63 Search Results for "environmental"

• Getting Rad at the Pain McSchl Getting Rad at the Pain McSchlonkey

  • From: TetonGravityResearch
  • Description:

    
    

     

    Words and Photos By Seth Lightcap

    What does it take to win the most important ski contest in the history of the world? Superman strength might help, but a mean drunken daffy and seriously fast fruit boot skills are what take home the hardware at the PMS!

    Sunny skies and bottomless whiskey bottles delivered exactly such debaucherous short-ski talents at the 3rd Annual Pain McShlonkey Classic this past weekend. Squaw Valley went off as hundreds of contestants, hecklers and Saucer Boy fans gathered to honor the life and legend of Shane McConkey at the annual celebration.

     

    The radness kicked off Friday night at the over-the-top Shane McConkey Foundation Gala Ball. The silent auction at the Gala raised over $64,000. Foundation director Sherry McConkey was floored by the support and thrilled the foundation could continue to dream big with donation plans that support local environmental education, Make-A-Wish and other R.A.D moves (Random Awesome Deeds).

     

    

     

    “My dream is to build a grow dome at Truckee Elementary called the ‘Saucer’ that will teach children environmental and science education while they grow the food they’ll eat in the cafeteria,” said Sherry. “Make-A-Wish is true to Shane’s heart so we hope to make three kids wishes come true plus support the Truckee Pumptrack Project, Human Society and Tahoe Wildlife Society.”

    But lest you think the PMS was all purple rainbows and cuddly puppy moments, the true battle royale commenced bright and early Saturday morning with the Chinese Downhill.

     

    

     

    A chiseled collection of the best skiers in the world donned short-skis for a winner takes all race down KT-22. Man-eating moguls and sloppy skiers stood in racer’s paths to win the coveted Golden Saucer.

    Squaw Valley local Amie Engerbretson took the Golden Saucer for the ladies. Outta towner Ryland Mauck-Duff blew away all the dudes and grabbed it for the men.

    Chinese Downhill (Men)

    1. Ryland Mauck-Duff

    2. Ben Paciotti

    3. Nicolas Anderson

    Chinese Downhill (Women)

    1. Amie Engerbretson

    2. Shawna Anzures

    3. Jackie Paaso

     

    

     

    Can you feel the love for the crazy fun of skiing right here? No doubt Saucer Boy was smiling.

     

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• News: Win A Trip To Ultima Thu News: Win A Trip To Ultima Thule Lodge In AK Through Protect Our Winters

  • From: TetonGravityResearch
  • Description:

    
    
    PACIFIC PALISADES, CA –Protect Our Winters, the global climate change nonprofit and Alaska’s premier wilderness lodge, Ultima Thule, have launched the Jeremy Jones Ultima Thule Adventure, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for two to snowboard and adventure with pro snowboarder, Jeremy Jones in Alaska’s Wrangell/St. Elias mountains, hosted by the Ultima Thule Lodge.
    
    The all inclusive, four-day package includes being able to snowboard with Jeremy Jones, the star of Further, the snowboard adventure epic currently in theaters. Jones filmed some of the segments near Ultima Thule in the Wrangells and called the mountain range the “steepest, most unexplored terrain he’s ever seen.”
    
    Ultima Thule Lodge is a luxury wilderness adventure outpost located deep in the 13.2 million acre Wrangell St-Elias National Park; part of the largest protected land mass on earth. The Lodge sits 100 miles from the nearest road and is only accessible by bush plane. Remote, yet refined the Lodge was named in the “BEST PLACES TO VISIT” by National Geographic Traveler magazine.
    
    All-inclusive packages feature gourmet Alaskan fare, first-class bush lodging and highlight exclusive airplane safari adventures. The lodge also boasts a family of internationally acclaimed pilots and a small fleet of specialized bush aircraft that can land on and off the snow covered glaciers and alpine tundra.
    
    “We’re just thrilled that Ultima Thule came to us with this idea. With the stoke level of Further as high as it can be now, we’re so excited to bring it to life and offer an opportunity to the snow sports community to win this dream trip. 100% of every contribution will be directly placed towards our efforts to protect places like the Wrangells from climate change”, said Chris Steinkamp, Executive Director at Protect Our Winters.
    
    In addition to the Ultima Thule Lodge package, the winner will receive a Jones snowboard, Vans Cirro snowboard boots, Jeremy’s backcountry gear from Black Diamond Equipment, Ltd and $500 travel credit to Valdez, AK, where the adventure begins.
    
    To enter, donate $5 to Protect Our Winters at: http://www.protectourwinters.org/ultima_thule/

    
    To keep the chances of winning exciting, they are limiting the number of contributions at 5,000 total. The contest runs though February 15th, 2013.
    
    Ultima Thule Lodge: A remote paradise lies deep in the Alaskan Wilderness, accessible only by bush plane. Immersed in extreme nature, you will discover an outpost designed for adventure and enhanced by comfort, 100 miles from the nearest road. Three generations of family have called this pristine wilderness home and strive to protect and preserve it for the ones yet to come. For more information, visit: http:// www.ultimathulelodge.com & www.farfargnargnar.com

    Protect Our Winters (POW) is the environmental center point of the winter sports community, united together towards a common goal of reducing climate change's effects on our sport and mountain economies.  Founded in 2007, POW re-invests contributions in educational initiatives, activism and supporting community-based initiatives.  For more information, visit www.protectourwinters.org.  Stay in touch on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/protectourwinters.

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  • 5 months ago
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• Into The Mind Of Dave Mossop: Into The Mind Of Dave Mossop: Heel Pieces

  • From: ryandunfee
  • Description:

    
    
    “Heel Pieces” is a column by Ryan Dunfee published twice a month on TetonGravity.com. In each entry, Dunfee tackles one of the top ski news stories of the moment in an effort to provide insight behind the hype. This week, Dunfee caught up with Sherpas Cinema director Dave Mossop to learn more about the production company's much anticipated action sports film “Into The Mind.”
    
    Into The Mind Of Dave Mossop: Heel Pieces

    The skiing internet was awash last week with fans and industry figures alike all trying to outdo each-other in stating their enthusiasm for the Sherpas Cinema trailer for "Into The Mind" that features Imagineer-level visual trickery, cinematography that would make the producers of "Planet Earth" cough up a lung, and explosive action shots set to a soundtrack of electronic and tribal beats. While the combined effect sent most into a social media sharing hysteria with captions written in caps lock, this author saw only two filmmaking phenomena historically doomed to fail: getting action sports athletes (namely skiers) to reveal anything remotely insightful from their "Minds," and casting multiple sports, in this case skiing, snowboarding, surfing, and white-water kayaking, in the same film. I took Sherpas director Dave Mossop to task on how exactly he hopes to transcend boundaries a second time with "Into The Mind."
    
    Ryan Dunfee: It’s a historical fact that no skier in history since Ernest Hemingway has ever said anything remotely insightful. By going “Into The Mind(s)” of skiers, what do you hope to reveal to the world? That they are all stoked, love skiing with friends, and feel they need to work hard to get shots?
    
    Sherpas Cinema director Dave Mossop: Any real mountain person knows that skiing and snowboarding isn’t always stoke and fun with your friends.  It’s about challenge, perseverance, freezing weather, shit conditions, and a lifetime of enduring injuries, and even death.  Yes, skiing is fun, extremely fun, but it also comes with all of humanity’s many emotions.  We want to show that living a ski or snowboarding lifestyle is one of the greatest lives on Earth, and that all these emotions play a role in taking you to your ultimate potential.
    
