May 21st, 2012
Lars Flora stands behind a drying rack of sheefish, a popular springtime fish in Northwest Alaska, while Elvina, an Selawik eighth-grade skier in his NANANordic program, looks on. (Photo by Charlie Renfro)
While most of his cross-country skiing brethren kicked up the last bits of snow at Spring Series in Craftsbury, Vt., Lars Flora was hard at work at home in Anchorage, Alaska, crunching numbers and finalizing details of his upcoming trip.
It would have been easy if he had been the only one traveling to Northwest Alaska, but Flora had 17 volunteer coaches and two doctors to accommodate, the NANA Development Corporation to run by, and about 650 kids waiting for him in four different villages.
NANANordic took all the focus and logistical smarts the two-time Olympian could muster. Yet every morning, the program’s potential in providing youngsters with cross-country skis was what excited him most.
A couple of schoolchildren ski below Rainbow bridge in Selawik in Northwest Alaska. Without any roads in town, Selawik is mostly made up of boardwalks and bridges and built on the Selawik river. (Photo by Reese Hanneman/Engine Room Media)
For three weeks from April 9 to May 1, Flora and a crew of peers and supporters visited schools in the Northwest Arctic, about 550 miles northwest of Anchorage by air. Slightly bigger than the state of Indiana, the region has an estimated 7,000 people living in 13 villages.
Last year, Flora made it his mission to bring skiing to each town.
Similar initiatives, such as the RurAL CAP Ski Go Club program founded by Jennifer Johnston, introduced students in the Northwest to nordic skiing in the past. The program fell by the wayside a few years ago following Johnston’s election as Anchorage assemblywoman, and Flora saw a need to pick up the pieces. His program, he decided, would be even bigger and most importantly, sustainable.
“I felt [it] was a really good fit for the region and there’s no reason there can’t be ski programs up there,” Flora said in a phone interview from Anchorage. “It’s something they can [do] outside and go do something active somewhere. A lot of times, there’s no one taking them anywhere.”
Like many city-dwellings Alaskans, Flora, 34, had always dreamt about seeing “real” Alaska, that rural part of the state where natives speak Iñupiat Eskimo and live off the land in often brutally cold conditions. He made the two-stop, two-hour flight to the region’s hub in Kotzebue for the first time last fall, where he watched the community assemble for a high-school running race.
People drove up on boats and flew in on planes to see the event. Flora stood back amazed.
“Spending time up there, you learn the people are super-warm and nice,” he said. “And when there’s a sporting event or any type of event, the whole community comes together.”
Basketball was king, he said. Everybody played and followed its superstar athletes. But for some reason, skiing wasn’t ingrained in their culture. Flora wanted to change that.
“The interesting thing about it is these kids are super active,” he said. “They were just so eager to ski. Every day, the questions would be, ‘Where are we skiing today?’ We did afterschool sessions and we ran out of equipment most of the sessions. Kids would be lined up at the door pushing down the door.”
After a whirlwind winter, in which Flora started off on the World Cup circuit, placed fourth at U.S. Nationals in the 30-kilometer classic and suffered some unlucky crashes in two ski marathons, the Alaska Pacific University racer said there was nothing he looked forward to more than seeing his program, NANANordic, come to life.
Since convincing the NDC native corporation to sponsor him last spring, Flora made it his priority. He partnered with the Northwest Arctic Borough School District, rounded up influential athletes, attracted volunteer doctors and donations from one of his sponsors – the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of Alaska – and arranged to have food and transportation paid for through NMS Food Services, Alaska Airlines and Bering Air.
Flora stands behind some students ready to go skiing in Kiana in Northwest Alaska. (Photo courtesy of NANANordic)
Fischer and Rossignol combined to donate 70 sets of equipment. Flora had the whole fleet transported between the four villages they visited – Kotzebue, Kiana, Noorvik and Selawik –and eventually left 20 sets in each.
Flora skied between the towns for a total of about 135 miles. After 3 ½ weeks up there, Flora said he was a little tired.
Each week, he and a few other coaches stayed at a given school, cooking in home-ec rooms and cozying up into sleeping bags at night. By day, Flora and about five members from his loaded staff, which included U.S. national team biathletes Sara Studebaker and Zach Hall, APU skiers Reese Hanneman, Charlie Renfro, Greta Anderson and Dylan Watts, and University of Alaska Anchorage ski coach Andrew Kastning, taught 100 to 150 students per day.
