgery.

"They kept him for observation for a couple of days, and then he was released," the patrol director said. "I'd probably shatter. There is something about being young and flexible, I guess, and just lucky the way you land."

--Find Pete Thomas Outdoors on Facebook

--Hat tip to Jason Blevins of the Denver Post

Skier Sverre Liliequist back-flips in front of raging avalanche

 

The Swatch Skiers Cup is rich with highlights, but Sverre Liliequist stole the show recently by launching a back-flip while being chased by an immense avalanche, which he successfully outran.

(The avalanche portion of the video begins at the 54-second mark, and the slow-motion back-flip is at about 1:50.)

Liliequist's run was being filmed from the air by Skiers Cup crew. The big-mountain and back-country competition, in Zermatt, Switzerland, runs through Friday.

Ski video showcases amazing run through abandoned building

 

One of the more creative skiing videos making the Internet rounds this past week was not filmed in a pristine mountain setting, but inside an abandoned building with graffiti-marred walls.

The accompanying footage shows Logan Imlach stylishly negotiating the interior of the historic Buckner Building in Whittier, Alaska, after he and friend Matt Wild spent nearly a week covering its five floors with snow and constructing ramps.

The video, titled "Five Floors of Fury" and shot by Wild, was uploaded to Vimeo in late 2012. But the footage only recently gained significant traction, after it was featured on a handful of popular websites, including Deadspin, as well as Imlach's hometown Alaska Dispatch online newspaper. It garnered more than 10,000 views since last Friday alone.

In the footage Imlach's remarkable talent is on display as he traverses the building's narrow interior and soars through broken-out windows, performing various tricks in a 1953 building that once contained 1,000 apartments, a hospital, bowling alley, theater, gym, swimming pool and shops.

Imlach's run also was featured in the full-length ski movie "Sunny," by Level 1 Productions. "Sunny" was named Movie of the Year at the recent Powder magazine video awards.

--Note: A variation of this post appears on the GrindTv.com Snow blog

Big Bear Lake ski resorts remain open despite manhunt for Christopher Dorner

With a massive manhunt underway for Christopher Dorner in and around Big Bear Lake, creating a frightening and eerie situation for residents of the San Bernardino County mountain community, the area's two largest ski areas, strangely, remain open.

Apparently it has been determined that Dorner, an ex-LAPD officer suspected to have killed three people and still seemingly intent on killing others, poses no threat to ski operations or skiers and snowboarders visiting the slopes.

Bear Mountain stated Friday on its website: "With the approval of the San Bernardino County Sheriff Department both Bear Mountain and Snow Summit will be open with full operations today."

The same statement appears on the Snow Summit website.

Snow Summit's Friday night session, however, has been canceled because of what has been described by the sister resorts as "a dynamic situation."

Meanwhile, police have been going door-to-door and searching abandoned cabins for Dorner, 33, who is on a mission to kill former LAPD colleagues and their family members as revenge for his firing in 2008.

The manhunt focused on Big Bear on Thursday after Dorner's burned-out vehicle was found in the mountain community, two hours from Los Angeles.

Nearly a foot of new snow had fallen in the region as of 12:30 p.m. Friday.

Aspen Mountain skier dies after collision with another skier

A skier was killed Monday on Colorado's Aspen Mountain after being struck by another skier.

Natalie Egleston, 48, who was visiting from Philadelphia, died from traumatic brain injury as a result of the collision with another female skier, the Aspen Times reported Wednesday.

The death occurred  less than a week after snowmobiler Caleb Moore perished from fatal injuries sustained during the Winter X Games on Aspen's Buttermilk Mountain.

Monday's collision occurred at 3:46 p.m. on lower Spar Gulch.

When ski patrollers responded to an incident report they found Egleston unconscious and unresponsive. The Aspen Daily News reports that Egleston had been standing on the slope when she was struck by the other skier.

The other woman, from New York, received only minor injuries. Her name was not released.

Both skiers had been wearing helmets.

Authorities are still investigating. Anyone who witnessed the collision is asked to call the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office at 970-920-5300.

This was the third snowsports-related fatality this season at Aspen-Snowmass.

Lindsey Vonn injures knee in Super-G crash in Austria

 

Downhill skiing superstar Lindsey Vonn endured a violent crash Tuesday during a super-G competition at the world championships at Schladming, Austria.

The four-time overall World Cup champion was delivered by helicopter to a nearby hospital and suffered a knee injury that could prevent her from competing at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Vonn's sister Laura told NBC that Vonn would require surgery. The New York Times reports that Vonn suffered two torn knee ligaments and will need reconstructive knee surgery.

The United States Ski Team has announced that Vonn would miss the remainder of this season but is expected to return for the 2013-14 World Cup season, which begins in October, and the Sochi Games, which begin Feb. 7, 2014.

That, however, remains to be seen.

The competition had been delayed for three hours by fog. Vonn appeared to have lost balance upon landing a jump halfway down the course. She caught an edge with her right ski, causing her to tumble 500 feet down the slope.

No gun control for these road crews, which use M60 combat tanks to reduce avalanche threat

A lot of people may not realize that M60 tanks are a very effective means of avalanche control.

Washington state road crews use them to fire live rounds at areas where there is heavy snow accumulation and high avalanche danger.

 

They usually do this between midnight and 6 a.m., out of sight of most people. But last week when conditions became unstable on U.S. 2 near the Stevens Pass summit, they closed the roadway in the afternoon and fired their rounds in broad daylight.

Looks like an effective method and, some might say, a very interesting way to make a living.

--The accompanying footage is via HeraldNet.com. Hat tip to Unofficial Networks

Bode Miller's errant golf shot injures wife, Morgan Beck

The images accompanying this post are sure to produce entirely different reactions.

Both are of 25-year-old beach volleyball player and model Morgan Beck, before and after she was struck in the eye by a golf ball hit by her husband, legendary skier Bode Miller.

Thankfully for Beck, she will keep the eye and has been in good spirits, if her Twitter feed is an indication.

The first tweet, after the accident in San Diego, on Wednesday: "I'm not feeling so hot. Line drive to the face today with a golf ball from my darling husband. I still love (him) #ouch."

The next, a day later: "Feeling better today. Still can't see out of left eye but I am getting some feeling back in my face."