    RD: Can you explain, mechanically, how you guys achieved those motion sickness-inducing rolling circle shots?
    
    DM: Stick, camera, tape. This is all you need. Tape camera to one end, pivot stick on other end.
    
    RD: You highlight a diverse selection of athletes skiing, surfing, snowboarding, and kayaking. Traditionally, cross-sport movies have never performed very well. How do you plan on breaking the mold this time around?
    
    DM: We'll be trying to not make it lame.

    RD: What can viewers who’ve seen All.I.Can expect to be the same or different, stylistically or otherwise, this time around?
    
    DM: We learned a lot during the making of All.I.Can., and we want to bring that knowledge to the table.  We can’t stop being who we are, so you’ll see our personalities come through as always, but we hope to evolve to a higher level of storytelling. ITM will take a slice from the avalanche safety message of The Fine Line and the environmental consciousness of All.I.Can, but those aren’t what this is about. This will be new.
    
    RD: What are you guys doing in the filming, interviewing, etc. that is going to do a better job of getting to some deeper emotional or psychological understandings that other filmmakers have been able to accomplish before? Are there other films, inside of skiing or outside, that influenced the approach to Inside The Mind?
    
    DM: Well, we’ll probably just avoid interviews entirely. Actions speak louder than words. 
    
    Our work is, of course, inspired and heavily influenced by dozens of incredible artists.  Films that pop to mind include: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malcovich, Inception, Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Baraka, Dark Side of The Lens, Nostalgia, There Will Be Blood, Stranger Than Paradise, Jacob’s Ladder. And great directors like Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, Tarantino, Ron Fricke, Stanley Kubrick, Andrei Tarkovsky, Chris Cunningham, Dziga Vertov, Wim Wenders, Wes Anderson, The Cohen Bros, etc.
    
    

    
    
    Order your copy of Into the Mind, available at http://amazon.con

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  • 5 months ago
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• News: Black Diamond Leads Grow News: Black Diamond Leads Growing Opposition To Utah SkiLink

  • From: TetonGravityResearch
  • Description:

    

    Black Diamond is at the center of growing opposition to the proposed SkiLink that would connect the upper part of the Canyons Resort in Park City to Solitude Mountain Resort in Big Cottonwood Canyon via gondola. The proposal would allow developers to bypass existing jurisdictional and environmental protections and require the United States Forest Service to sell 30 acres of public land.
    
    “What is being publicly sold as a solution to traffic is a private interest land grab of some of the most pristine and heavily used recreational public land in the Wasatch for the benefit of a single real estate developer,” says Peter Metcalf, president and CEO of Black Diamond, Inc. “SkiLink threatens our precious watershed, and shuts out the interests of the multitude of existing stakeholders involved. The industry is against SkiLink but in favor of more sustainable and true Wasatch-wide transportation solutions that benefit all ski areas and the entire community.”
    
    Over 80 of America’s and Utah’s leading outdoor and snow sports brands, along with leading local, regional and national conservation groups, have signed a petition that opposes SkiLink. National businesses and advocacy groups include Armada Skis, EMS, Gregory Mountain Products, Jones Snowboards, Patagonia, Mountain Hardwear, Petzl, POC, PrAna, Voile, Protect Our Winters, The Conversation Alliance, The Wilderness Society and Winter Wildlands Alliance. Supporting local businesses and non-profit groups include: the Alta Lodge, Friends of Alta, International Mountain Equipment (IME), Pagan Mountaineering, Save Our Canyons, Utah Rivers Council and Wasatch Touring.
    
    Salt Lake City Mayor Becker, Salt Lake County Mayor Corroon and a number of state legislators representing the impacted area and officials running for election signed the petition outlining their opposition to SkiLink as well. Additionally, the US Forest Service came out against SkiLink before the House Subcommittee on Forests, Parks and Public Lands.
    
    Carl Fisher, executive director of Save Our Canyons explains, “SkiLink has garnered national interest because the public and business leaders understand that our local recreation economy is bigger than just linking ski areas; it is about protecting the many other multiple uses of our public lands, the values people have of them, the experiences they seek and unique landscapes that foster them. Beyond this, we remain concerned about the implications to the Salt Lake City watershed and the short sighted and seasonal approach to “transportation” which resulted without public input on an issue concerning public lands. There is much irony in the fact that snow sports companies are speaking out against what is being sold to the public as a pro-snow proposition – a proposition that is definitely not for the ski community at large. SkiLink is simply a vehicle to enrich a Canadian real estate developer at the expense of all outdoor enthusiasts.”
    
    For More Click Here

     

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  • 7 months ago
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• News: Jeremy Jones, Travis Ric News: Jeremy Jones, Travis Rice, Gretchen Bleiler And More Remind You To Vote November 6

  • From: TetonGravityResearch
  • Description:

    PACIFIC PALISADES, CA - With voter turnout a major issue in the 2012 election, Protect Our Winters and the Surfrider Foundation have asked professional skiers, snowboarders and surfers to remind their respective communities to get out and vote.
    
    Eleven pro athletes such as Travis Rice, Jeremy Jones, Shea Lopez and Gretchen Bleiler have all submitted personal video clips asking people to remember to get out and vote on November 6.
    
    “Do you part to protect the environment and get and vote, because every vote counts,” professional skier Chris Davenport said. 
    
    “Climate Change is affecting our oceans … and if you don’t vote, you can’t complain,” pro surfer Torrey Meister said.
    
    “This is a critical election for the environment. It’s just so important that everyone who can vote, takes a few minutes to do it.  We spend the entire year fighting for key environmental issues and this is our opportunity to be active participants to create the change we’re seeking.  And we know that having pro athletes deliver that message can be really impactful,” Protect Our Winters Executive Director Chris Steinkamp said.
    
    POW/Surfrider’s goal is to distribute these as widely as possible throughout the action sports community between now and Election Day to remind the action sports community to get out and vote.
    
    Share these videos to remind people to get out and vote on Nov. 6.
    
    Travis Rice:

    
    Ingrid Backstrom:

     
    Gretchen Bleiler:

    
    
    
    Forrest Shearer:

    
    
    
    Ralph Backstrom:

    
    Chris Davenport:

    
    
    
    

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  • 7 months ago
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• angelcollinson

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• Will Mountain Riders Alliance Will Mountain Riders Alliance Save The Future Of Skiing?

  • From: ryandunfee
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    The Mountain Riders' Alliance, whose various efforts to launch their organization’s campaign for more affordable, authentic, and sustainable “Mountain Playgrounds” we’ve reported on at TetonGravity.com, has recently launched a crowd-funding campaign to raise money for administrative fees and business development funds for the general organization, as well as application fees for their Manitoba Mountain project on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula.  Their campaign has raised $3,000 of its $10,000 goal with 11 days left in the campaign, and has a variety of perks available for donors.
    