“Our first session was at nine o’clock and we were coaching all day,” Flora said. “[The kids are] basically all big hitters. They had been classic skiing on no-wax skis, but no one really knew how to skate ski so it was starting from the beginning, showing them how to put bindings on, put pole straps on, really starting with the basics.”
Most of his volunteers stuck around for about six days, coaching during gym classes and after school with students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Children played games, asked questions, laughed and caught big air on skinny skis. Flora said their enthusiasm was overwhelming, and many coaches noted that children in Anchorage or other ski communities didn’t get that excited about skiing.
Next year, Flora hopes to double the amount of villages and visit eight. Ultimately he wants to reach all 13.
“I was totally unfamiliar what it was like to be up in the villages and just getting to know the logistics part of running a program [there],” he said. “The dynamics between the school district and the native corporations, the teachers and the local community, it’s been a huge learning curve. It’s been really fun.”
A Balancing Act
The amount of work involved is what kept Flora from the SuperTour Finals in Craftsbury in late March. He had to decide whether he wanted to race there or in the Norwegian Birkebeinerrennet, one of the most challenging marathons on the Worldloppet circuit. On March 17, he ended his season in Norway placing 59th despite a tough wax day.
In all, Flora completed four marathons last season. He was third in the Gatineau Loppet after a crash near the finish, sixth in the American Birkebeiner after a tangle around 40 k, and 31st in the Swiss Engadin.
Asked whether he chose the marathon route this season to prepare for trekking between villages in Northwest Alaska, Flora laughed.
“It wasn’t totally planned out,” he said. “Coming into the season, you always put the goal out there and once you commit to it, it’s like, ‘OK, you get to go to the World Cup and see what happens, right?’ I got through the first period and realized I missed some big training periods so that’s when I started thinking that the marathons were going to be my main thing. By the time I did all those marathons, I was in great shape. I had a blast.”
His desire to do more Worldloppets had been on his mind – that and what would be required up north. After their first stop in Kotzebue, Flora and Dylan Watts skied 75 miles to Kiana. They planned to cover the distance in one day, but teachers warned them otherwise.
On the Trip:
Sara Studebaker, Zach Hall (US Biathlon); Andrew Kastning (U of Alaska Anchorage); Reese Hanneman, Charlie Renfro, Greta Anderson, Dylan Watts (APU); Crystal Pitney (U of Alaska Fairbanks); Tamra Kornfield (formerly of UAF); Evelyn Dong, Katy Rehm, Rachel Samuelson, Danielle Hess (elite racers); Forest Tarbath, John Glen, Hugh Cosgrave (Service High School); Mariah Cooper (of Ojibwe band in Hayward, Wis.); Dr. Demain & Dr. Rathkopf (Asthma & Allergy Foundation of Alaska)
“You’re going out on terrain you’re not familiar with and you’re right on the Bering Strait so the weather can chance in a second and can be blowing 60 to 70 miles an hour,” Flora said. “So we got a little nervous.”
They packed a sled with food and camping and safety equipment, including a radio, and pulled the 30-40 extra pounds behind them. They split the trip into two days, skiing five hours on the first and three on the second.
After that, Flora completed a 25-mile solo ski from Kiana to Noorvik in one day, and skied with Kastning, Renfro, Hanneman and Evelyn Dong for his last journey between villages.
Along those final 35 miles, Flora said he experienced the highlight of the trip when they came upon a herd of about two thousand caribou.
“I looked at Andrew and I was like, ‘I think I’m just going to ski right up to them,’ ”Flora said. “Andrew’s like, ‘So you’re going to be that guy? They guy who just splits the whole herd?’ Right when he said that, our friend Charlie came up and skied right through. He was like, “Let’s go!’ ”
With each skier approaching at a different angle, the herd spooked and ran by Renfro, who was ready with his camera.
“He had, I don’t know, two hundred caribou running right through him,” Flora said. “It was pretty cool.”
Skiing through about 2,000 caribou on the way to Selawik in Northwest Alaska in late April. (Photo by Charlie Renfro)
A day after returning from the region, Flora said they would immediately launch into planning for next year. At this point in his career, after some 17 years of elite racing, it was exactly what he needed.
