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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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."
Continue reading "Bode Miller's errant golf shot injures wife, Morgan Beck " »
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The only bad thing about a new skiing and snowboarding season is that it becomes only a matter of time before someone dies in an accident.
In the Lake Tahoe area, family, friends and co-workers are mourning the passing of Annalise Kjolhede, 24, an Alpine Meadows ski instructor who died after striking her head on a hidden rock while backcountry skiing in the area last Saturday.
Kjolhede, who worked at the resort teaching children, was with two friends at the time of the accident and had been wearing a helmet.
She apparently hit a bump and fell, striking her head and becoming partially buried. Her friends began CPR almost immediately and ski patrollers also tried to help.
Alpine Meadows does not open until Dec. 7 but because it's on U.S. Forest Service land, which is open to public use, skiers and snowboarders can access the area even though the resort is closed.
The resort issued a statement that reads, in part: "[Annalise's] outgoing personality, passion for working with kids and friendly nature will be remembered and missed by all of her friends and colleagues here at Squaw and Alpine. Her passing is a tragic loss for our team and community."
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You know the skiing and snowboarding season is just around the corner when Loveland Ski Resort, perennially one of the first resorts in the U.S. to open, fires up its snow-making machines.
That began early Thursday morning, thanks to bitter-cold temperatures on the upper slopes.
In the description beneath the video uploaded Thursday afternoon is this statement:
"It typically takes about two weeks for Loveland's snow-making team to cover the opening day run with an 18-inch base and tree-to-tree coverage for the first skiers and riders of the season. Loveland started making snow on October 6th last season and opened on October 14th."
More cold weather, and perhaps a few snow showers, are in the forecast over the next couple of days.
--Pete Thomas
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What seems to be a bizarre accident inside a convention center in Alaska has claimed the life of Theodore "Theo" Meiners, owner and operator of Rendezvous Heli-Guides.
Meiners, 59, died late Thursday night after a two-story fall at the Anchorage facility, while trying to ride on an escalator handrail, according to police reports.
He had been attending the International Snow Science Workshop at the Dena'ina Convention Center. Police spokeswoman Marlene Lammers said Meiners may have been drinking, according to a report in the Anchorage Daily News.
Meiners, whose Valdez-based company utilizes the pristine Chugach Mountains, had been participating in an avalanche research course before the accident.
Police are investigating and the heli-skiing community is mourning the loss of one of its own. Friends are expressing sentiments on the the Rendezvous Facebook page.
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