    The MRA recently made headlines by partnering with Maine’s Mt. Abram, which they believe will provide a blueprint for how the organization’s Mountain Playground model will work.  The small Maine hill has a laid-back atmosphere, limited infrastructure, and has placed a priority on affordability and sustainability.  Adult weekend day tickets are only $49 — $30 cheaper than down the street at Sunday River, which is owned and operated by Boyne Resorts.  And Mt. Abram recently received the Golden Eagle Award for Environmental Excellence in the Small Resort category for their commitment to sustainability, having implemented a low energy snowmaking system, a wood pellet boiler for their base lodge, and is anticipating construction of a one-acre solar project that would make them the first ski area in the country to produce more energy than they consume.  MRA hopes to share best practices with Mt. Abram and showcase the ski area as a living example of their working philosophy.
    
    MRA’s campaign is named “Support the Future of Skiing,” as the organization believes view the current corporate resort model – high on infrastructure, real estate, non-skiing amenities, and energy – is putting skiing out of reach for many people while creating an experience that is distant from the true ideals of snowsports and ultimately, unsustainable.  Besides the anti-corporate idealism, the Mountain Riders’ Alliance believes there is a real market for their vision both in the hardcore and casual skiing communities, but need funding help for initial legal, accounting, and security registration fees for their LLC, cash to develop their MRA membership model, and money to pay for land use and lease permit applications for their Manitoba Mountain project, which has the potential to offer access to 10,000 acres of Alaskan big-mountain skiing after the construction of three surface lifts.
    
    Skiers and snowboarders who believe in MRA’s mission are encouraged to visit the fundraiser website at www.indiegogo.com/SupportTheFutureOfSkiing. Donor levels from a $10 “Groomed” donation with a thank-you shout-out on MRA’s Twitter to a $2,500 “Bottomless” donation that will provide the donor with an unlimited lifetime season pass to all current and future Mountain Playgrounds, an MRA t-shirt ski strap, and sticker set.  The fundraiser ends on midnight, Sunday Sept. 9.
    
    For more, visit www.mountainridersalliance.com

    The site of Manatoba Mountain is shown above. Read more about the project and see more photos here.

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  • 9 months ago
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• News: Opponents Of SkiLink Tak News: Opponents Of SkiLink Take To The Hills To Fight Proposal

  • From: media-75233
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    A group led by Rep. Joel Briscoe, D-Salt Lake City, hikes Saturday through a meadow near where the proposed SkiLink gondola project would go through. Save Our Canyons and other environmental groups held a press conference to denounce the SkiLink proposal and tout what they contend is growing opposition to the idea. Photo by Scott Sommerdorf / The Salt Lake Tribune.
    
    Conservation groups hike to areas that would be impacted by Canyons-to-Solitude gondola.
    
    By Mike Gorrell | The Salt Lake Tribune
    
    SkiLink opponents took a hike Saturday to show what they don’t like about the idea of running a gondola from Canyons Resort in Park City to Solitude Mountain Resort in Big Cottonwood Canyon.
    
    The expedition began at the Willow Heights Trailhead, just below the Solitude parking lot where SkiLink would hook into that resort. It was there that Save Our Canyons, the Sierra Club and the Wasatch Mountain Club, with support from a couple of Democratic politicians, announced the launch of a campaign to muster growing public and business opposition to SkiLink.
    
    Then the group headed three-quarters of a mile up a dirt trail to Willow Lake, an elevation gain of 600 feet that offered views of where the gondola would enter Big Cottonwood, passing through aspen and conifer trees that would be split by its 70-foot-wide lift corridor.
    
    “Clearly, people are very disturbed, not just about the project but the process,” Save Our Canyons Executive Director Carl Fisher said, citing 1,600 signatures collected so far on petitions against the gondola, which Rep. Rob Bishop and other Republican members of Utah’s congressional delegation are pushing with federal legislation requiring the U.S. Forest Service to sell 30.3 acres of its hillside lands to Talisker Inc., the Canadian company that owns Canyons Resort.
    
    That sale would remove the Forest Service from the regulatory process overseeing SkiLink, leaving decisions up to Salt Lake and Summit counties, which govern use of private lands on both sides of the ridgeline, and Salt Lake City, which is charged with protecting the watershed in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Conservation groups want the Forest Service to have some say-so, too, because its master plan for the central Wasatch Mountains prohibits ski-resort expansion on public lands.
    
    “It’s important to protect the integrity of public lands, the heart of the watershed and open space,” said Mark Clemens, manager of the Sierra Club’s Utah chapter.
    
    The bill before Congress, added Rep. Joel Briscoe, D-Salt Lake City, “subverts the democratic process — and process matters. It sets an awful precedent for other public lands in Utah.”
    
    Contacted later, Canyons Resort Managing Director Mike Goar characterized these arguments about the process as “misinformation. This is not an end-run around the public process. The federal legislation does not approve SkiLink, by any measure.”
    
    “It just allows us to make application to the local jurisdictions,” he said, which wouldn’t be possible if the Forest Service is involved. “It makes the process local. Local citizens will have a chance to comment. Local elected officials will decide whether SkiLink goes forward.”
    
    Will McCarvill, the Wasatch Mountain Club’s conservation director, objected to the ski resorts’ continuing encroachment onto prime backcountry terrain. The resorts picked off the best slopes decades ago and make it easy for people to access out-of-bounds areas, he added. SkiLink only will enhance that.
    
    “SkiLink will enable skiers from The Canyons to expand their access to central Wasatch powder,” McCarvill said, noting that even if the gondola does not have an unloading station on the ridge, it will provide a way back to Canyons Resort from Solitude.
    
    “These vacationers will not care about impacts on our wildlife, our water or that they have taken another chunk of preferred snow terrain,” he added. “They will not give a damn about those who live here and will have to deal with these negative outcomes.”
    
    Goar doubted SkiLink would generate additional backcountry skiing competition. He said the ridgeline unloading station was removed from the plan to be sensitive to those concerns. While the gondola could provide a ride back, Goar doesn’t feel that would compel many people to ski into Big Cottonwood from Canyons’ Ninety-Nine 90 lift.
    
    “I don’t believe for a minute, because of the length of the hike, that it will introduce new people. It’s a long haul,” he said, adding that Canyons would strive to minimize the gondola’s visual impact.
    
    Fisher said the petition drive’s first signer was Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker and has received support from businesses such as Black Diamond Equipment Ltd., Voile, KP2 Architects, Western Investment LLC and John Johnson Financial Advisors. The effort also received verbal endorsements Saturday from several cyclists pedaling up Big Cottonwood past the news conference and, on the trail, from a camouflage-clad bow hunter.

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  • 9 months ago
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• News: US Forest Service Approv News: US Forest Service Approves 543-acre Terrain Expansion At Breckenridge

  • From: media-75233
  • Description:

    

    Aug. 22, 2012 — The U.S. Forest Service granted approval for a 543-acre terrain expansion in the Peak 6 area of Breckenridge Ski Resort, Vail Resorts announced Tuesday. Peak 6 will include 400 acres of lift-served terrain and 143 acres of hike-to terrain, expanding the resort's skiable acres by 23 percent. Breck expects to open the new terrain for the 2013-2014 ski season by adding a new high-speed, six person chairlift as well as a new fixed-grip chairlift for full access of the Peak 6 area.
    
    “Peak 6 will be a tremendous addition to Breckenridge, significantly improving the guest experience by adding both new terrain and lift capacity,” said Rob Katz, chairman and CEO of Vail Resorts. “In addition, the new terrain provides access to intermediate runs and high alpine bowl skiing that will be enjoyed by a wide variety of our guests.”
    