“When I would wake up, this was the stuff that got me excited,” Flora said. “I lost that excitement to get out there and train, and once you lose it, it’s hard to get back sometimes.”
Last year was essentially an evaluation period in his ski career. He said it went “OK” considering the high he came off in 2011 with two top-40 finishes at World Championships, but in the end, he lacked training. At the Teva Winter Mountain Games in February, he suffered what he called “the worst bonk of his career.”
Three months later, Flora still has a strange sensation in his fingertips. His friend, ski racer and ER doctor, Adam Swank told him to give it a few weeks and see if the effects of dehydration, altitude and cold wore off. They didn’t, and Flora said he was going to work with a physical therapist on what he thought was a pinched nerve.
“My body doesn’t respond well going up and racing at eleven thousand feet,” Flora said. “That was brutal.”
As for next season, Flora said he’s still undecided as to whether he will continue racing or pursue a career in coaching. One thing’s for sure: he’ll be back in the Northwest Arctic with skis in tow next spring.
“When I started to see how much excitement and how much fun it was to pull this off with NANANordic, it was a good sign that I needed to move on and do something else,” he said.
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May 21st, 2012
Living on Deer Lake isn’t exactly a rough existence but there are times when you have to roll up your pant legs and get your feet wet.
How else are you supposed to sweep the slime off a submerged dock?
Beginning next week, the lake will be open to water skiing and local residents are putting out a friendly appeal to the public in the hopes that people may be willing to delay any plans to hit the water and make waves for just a little bit longer.
Lake levels are unusually high for this time of year and residents are worried that heavy wake from ski boats will cause damage to some properties, such as those with bulkheads or beaches, said Curt Gordon, a lake resident.
To help make the point of just how high the water level is, he volunteered a few cool toes for a picture of him sweeping the slime from neighbor Roger Simmons’ dock.
Simmons said it’s not unusual for the water level to get high during the winter but it usually recedes by the time people hit the water for a little bit of spring-time fun in their boats.
“I’ve seen it higher than this but never this late,” Simmons said.
At one point in March, the water was rising about one inch per day. It has since begun to recede but at a much slower rate of only about two inches in the last 10 days, he said.
Simmons couldn’t say for sure what the problem is but it may be tied to an outflow pipe. He wondered if it might be clogged or is just insufficiently sized. Whatever the case, he said he hoped people would be understanding.
“It would be nice if people waited a bit longer,” he said.
Contact South Whidbey Record Reporter Justin Burnett at jburnett@whidbeynewsgroup.com.
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May 18th, 2012
Just as Ted Ligety was about to soar over the edge of a colossal cliff, his ski hit a rock jutting out of the snow.
Not enough to knock him down, yet enough to throw him off balance as he went over the side.
What happened next, well, the camera attached to Ligety’s helmet captured the stylishness of his spill: The three-time World Cup giant slalom champion from Park City frantically waving his arms in midair as he plummeted over the cliff.
The thud into the powdery snow below. The tips of his skis popping in and out of the video frame as he somersaulted down the slope.
Complete whiteness.
Finally, a gloved hand wiping the snow from the lens after he came to a rest at the feet of his friends.
Nothing hurt, though. Nothing bruised, either, and especially not his ego. See, this was a wipeout he was quite proud of, even posting it on YouTube.
“A pretty funny fall,” he said.
This spring, the 2006 Olympic gold medalist has taken his skiing to new heights and extremes.
He spent a few weeks in the mountains of Alaska filming footage for the latest Warren Miller ski movie. Time and again, he was dropped into unfamiliar terrain by a helicopter, skiing around and over obstacles, including cliffs with 40-foot drops. There was no chance to inspect a run, something Ligety would typically do before a World Cup race.
That led to a feeling he rarely experiences on skis — angst.
“It was definitely scary and outside my normal comfortable zone,” Ligety said. “But it was a really cool. I hope the film turns out well. This was definitely off the beaten path from what I normally do.”
But now it’s back to the task at hand: Growing more accustomed to new giant slalom skis in light of changes set forth by the governing body of the sport and trying to win back his giant slalom title after Marcel Hirscher of Austria ended his two-year reign.