    The approval came in the form of a Record of Decision by the US Forest Service after completing a Final Environmental Impact Statement, a process which began with project scoping in 2007. The decision remains subject to appeal for 45 days.
    
    Peak 6 is the first ski terrain expansion on U.S. Forest Service land in Colorado since 2008 and the first at Breckenridge since the Peak 7 expansion in 2002.
    
    “We want to thank the Forest Service for the depth of their environmental analysis that their experts conducted, as well as the entire Breckenridge community who engaged in an extensive public process, resulting in a better project,“ Pat Campbell, Senior Vice President and COO of Breckenridge Resort, said. ”The feedback that resulted from all of the participation and engagement over the past several years was extremely valuable for the process and so a huge ‘thank you’ is due to our elected officials, employees and the entire community for the level and quality of participation.”
    
     Peak 6 Points of Interest
    
    - The expansion represents a 23% increase in the resort's skiable acres

    - The new terrain at Peak 6 is expected to be available in the 2013/2014 ski season

    - The Peak 6 project began scoping in 2007

    - Two chairlifts will access the new terrain; a high-speed six-pack and a fixed-grip chair

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  • 9 months ago
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• News: TGR And POW Partner To O News: TGR And POW Partner To Offset Carbon Footprint During Film Production

  • From: TetonGravityResearch
  • Description:

    

     

    Pacific Palisades, California – For the third year, Teton Gravity Research (TGR) and Protect Our Winters (POW) have partnered to offset the carbon footprint of TGR’s filming. This year’s offsets represent the entire carbon output from all activities emitted during the film production process, which includes global commercial travel, helicopter and snow machine use.

    A carbon offset is a reduction in emissions to compensate for carbon dioxide emissions made elsewhere. The offsets were provided by EarlyBird Power, an energy market expert that provides energy management and sustainability solutions to commercial, municipal, and industrial clients across the country. EarlyBird is the low cost provider of carbon offsets to POW and donates a percentage of all its proceeds to POW.

    TGR has supported POW since 2008, as part of its larger sustainability strategy to reduce its carbon footprint, while also supporting other environmental organizations such as Surfrider Foundation and 1% For The Planet.

    The carbon dioxide was offset by Methane Waste Avoidance at a facility in Joslin, Illinois, at which a wastewater stream has been capped, preventing the release of the emissions of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide and methane. When biomass waste accumulates, it can dissolve in the wastewater stream. This dissolution can produce the aforementioned greenhouse gasses.

    "We’re excited to continue our partnership with TGR,” says POW founder and TGR athlete Jeremy Jones. "They’re such valuable partners in our mission to unite and mobilize the winter sports community and now, with Early Bird, we can help them credibly reduce their annual carbon emissions."

     

    Click Here To Visit Protect Our Winters

    Click Here To Visit Early Bird Power

     

    Photo via business.transworld.net

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  • 9 months ago
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• News: Protect Our Winters And News: Protect Our Winters And Callan Chythlook-Sifsof Work To Save Bristol Bay

  • From: media-75233
  • Description:

    Olympic snowboarder Callan Chythlook-Sifsof is taking on one of the toughest challenges she's ever faced. A lifetime resident of Bristol Bay, Alaska, Callan is fighting to prevent the construction of the Pebble Mine, a massive copper and gold strip mine threatening the headwaters that are home to one of the largest salmon runs in the world.

    Bristol Bay supports thousands of local jobs and generates over $100 million dollars in revenue for the Alaska economy. Callan's family members are commercial fisherman in Bristol Bay, so this issue hits very close to home.

    A new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study has already confirmed that this will be an incredibly destructive project. This scientific assessment of Alaska's Bristol Bay watershed shows that without a doubt, large-scale mining would jeopardize the area's legendary salmon runs. The effects on the entire ecosystem, the local economy and Native communities would be catastrophic.

    Yet, despite that, the mining companies, with huge financial interests are mounting campaign after campaign to discredit it and move forward.

    Thankfully, under the Clean Water Act, the EPA has the authority to block destructive projects like the Pebble Mine. But the EPA needs to hear from us immediately.

    Tell EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to save Bristol Bay by banning the Pebble Mine.

    The EPA study is grounded in sound science. And it confirms what Callan and everyone in the area know: there's no way to dig a massive mine and generate billions of tons of contaminated waste and not have a dramatic impact on the environment.

    Please take a minute and send an email directly to Ms. Jackson at the EPA to help stop this mine. To make it easier, Protect Our Winters has provided a sample email and Lisa Jackson's email address below.

    To further inspire you to send this email, watch this Felt Soul video titled Red Gold about the Pebble Mine issue.

    SAMPLE EMAIL COPY

    MAIL TO: ORD.Docket@epa.gov

    MUST PLACE IN THE SUBJECT LINE: Docket # EPA-HQ-ORD-2012-0276
    
    Dear Ms. Jackson,

    Thank you for your attention to the proposed Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay Alaska.

    I am writing today to urge you to use your authority under the Clean Water Act to consider how this proposed mine will impact our nation's biggest wild salmon fishery and untouched ecosystem, the commercial fishermen and Alaska Natives who depend on it, and the local businesses who make their living off of this wild landscape in Southwestern Alaska.

    The Bristol Bay ecosystem is the cornerstone on which Alaskan Native cultures have subsisted for thousands of years. Building a mine of this scale in this location would jeopardize one of the largest salmon runs in the world which provides over $100 million in revenue to the local economy and supports thousands of Alaskan jobs.

    There are no examples of successful, long-term collection and treatment systems for mines. However, if built, Pebble Mine will produce between 2 and 10 billion tons of toxic waste that would degrade water quality downstream with virtual certainty, and there is a 98 percent likelihood of pipeline failure per 25 years of operation. So, no matter how extensive the environmental review or how comprehensive the mitigation plans may be, any short term and unsustainable financial gain is not worth the environmental damage and economic loss that will certainly take place.

    I understand that you're under pressure from global mining companies to open up this extraordinary ecosystem to large-scale mining for the sake of corporate profits. But I urge you to use your authority under the Clean Water Act to proactively protect the Bristol Bay watershed and the communities that depend on it for survival.
    
    Thank you,

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  • 10 months ago
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• News: Lib Tech EnvironMental S News: Lib Tech EnvironMental Surfboards Dang Difficult To Ding

  • From: media-75233
  • Description:

    Near Canada, USA - In a wave to mutilate the environmental and durability issues that have plagued traditional shaping practices and surfboards, Lib Tech, manufacturer of the world’s most environMENTAL snowboards, NAS, and skateboards have announced the launch of their Waterboard line. The Waterboard is a culmination of three decades spent surfing and experimenting with eco-radical watercraft by Lib Tech founder, chief surfboard designer, and composites guru, Mike Olson. Distribution of Waterboards from Lib Tech’s laboratory in Near Canada, USA, will begin in select shops on the West Coast, and will also be available online at libtechwaterboarding.com.
    
    Generated through Isotropic conFusion, the Waterboard is a homogenous gathering of 31 classified eco materials and components. They ride with the panache of a traditional polyester board, though as stated by Olson, “Every material used is completely new to surfboards. Every technique is completely unique---to any industry. It’s not only a new way of making surfboards, it’s a whole new way to make anything.”  These new environMENTALLY nicer technologies need no sandpaper, paint brushes, tape, or solvents except water. The de-classified components include:
    
    2D2D Volcanic Organic Basalt Honeycomb Technology: Lib Tech is the first to use Basalt in surfboard design. Volcanic Organic Basalt Honeycomb Technology is an incredibly strong, impact resistant layering of fibers that withstands heel kicks, has no additives, and is extremely lively underfoot. This technology is 2D2D - Dang Difficult to Ding!
    
    The Powerpop Airspring Foam Core: A lightweight foam composed of an exclusive closed-cell alloy formula that will not absorb water, has elastic qualities like a trampoline, contains up to 50% recycled content, and uses ozone friendly blowing agents. 100% of the off-cut foam produced while shaping is then recycled into new blanks. This is a new foam formula that didn't exist a year ago.
    
    LVR43 High Rebound Matrix: Instead of toxic industry-standard polyester resin or old-fashioned epoxy, Olson created LVR43 High Rebound Matrix, a chemistry that has higher elongation, extreme ding resistance, and responsive rebound.
    
    Elastomatrix Perimeter 2D2D Dampening Web: Rails are wrapped in rubberized metallic fibers to give the boards a silky smooth ride even in choppy conditions, and are also 2D2D.
    
    Lib Tech Leash Plug: It’s still just a leash plug, but it’s different. Lib Tech’s newly designed leash plug featuring an anodized 6061 T6 aircraft aluminum pin that will never rust and a super lightweight fiber-composite cup.
    
    MO BOX Fin System: To increase the adjustability of fin placement, all Waterboards feature Lib Tech’s new MO BOX fin system and come with four of Lib Tech’s new Maximum Intensity Leading Foil (M.I.L.F) fins, including a smaller trailer fin. The user has the freedom to adjust their fin to the fore or aft by 5/8th of an inch, creating a personalized fin setup for different conditions and styles of wave riding. The fin boxes are chemically and physically integrated into the board, and fit both Lib Tech’s new M.I.L.F Fin System, and the FCS fin system.
    
    Mike Olson and co-conspirator craftsman, Jeff Henderson, broke down every element of surfboard design in Lib Tech’s windowless Waterboard lab to build maximum functionality into the lineup. Ergonomic elements including grab rails (small channels on the rails) for maximum hold while duck diving and performing aerials, and a concave deck for rib comfort are standard in every Waterboard shape series; Ramp, Bowl, and Vert. These shapes were created to provide maximum eco-radicalness on the wave face and beyond: Ramp - A magically fast, short, and wide, low rocker series with a speedy thumb-tail and flipped stub-nose. A surf skate tailored to accelerate and take you over the coping in small to medium waves. This is a punk rock grovel master, air blaster, mini slasher!  Bowl - A magically fast quiver-killer in small to overhead waves, featuring a wide, speedy thumb-tail and pulled-in nose for aggressive modern performance. Medium-low rocker skates through flats sections and provides enough banana to pull through on pitching takeoffs. This is Lib Tech’s most versatile shape. Vert - A high performance design for high performance waves. Pulled nose, squared thumb-tail, increased rocker. Meant to be ridden at standard lengths and widths. Get pitted.
    
    For people who enjoy sliding sideways with art underneath their feet, Waterboards are available with the sublimated works of renown Lib Tech artists Jamie Lynn, Quincy Quigg, and Ryan Davis. For the purist, Waterboards are also available without graphics.

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• News: RAMP Sports Announces U. News: RAMP Sports Announces U.S. Production

  • From: media-75233
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    At a time when companies are moving their production to China, Taiwan, and Eastern Europe, RAMP has developed a new, more modern patent-pending manufacturing process. This new process produces a high-performance product offering complete flexibility in shape and ski design. Having total control over quality, R&D, and materials is a major development.

    Since the 1960s, skis have been molded using very large presses that are incredibly expensive and result in a process that is not clean or efficient. They also require very expensive aluminum molds carved out with a cavity for every model and every size. These molds are typically at least $6,000 a piece. These presses compress the layers against a camber plate at 4 bars of pressure, forcing the layers into un-natural shapes resulting in a very small sweet spot and loss of material benefits. With the new process RAMP has invented, the huge, old presses are avoided by using a more modern vacuum-molding system like what is used to make a composite blade for a helicopter. With vacuum molding, the pressure is equal in every direction and about 25 percent as much—the layers aren’t forced into any shape between the contact points. The camber results from the thermal expansion characteristics of each layer. This provides a much greater sweet spot and maximum material benefit. As RAMP doesn’t need to use traditional molds, this process allows for ultimate creativity in shape. This allows for incredible innovation—to be able to test and make any shape at will—instead of being stuck with molds that quickly become outdated in this fast-moving design environment. In addition, RAMP is using U.S.-made machines and U.S.-made materials such as bases, resins, sublimation materials and composites in order to support the “Made in America” attitude that has become so critical to an economic recovery and a new era of U.S. manufacturing.

    The way manufacturing migrated out of the U.S. is an interesting study. Companies took their exact same machines and processes and moved them as they were to places with cheap labor to make the same types of products at an inexpensive price. What RAMP is doing is spearheading an initiative to create a new, cleaner, more efficient process using materials that are better (e.g., a resin that uses pine by-products versus petro-chemicals, a much greener epoxy; an FSC Fully Certified Bamboo Core that is four times as hard as a normal poplar core, which provides an incredibly, solid precise feel. And yet, a core three times as expensive as what the other companies use but is so strong it eliminates the need for plastic sidewalls). By throwing out the old processes, RAMP is convinced U.S. companies can produce and thrive in America.

    It is a fact that most of the best selling models of skis and snowboards in the U.S. are made in China by companies such as K2 and Burton, brands that used to produce in America but now pay people—who have never skied or even seen snow—$200/month. RAMP is not willing to accept this and is excited to use the new technological advances it developed to offset this cheap labor and lack of environmental responsibility. For this season, RAMP will produce all adult skis, the following season snowboards as well.

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• Skiing South America: Just Go Skiing South America: Just Go

  • From: ryandunfee
  • Description:

    Andres Labbozzetta boosts in the Cerro Catedral trees. Photo by Ryan Dunfee.

    It’s that time of year again.  It’s when we watch the local snowpack fade away, taking with it the memories of the season.  Lucky kids start flocking to glacier camps at Mount Hood and Whistler.  And webcams start showing evidence of the beginning of the South American ski season, causing the unsatisfied among us to begin researching credit cards with airmiles rewards and to start looking at our calendars and bank accounts.  It’s a scenario I’ve found myself summer after summer, and with some good luck, was one I was finally able to act on.  At random, on a surf check at a frozen New Hampshire beach, I met the owners of what was then South America Snow Sessions, and within three days had a sales job and my sights set on Argentina.
    
    An unhealthy amount of exuberance led me to believe I could ski every single month of that year despite being based out of New England, and come June I found myself at the base of Tuckerman’s Ravine with a broken ankle, grimacing in pain at the bottom of the last landing strip of snow in the pouring rain.  I still made the trip to our backcountry ski camp in Bariloche, Argentina, but the ankle boot never came off during that first trip, and I was left manning the office and watching the flakes pile up outside.
    