Ligety is getting an early jump, too, training last week at Mammoth Mountain in California.
The biggest challenge at the moment is dialing in those new GS skis. To make the discipline safer, the International Ski Federation altered the hourglass shape of the skis, much to the disapproval of Ligety.
But he’s putting his beef on the back burner.
Like it or not, the new rule is just that — the new rule.
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May 18th, 2012
Lars Flora stands behind a drying rack of sheefish, a popular springtime fish in Northwest Alaska, while Elvina, an Selawik eighth-grade skier in his NANANordic program, looks on. (Photo by Charlie Renfro)
While most of his cross-country skiing brethren kicked up the last bits of snow at Spring Series in Craftsbury, Vt., Lars Flora was hard at work at home in Anchorage, Alaska, crunching numbers and finalizing details of his upcoming trip.
It would have been easy if he had been the only one traveling to Northwest Alaska, but Flora had 17 volunteer coaches and two doctors to accommodate, the NANA Development Corporation to run by, and about 650 kids waiting for him in four different villages.
NANANordic took all the focus and logistical smarts the two-time Olympian could muster. Yet every morning, the program’s potential in providing youngsters with cross-country skis was what excited him most.
A couple of schoolchildren ski below Rainbow bridge in Selawik in Northwest Alaska. Without any roads in town, Selawik is mostly made up of boardwalks and bridges and built on the Selawik river. (Photo by Reese Hanneman/Engine Room Media)
For three weeks from April 9 to May 1, Flora and a crew of peers and supporters visited schools in the Northwest Arctic, about 550 miles northwest of Anchorage by air. Slightly bigger than the state of Indiana, the region has an estimated 7,000 people living in 13 villages.
Last year, Flora made it his mission to bring skiing to each town.
Similar initiatives, such as the RurAL CAP Ski Go Club program founded by Jennifer Johnston, introduced students in the Northwest to nordic skiing in the past. The program fell by the wayside a few years ago following Johnston’s election as Anchorage assemblywoman, and Flora saw a need to pick up the pieces. His program, he decided, would be even bigger and most importantly, sustainable.
“I felt [it] was a really good fit for the region and there’s no reason there can’t be ski programs up there,” Flora said in a phone interview from Anchorage. “It’s something they can [do] outside and go do something active somewhere. A lot of times, there’s no one taking them anywhere.”
Like many city-dwellings Alaskans, Flora, 34, had always dreamt about seeing “real” Alaska, that rural part of the state where natives speak Iñupiat Eskimo and live off the land in often brutally cold conditions. He made the two-stop, two-hour flight to the region’s hub in Kotzebue for the first time last fall, where he watched the community assemble for a high-school running race.
People drove up on boats and flew in on planes to see the event. Flora stood back amazed.
“Spending time up there, you learn the people are super-warm and nice,” he said. “And when there’s a sporting event or any type of event, the whole community comes together.”
Basketball was king, he said. Everybody played and followed its superstar athletes. But for some reason, skiing wasn’t ingrained in their culture. Flora wanted to change that.
“The interesting thing about it is these kids are super active,” he said. “They were just so eager to ski. Every day, the questions would be, ‘Where are we skiing today?’ We did afterschool sessions and we ran out of equipment most of the sessions. Kids would be lined up at the door pushing down the door.”
After a whirlwind winter, in which Flora started off on the World Cup circuit, placed fourth at U.S. Nationals in the 30-kilometer classic and suffered some unlucky crashes in two ski marathons, the Alaska Pacific University racer said there was nothing he looked forward to more than seeing his program, NANANordic, come to life.
Since convincing the NDC native corporation to sponsor him last spring, Flora made it his priority. He partnered with the Northwest Arctic Borough School District, rounded up influential athletes, attracted volunteer doctors and donations from one of his sponsors – the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of Alaska – and arranged to have food and transportation paid for through NMS Food Services, Alaska Airlines and Bering Air.
Flora stands behind some students ready to go skiing in Kiana in Northwest Alaska. (Photo courtesy of NANANordic)
Fischer and Rossignol combined to donate 70 sets of equipment. Flora had the whole fleet transported between the four villages they visited – Kotzebue, Kiana, Noorvik and Selawik –and eventually left 20 sets in each.