    The year after that and after some internal troubles, a new company under the name of SASS Global Travel was formed, I found myself running all the marketing, and most importantly, I was back on the plane down south with two healthy ankles and a long hit list.  The skiing at Cerro Catedral, our home base, was everything I’d dreamed about.  Perfectly spaced trees with nary a track, even by mid-afternoon, allowed for fall-line GS turns and mountain bike lines over and off of fallen trees.  Alpine bowls accessed from a quick hike that kept most of the locals and all the Brazilians at bay offered easy access to as much powder and as many drops as you wanted.  One day we spent eight hours skiing and traversing the entire Van Titter valley behind the resort.  We saw a total of three other people.  And the partying, women, and red meat are reasons to go in and of themselves.

    The Bariloche backcountry. Photo by Ryan Dunfee.
    
    But this year, in a move that will seem apocryphal to any of you, I turned down a free trip back to Argentina.  I could be looking forward to another season of unreal terrain with amazing friends and life-changing experiences, but I chose not to go.  As that dream had been realized, my mind turned to focus on the next life goal, which is to use what talents I have to advance the cause of environmental and social sustainability, whatever that means.  I told myself that I could go on as many South American adventures as I wanted to, but they wouldn’t get me much closer to realizing a more fundamental, life-long goal I knew I’d need to satisfy to be truly happy with my life.
    
    But YOU SHOULD GO. Whether it’s with SGT, which I recommend, or not, the South American skiing experience is like no other.  It’s short.  It’s punchy and can go from shit, to good, to great, to shit, faster than you can order a Quilmes.  You cannot see a storm on the horizon for a week, but get fresh tracks everyday thanks to the Andes’ steady winds.  It can snow every three days for a month.  You can be grinning staring at all the blower out of the gondola window, and then saying your last prayers as gale-force winds blow your thirty-year-old pod with a partly open door sideways.  It can snow four feet at the base, and the local government might only have one snowplow.  You can shred pow all day, and then walk into a Reef bikini contest at the base area with free Coronas. You will feel like a true explorer like you’ve never felt on snow, as you’ll very likely be the only ones hiking off the trail with a backcountry kit.  Or powder skis.  Above all, it will in no way resemble any other experience you’ve had on snow.
    
    I’ve had my amazing experiences and memories in South America that will last a lifetime, and I don’t doubt I’ll be back for more at some point down the road.  But for both of our sakes, please go south this summer.  Just go.  You can thank me in the fall.

    You could be shredding here in a couple of months. La Laguna,  Cerro Catedral, Argentina. Photo by Ryan Dunfee.

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• Stevens Pass Mountain Resort F Stevens Pass Mountain Resort First In WA To Win National Environmental Award

  • From: media-75233
  • Description:

    

    In its 18 year history, the ski industry’s most prestigious award has never been won by a Washington resort.

    Leavenworth, WA – The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) honored Stevens Pass Mountain Resort with the 2012 Golden Eagle Award for Environmental Excellence. Stevens Pass took top environmental honors in the mid-sized resort category (200,000 to 500,000 skier visits) for its energy conservation and greenhouse gas (GHG)reduction efforts. An Oregon resort won the award in 1994 and is the only other PNW winner.
    
    “Our company-wide focus on sustainability includes many progressive programs, and we are especially pleased to receive this national acknowledgement,” said Ross Freeman, Environment & Sustainability Manager for Stevens Pass.
    
    Energy conservation programs at Stevens Pass include simple measures such as upgraded lighting, occupancy sensors, timers, and improved operational protocols, as well as more complex projects such as a comprehensive third-party energy audit, building equipment retrofits, and solar power installations.
    
    Greenhouse gas reduction efforts include extensive food waste compost programs, tracking of fuel consumption for all vehicles and snow machinery, no-idling policies, the purchase of cleaner engines (e.g. 4-stroke snowmobiles; low-emissions snowcats and front loaders), electric vehicles, and investment in employee transit. Last year the resort completed the installation of two public electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, the nation’s first to be located in a mountain pass environment, and at the time the only units located at any ski resort.
    
    Many other environmental projects are also underway, such as on-slope recycling, preferential purchasing of local food ingredients, and active surplus property/re-use procedures.
    
    “We are always looking for ways to reduce our impacts, save money through efficiency, and do the right thing for the mountain environment for years to come,” said Freeman.
    
    In addition to all its onsite GHG programs, for the past five years Stevens Pass has also chosen to offset a full 100 percent of its electricity and propane consumption through renewable energy credits and carbon offsets from non-polluting windpower. By making this investment to support clean energy for everyone, the resort has funded 21,289,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of windpower, and prevented the emission of 16,182 tons of CO2, or the equivalent of taking 2,878 cars off the road for a year.
    
    Stevens Pass believes it has a responsibility to the environment and is one of the few resorts nationwide with full time environmental staff.
    
    “We know that combating global warming is critical for the future of our entire industry, and we seek to lead resorts across the PNW by example,” said Freeman.
    
    The NSAA’s Golden Eagle award comes on the heels of another notable award from the Washington State Recycling Association, which recently named Stevens Pass as Recycler of the Year – a category won last year by the Seattle Mariners baseball team.
    Last December, Stevens Pass was thrilled to receive a national top ten ranking, and the highest score in the PNW, from the Ski Area Citizens’ Coalition annual Report Card, which uses public records and extensive surveys to rank the environmental practices of Western ski resorts.

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• Grand Targhee Resort Awards En Grand Targhee Resort Awards Environmental Grants To Teton Valley Non-Profits

  • From: media-75233
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    Targhee’s Protect Our Winters Foundation Awards a Total of $5,500

    (Alta, WY – April 24, 2012)  Grand Targhee Resort is proud to announce the granting of over $5,500 to Teton Valley non-profits for environmental projects benefitting the local community. The Targhee Protect Our Winters (POW) Foundation awarded four local non-profits funds for projects ranging from Teton River education to Jedediah Smith Wilderness trail maintenance.

    The Targhee POW Foundation collects donations throughout the year from employees who generously donate a specified amount from each paycheck. These donations are matched 100% by the Resort. New this year was an Employee Choice, with that recognition going to Teton Valley Trails and Pathways for their project maintaining and upgrading trails in the Jedediah Smith Wilderness. “Employees not only donated to POW this year, but also had the opportunity to vote for their favorite project to receive their payroll deduction donations”, explained Brigid Sinram, Environmental Programs Manager at the resort. “Grand Targhee employees chose TVTAP’s project as their favorite. Many employees mentioned their use of TVTAP Nordic trails and their love of our local hiking and biking trails as their reason for choosing TVTAP.”

    The Foundation’s grant selection committee selects recipients that meet the intent of foundation’s mission: to enhance and protect the environmental quality of Teton Valley through projects that protect ecosystems, promote environmental education and foster community stewardship of natural resources. The committee selected the following grants for funding:

    Friends of the Teton River                  $1500

    FTR will increase awareness and support for conservation of land and water resources along the Teton River by creating a natural resource guidebook and providing river user trainings. FTR will design and publish a waterproof Teton River conservation map and host outreach events to disseminate information and maps. This conservation map will educate river users about land conservation easements and river restoration projects, and will highlight efforts to conserve Yellowstone cutthroat trout and other riparian species.
     
    Teton Valley Community Recycling  $1100

    TVCR will be focusing on outreach on reduction with presentations in schools to engage school children in rethinking consumption and disposal. TVCR will launch a program to mentor Teton valley youth in the creation of short waste reduction films and host a community event with a showing of the documentary, “Bag It”, which will be accompanied by these short student films. While films are the highlight of the event, TVCR will also provide educational activities and tools for waste reduction.
     