Flora skied between the towns for a total of about 135 miles. After 3 ½ weeks up there, Flora said he was a little tired.
Each week, he and a few other coaches stayed at a given school, cooking in home-ec rooms and cozying up into sleeping bags at night. By day, Flora and about five members from his loaded staff, which included U.S. national team biathletes Sara Studebaker and Zach Hall, APU skiers Reese Hanneman, Charlie Renfro, Greta Anderson and Dylan Watts, and University of Alaska Anchorage ski coach Andrew Kastning, taught 100 to 150 students per day.
“Our first session was at nine o’clock and we were coaching all day,” Flora said. “[The kids are] basically all big hitters. They had been classic skiing on no-wax skis, but no one really knew how to skate ski so it was starting from the beginning, showing them how to put bindings on, put pole straps on, really starting with the basics.”
Most of his volunteers stuck around for about six days, coaching during gym classes and after school with students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Children played games, asked questions, laughed and caught big air on skinny skis. Flora said their enthusiasm was overwhelming, and many coaches noted that children in Anchorage or other ski communities didn’t get that excited about skiing.
Next year, Flora hopes to double the amount of villages and visit eight. Ultimately he wants to reach all 13.
“I was totally unfamiliar what it was like to be up in the villages and just getting to know the logistics part of running a program [there],” he said. “The dynamics between the school district and the native corporations, the teachers and the local community, it’s been a huge learning curve. It’s been really fun.”
A Balancing Act
The amount of work involved is what kept Flora from the SuperTour Finals in Craftsbury in late March. He had to decide whether he wanted to race there or in the Norwegian Birkebeinerrennet, one of the most challenging marathons on the Worldloppet circuit. On March 17, he ended his season in Norway placing 59th despite a tough wax day.
In all, Flora completed four marathons last season. He was third in the Gatineau Loppet after a crash near the finish, sixth in the American Birkebeiner after a tangle around 40 k, and 31st in the Swiss Engadin.
Asked whether he chose the marathon route this season to prepare for trekking between villages in Northwest Alaska, Flora laughed.
“It wasn’t totally planned out,” he said. “Coming into the season, you always put the goal out there and once you commit to it, it’s like, ‘OK, you get to go to the World Cup and see what happens, right?’ I got through the first period and realized I missed some big training periods so that’s when I started thinking that the marathons were going to be my main thing. By the time I did all those marathons, I was in great shape. I had a blast.”
His desire to do more Worldloppets had been on his mind – that and what would be required up north. After their first stop in Kotzebue, Flora and Dylan Watts skied 75 miles to Kiana. They planned to cover the distance in one day, but teachers warned them otherwise.
On the Trip:
Sara Studebaker, Zach Hall (US Biathlon); Andrew Kastning (U of Alaska Anchorage); Reese Hanneman, Charlie Renfro, Greta Anderson, Dylan Watts (APU); Crystal Pitney (U of Alaska Fairbanks); Tamra Kornfield (formerly of UAF); Evelyn Dong, Katy Rehm, Rachel Samuelson, Danielle Hess (elite racers); Forest Tarbath, John Glen, Hugh Cosgrave (Service High School); Mariah Cooper (of Ojibwe band in Hayward, Wis.); Dr. Demain & Dr. Rathkopf (Asthma & Allergy Foundation of Alaska)
“You’re going out on terrain you’re not familiar with and you’re right on the Bering Strait so the weather can chance in a second and can be blowing 60 to 70 miles an hour,” Flora said. “So we got a little nervous.”
They packed a sled with food and camping and safety equipment, including a radio, and pulled the 30-40 extra pounds behind them. They split the trip into two days, skiing five hours on the first and three on the second.
After that, Flora completed a 25-mile solo ski from Kiana to Noorvik in one day, and skied with Kastning, Renfro, Hanneman and Evelyn Dong for his last journey between villages.
Along those final 35 miles, Flora said he experienced the highlight of the trip when they came upon a herd of about two thousand caribou.
“I looked at Andrew and I was like, ‘I think I’m just going to ski right up to them,’ ”Flora said. “Andrew’s like, ‘So you’re going to be that guy? They guy who just splits the whole herd?’ Right when he said that, our friend Charlie came up and skied right through. He was like, “Let’s go!’ ”
With each skier approaching at a different angle, the herd spooked and ran by Renfro, who was ready with his camera.
“He had, I don’t know, two hundred caribou running right through him,” Flora said. “It was pretty cool.”
Skiing through about 2,000 caribou on the way to Selawik in Northwest Alaska in late April. (Photo by Charlie Renfro)
A day after returning from the region, Flora said they would immediately launch into planning for next year. At this point in his career, after some 17 years of elite racing, it was exactly what he needed.
“When I would wake up, this was the stuff that got me excited,” Flora said. “I lost that excitement to get out there and train, and once you lose it, it’s hard to get back sometimes.”
Last year was essentially an evaluation period in his ski career. He said it went “OK” considering the high he came off in 2011 with two top-40 finishes at World Championships, but in the end, he lacked training. At the Teva Winter Mountain Games in February, he suffered what he called “the worst bonk of his career.”
Three months later, Flora still has a strange sensation in his fingertips. His friend, ski racer and ER doctor, Adam Swank told him to give it a few weeks and see if the effects of dehydration, altitude and cold wore off. They didn’t, and Flora said he was going to work with a physical therapist on what he thought was a pinched nerve.
“My body doesn’t respond well going up and racing at eleven thousand feet,” Flora said. “That was brutal.”
As for next season, Flora said he’s still undecided as to whether he will continue racing or pursue a career in coaching. One thing’s for sure: he’ll be back in the Northwest Arctic with skis in tow next spring.
“When I started to see how much excitement and how much fun it was to pull this off with NANANordic, it was a good sign that I needed to move on and do something else,” he said.
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May 16th, 2012
Just as Ted Ligety was about to soar over the edge of a colossal cliff, his ski hit a rock jutting out of the snow.
Not enough to knock him down, yet enough to throw him off balance as he went over the side.
What happened next, well, the camera attached to Ligety’s helmet captured the stylishness of his spill: The three-time World Cup giant slalom champion frantically waving his arms in midair as he plummeted over the cliff.
The thud into the powdery snow below. The tips of his skis popping in and out of the video frame as he somersaulted down the slope.
Complete whiteness.
Finally, a gloved hand wiping the snow from the lens after he came to a rest at the feet of his friends.
Nothing hurt, though. Nothing bruised, either, and especially not his ego. See, this was a wipeout he was quite proud of, even posting it on YouTube.
“A pretty funny fall,” he said.
This spring, the 2006 Olympic gold medalist has taken his skiing to new heights and extremes.
He spent a few weeks in the mountains of Alaska filming footage for the latest Warren Miller ski movie. Time and again, he was dropped into unfamiliar terrain by a helicopter, skiing around and over obstacles, including cliffs with 40-foot drops. There was no chance to inspect a run, something Ligety would typically do before a World Cup race.
That led to a feeling he rarely experiences on skis – angst.
“It was definitely scary and outside my normal comfortable zone,” Ligety said. “But it was a really cool. I hope the film turns out well. This was definitely off the beaten path from what I normally do.”
But now it’s back to the task at hand: Growing more accustomed to new giant slalom skis in light of changes set forth by the governing body of the sport and trying to win back his giant slalom title after Marcel Hirscher of Austria ended his two-year reign.
Ligety is getting an early jump, too, training last week at Mammoth Mountain in California.
The biggest challenge at the moment is dialing in those new GS skis. To make the discipline safer, the International Ski Federation altered the hourglass shape of the skis, much to the disapproval of Ligety.
But he’s putting his beef on the back burner.
Like it or not, the new rule is just that – the new rule.
Frankly, the alterations actually could benefit skiers such as Ligety and Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, bigger guys who can generate more pressure on the skis.
Hirscher turned in quite a season in the giant slalom, compiling 705 points – the most in the discipline since Michael Von Gruenigen of Switzerland amassed 738 in 1996.
“Marcel had a truly unbelievable year, and I think that’s going to be hard to repeat,” the 27-year-old Ligety said. “I might be projecting this a little bit, but I think (the new skis) are going to be difficult for guys like Hirscher who use a lot of the punch out of the turn and get kind of light in between the transitions and skate part of the turn. You’re not going to have the side-cut and springiness like before.
“In a lot of ways, the skis help me.”