    Teton Regional Land Trust                 $1500

    TRLT will provide educational opportunities for the public about sandhill cranes and complete annual crane surveys in the Teton Valley. These public education forums and species monitoring will assist Teton Regional Land Trust’s efforts to protect priority sandhill crane habitat. TRLT will host “a night with sandhill cranes” for the community and work with area biologists and volunteers to monitor sandhill crane population numbers and document habitat utilization during fall migration. TRLT works with private landowners and federal and state agency partners to enhance and restore habitats that benefit sandhill cranes.
     
    Teton Valley Trails and Pathways:     $1500

    TVTAP’s work accomplished this summer will help to assure that visitors to the Jedediah Smith Wilderness will be greeted with trails that are sustainable, protect valuable vegetation and eco systems, and have campsites that do not impact flora and fauna.

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• Heli-Accessed Ski Touring Camp Heli-Accessed Ski Touring Camp Opens Up New Chugach Terrain

  • From: SamPetri
  • Description:

    Day breaks on the Points North touring camp in the Chugach Mountains near Cordova, Alaska.

    “In the end, to ski is to travel fast and free — free over untouched snow country. To be bound to one slope, even one mountain, by a lift may be convenient but it robs us of the greatest pleasure that skiing can give, that is to travel through the wide wintery country; to follow the lure of peaks which tempt on the horizon and to be alone for a few days or even hours in clear, mysterious surroundings.”
    
    — Johann Wolfgang "Hans" Gmoser, Helicopter-Skiing Pioneer
    
    For a month of the year, ski-guides Brennan Lagasse and Jeff Dostie live in a deluxe ski-camp in the sky. From mid-March to mid-April, the two Tahoe-based backcountry professionals head to Cordova, Alaska, to run Points North Heli-Adventures’ new helicopter-accessed ski-touring base camp — the first of its kind in the Chugach Mountains. A dream of the late Kip Garre, Points North owners Kevin Quinn and Jessica Sobolowski-Quinn obtained the permit last winter to start the 5-star winter camp and opened it to the public March 18, 2012. Now Lagasse and Dostie are the gatekeepers of the ski touring paradise.

    The vital supplies of touring camp.

    Located on a border of the company’s heli tenure, Points North now drops backcountry skiers and snowboarders at the camp in the Chugach for a week to access an area seldom traveled by humans. Opportunities for first ascents and descents abound, and the quiet, remote winter camp provides a serene, non-motorized, less expensive, yet more valuable skiing experience in a mountain range notorious for high-priced heli-skiing operations. In early April, TetonGravity.com traveled to Cordova to check out Points North’s set up. It was so epic, we stayed for 10 consecutive days.

    Mark Keim rips perfect Chugach velvet in the back bowls near the Points North touring camp.

    Situated at 3,500 feet above the Rude River, in the right conditions you can ride that vertical to the valley floor, right out the front door of your heated Arctic Oven tent, which also has electricity thanks to a generator. If the snow is not looking right on that aspect, a 40-minute tour takes you to the top of a ridge where you can view Cordova Peak and Cordova Glacier, then drop about 2,500 vertical-feet of wide-open north facing velvet powder. On lazy days, you can lap this face until you feel like touring home to crack one of the 130-plus craft beers you and your crew flew out for the week. Next year, maybe consider bringing a keg.

    Jeremy Frumkin makes the first descent of Tweezer, an atypical Alaskan line.

    The classic Alaskan spines of Dan O's are accessible from the Points North touring camp.
    

    Stepping it up, you can tour deep — for miles — using low-angle glaciers to warp to other valleys, kind of like a moving sidewalk at the airport. Classic AK ramps, obscure couloirs and delicious, terrifying spine walls toy with your curiosity. What’s around the next corner? How far can we really go? Has anyone skied that? No, they haven’t. But you can. And you do. The mountains are yours. There is no stress — just you, your skis and your friends in freaking Candy Land.

    A crew skins their way up from the Simpson Glacier after descending the prominent ski line in the distance named Shakedown Street.

    Like any ski trip to the Chugach, you are at the mercy of the weather. When it’s snowing, you can’t ski. There are no trees for definition and the vertigo is vicious. So you hunker down and wait for it to go blue. This isn’t so bad when you’ve been touring harder than you have all winter for three days straight.  Don’t forget, you have a generator to power mini speakers, so you can pump the Grateful Dead on blast while you talk about environmental sustainability with Brennan Lagasse — who teaches Environmental Science at Sierra Nevada College — while 24 inches of snow stacks up outside. Or, you know, you might want to fire up the DVD player and watch Talladega Nights or Caddy Shack for kicks. It’s up to you. Meanwhile, Jeff Dostie, who used to work as a sous chef, will be cooking up something hearty and delicious: moose steaks from Cordova, linguini with meatballs, Copper River salmon, tri-tip steak, lasagna, chicken stir-fry, a triple pork stacker sandwich with cheese. Let the sustainability debate begin.

    Guide and chef Jeff Dostie serves up steaming lasagna at camp following a long day of ski touring in the Chugach mountains.

    With a vibe somewhere between skiing the Haute Route and being on military rec leave, the scene at Points North’s touring camp is classic AK. You’re burning diesel and propane to stay comfy at camp, but you’re going long, skiing hard and discovering untouched mountains with good friends using human power. The helicopter simply drops you off and picks you up. At a price of what two days of helicopter skiing would cost, you’re out in the mountains for a week, having a decidedly different Chugach skiing experience.

    
    A 90 second clip of an after-dinner jam at Points North Touring Camp.

    Points North has plans to set up as many as four of these ski-touring camps along its heli tenure border in hopes to open up even more terrain to skiers and snowboarders. This would also allow for groups to travel through the Chugach from “hut to hut” – just like they do in the Alps. The Chugach Mountains hold some of the most perfect ski slopes in the world. Points North’s ski touring program makes this terrain all that more attainable.

    Mountaineering partners and Points North ski touring guides Brennan Lagasse and Jeff Dostie.

    For more, visit the Points North website.

    All photos by David Stubbs.

    A Points North helicopter flies over the Chugach en route to Cordova after picking up a crew at touring camp.

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• Jumbo Glacier To Be British Co Jumbo Glacier To Be British Columbia's Newest Ski Resort

  • From: brigidmander
  • Description:

    Words by Brigid Mander.

    Photos courtesy of Ktunaxa Nation.

    Twenty-one years after the initial proposal, the provincial government of British Columbia has given its approval to develop Jumbo Glacier into a year-round ski area. The site is located about 55 km west of Invermere, in the Purcell Mountains of British Columbia. 

    The decision, made public on March 20, 2012, met with continued opposition by the Ktunaxa Nation and the New Democratic political party, as well as environmental groups. Supporters in the government and business community expressed relief at the long-delayed decision.

    The future site of Jumbo Glacier Resort.

    Once complete, the glacier would have 23 lifts and 6,000 housing units, at an estimated cost of about $950 million dollars. The project is expected to generate about 750 permanent jobs. The group behind the idea, Jumbo Glacier Resorts Ltd. (JGR), is currently working to raise a first round of investor funding in light of the government approval.

    “After more than 20 years of comprehensive and exhaustive reviews, it was time to make a decision,” said Steve Thomson, Minister of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations in British Columbia in a government release. The government met with both proponents and opponents before its decision. 

    Ktunaxa territory map displaying the location of the to be ski resort.

    JGR faces an uphill battle despite government approval. The group has yet to secure funding and opposition shows no sign of abatement.

    The Ktunaxa nation contends the land has been considered a sacred area for thousands of years. Ktunaxa Nation Chair Kathryn Teneese told TGR that “[The Ktunaxa] continue to oppose the project and permanent structures in that area,” and will seek accountability from the proponents. “We will be following up. This is definitely not a closed door from our point of view,” said Teneese. 

    One of many scenic ridges in Jumbo Valley.

    According to Ktunaxa legend, the area is the home of the grizzly bear spirit, and the nation-along with environmental groups-fears the impact a year round resort would have on the grizzlies and other species that live in the area.

    According to the CBC, a 2008 poll found that the project lacked public support but that proponents welcomed jobs and tourists that Jumbo Glacier Resort would bring to the area. Former NHL star and local resident Scott Neidemayer has given the opposition fight greater visibility, after voicing strong opposition to the project and aligning with the Ktunaxa nation.

    A closer look at the Jumbo Glacier Resort site.

    Norm MacDonald, the NDP representative for the Columbia Valley – Revelstoke in the BC Legislature, stated in a legislative session on March 27th that local opposition overall to the environmental impacts on the Jumbo wilderness ran as high as 91%.

    Jumbo Glacier was first identified as a possible ski resort in a study commissioned to develop an ideal, year-round ski area in North America in 1990. The location, access, climate, prior use and presence of glaciers were cited as ideal factors for development, according to Pheidias Project Management Corporation, the Canadian company that conducted the study.

    Jumbo Valley.

    The reaction from the Canadian ski industry has been mixed. Stagnant skier visit numbers point to a redistribution of ski tourist dollars in British Columbia and not overall industry growth. 

    "In terms of destination resorts, resorts that attract tourists themselves, which have accommodation on mountain, there are 13 in the province of British Columbia. There is significant excess capacity and I think some people at these resorts would question increasing that capacity," said David Lynn, President and CEO of the Canada West Ski Areas Association. 

    Ski tourers at Jumbo Glacier will soon be joined by tourists on newly lift accessed terrain.

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• Most Important Event In Ski Hi Most Important Event In Ski History: The Pain McShlonkey Classic

  • From: sethlightcap
  • Description:

    

    A chiseled collection of some of the world’s top skiers descended on Squaw Valley for the 2nd Annual Pain McShlonkey Classic last weekend. The off-the-wall event, billed as “the greatest event in ski history,” was a celebration of the legendary antics of the late Shane McConkey, the pioneering freeskier who passed away three years ago in a ski-BASE accident in Italy. PMS participants and party people reveled in Shane’s legacy for a binge weekend featuring a snowlerblade Chinese downhill, a snowlerblade extreme comp and a pair of all-time parties.
    
    The event kicked off with a benefit bash on Friday night at which dozens of Shane’s close friends and supporters showed their love for his legacy at a silent auction. The auction raised $30,000 for the Shane McConkey Foundation, which will in turn donate the money to the Make-A-Wish foundation and the Truckee Tahoe Unified School District for the purpose of putting TTUSD schools on a path toward sustainability and environmental responsibility.
    
    There was no rest for the wicked Saturday morning, however. The action cranked to 11 bright and early with the KT-22 Chinese Downhill. Forty racers donned short-skis and McConkey inspired costumes for a high-speed tumble down the face of KT-22 in a race to claim the Golden Saucer trophy. Sketchy snow conditions from start to finish made for a true battle royale as competitors flailed their way around every gate, often taking each other out in the process.
    
    The hilarious affair continued with the Extreme Small Mountain competition, which pitted man and woman against the mountain for one epic run on short-skis. Competitors went above and beyond in an effort to impress the judges with their creative radness. Some opted to huck cliffs into snow conditions they wouldn’t have considered on regular length skis, while others mixed in improbable technical maneuvers. No doubt the show of short-ski skill cemented the billing of “greatest ski comp ever.” The “Saucer Boy” would have been highly impressed.
    
    “The PMS epitomizes what Shane was all about,” said Men’s Chinese Downhill winner Daron Rahlves. ”It’s a lot of fun for us to come out and live with the same spirit Shane did, get goofy and throw down with buddies for pride that’s on the line. Everybody is having fun for the love of the sport of skiing and not taking it too seriously. Shane instilled that in all of us.”
    
    Rahlves summed up the vibe right, but he was a bit off the mark as far as not taking the PMS seriously. There were dead serious Squaw Valley shenanigans on display all weekend. Check out these pics and decide for yourself.

    - Words and Photos by Seth Lightcap

    

    The crunchy bumps of the Chinese downhill course took no prisoners. If you didn’t keep your edge game tight you were on your ass in an instant. Note the guy in the top right corner of the image with World Cup worthy form — perfectly balanced on one ski. That’s local sandbagger Rahlves, of course. Surprise, surprise, Rahlves came from behind to win the race and take home the coveted Golden Saucer trophy. “This is my new claim to fame,” exclaimed Rahlves after the race. “The saucer is gonna hang on my mantle next to all the Kitzbuhel trophies.” U.S. Olympic mogul star Shelly Robertson took the Chinese downhill title for the women.

    

    Dozens of radical skiers came out to battle for bragging rights, laugh about Shane’s legacy and show their support for the work of Shane’s wife Sherry (bottom row, far left) and the Shane McConkey Foundation.
    
    

    Channeling the spirit of Saucer Boy meant everyday ski attire was out of the question. Pain McShlonkey competitors came dressed to impress.
    
    

    After a bit of marinating post-Chinese downhill, the Extreme Small Mountain Competition got underway in the Enchanted Forest off KT-22. Each contestant got one run down the steep and rocky bowl to impress the esteemed panel of judges, including Sherry McConkey. You can’t even imagine the competitive intensity swirling in the heads of these athletes as they waited for their turn to drop.
    
    

    And this is what the Extreme Small Mountain comp was all about...getting rad on short skis! Bad-ass snowlerbladers dropped into the cliff bands of the Enchanted Forest and laid down lines they thought Shane would of done.
    
    

    Firm conditions made stomping steep airs a fantasy. Likewise, Brant Moles sent the spread eagle, then splatted.  
    
    

    Some serious losers needed ropes to scale down the Tombstone cliff, but not second loser Kristian Geissler. Geissler hucked it and grabbed third place for the feat.
    
    

    Big airs wooed the judges but there was no denying who set the high mark for micro-mountain technical radness. Kyle O’Neal casually fruitbooted over to an anchor he had stashed above the infamous ‘Ice Goddess’ cliff and proceeded to rappel down the 30 foot face to a low ledge. O’Neal then leapt from the ledge in perfect speedflying form, bounced off the landing and brought around two tucked somersaults before popping back up on his feet.
    
    

    The extra-extreme day deserved a podium bro-hug for Extreme Small Mountain champion Kyle O’Neal, Greg Lindsey (2nd) and Kristian Geissler (3rd). 2012 Red Bull Cold Rush champ Rachel Burks added an even more prestigious win to her winter taking home the ESM title for the women.
    
    

    You’re damn right there were man-eating former and current women’s extreme champs battling for Pain McShlonkey glory! Remember, this was one of the greatest ski contests ever known to man or womankind. If you think your pants are holding what it takes to win the Golden Saucer next year, don’t miss the PMS!

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• brennanlagasse

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