So does this: Squeezing in as many runs on them as possible between now and the start of the season, which is a scant five months away. That’s why he showed up at Mammoth, skiing in warm weather and on slushy snow – hey, it is May after all – that was piled high for them.
He had plenty of company, too, as a bunch of the U.S. Ski Team members slipped in some late spring training runs. Junior world champion Ryan Cochran-Siegle was in attendance and so was Steven Nyman, who’s returning to the slopes after missing last season with a torn Achilles.
On the women’s side, Stacey Cook, Leanne Smith, Mikaela Shiffrin and Laurenne Ross were among the skiers who tried out a course that was specially designed by speed coach Chip White.
The skiers had the mountain to themselves for nearly 2 1/2 hours in the morning, on terrain groomed vertically to create ridges and waves in the surface.
This was important because it’s the way the slopes will look and feel at Schladming, Austria, for the world championships in February, and again at the site for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
“We’re trying to simulate those situations to where we become better at it as a team,” said White, who was recently named the U.S. Ski Team’s top coach as well as the international Alpine coach of the year. “Hopefully, the results show because of it.”
White and his squad are coming off a sensational season in which the women won the downhill standings by a whopping 636 points over Austria. Not only that, but Lindsey Vonn recaptured the overall title and nearly reached the 2,000-point plateau, while Julia Mancuso finished in the top five.
“A tough act to follow,” White said. “We’re going to do everything we can to put pressure on the rest of the world, because we know they’re coming after us.”
As for Vonn, White thinks she could eclipse 2,000 points.
“Very achievable for someone of her caliber,” he said. “She’s proven she is No. 1 in the world and that there’s no doubt about it, either.”
Ligety is trying to get back to that level as well, where he’s No. 1 in the GS again – without a doubt.
“Marcel had an unreal season,” Ligety said. “It definitely gives me motivation.”
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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May 16th, 2012
Two Italian speed flyers have successfully completed their attempt to descent Europe’s biggest and most active volcano.
Speed flying is a combination of paragliding and skiing – they can reach speeds of up to 100 kph.
Felice Boccanegra and Jody Barratin and their team have become the first people to glide down Sicily’s Mount Etna on paraglider and a pair of skis.
The two adventurers were joined by a team of guides and expert mountaineers in spring this year on their way to the top of the volcanic mountain.
The conditions on Mount Etna have previously made the task very difficult. It peaks at 3,329 metres above sea level and has already erupted about four times since January this year.
Mr Boccanegra and Mr Barratin had to wait for the perfect time to attempt the risky summit.
Once reaching the peak of the mountain, Mr Barratin said the team felt very lucky to make it all the way up.
“Being here today is just an amazing sensation. We had a really beautiful way up and now we are here in this beautiful environment,” he said. “You can smell the smoke the smell of the volcano. You can feel it – you can listen to the noise.”
He added that despite the volatility of the volcano, he and Mr Boccanegra felt they were in safe hands.
“Touring with these friends was amazing because the skiers are really experts and we have a guide with us, so we’re pretty safe. We feel safe and the way up was absolutely beautiful and the company, too,” he said.
After reaching the summit the team then decided to set off into a high-speed descent back down to the valley.
Watch the incredible video attached to this article of their descent.
3 News / Reuters
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May 14th, 2012
Austria’s overall World Cup
champion Marcel Hirscher escaped with a few bruises and a sore
neck following a crash that destroyed his car.
While driving from Abtenau to Annaberg, in his home region
south of Salzburg, the 23-year-old was forced to swerve to avoid
a head-on collision with a car on the wrong side of the road,
the Austrian ski team said.
“Phew… 1 million guardian angels: I’m fine, don’t worry.
Just a routine check-up in hospital now,” Hirscher wrote on his
Facebook page on Monday after the accident which wrote off the
car he received shortly after clinching his first World Cup
title.
Hirscher was taken to hospital in Salzburg and received
treatment on his body and hand as well as his neck.
The crash occurred near Altenmarkt, where twice Olympic
champion Hermann Maier suffered a serious motorcycle accident
which nearly ended his career in 2001.
Three-times world champion Rudi Nierlich died in a car crash
in the same area, in St Wolfgang in May 1991.
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May 14th, 2012
“This is the richest water-skiing event in the world, so I’m sure they’re all going to bring their A-game,” Lovett said.
Lovett was joined for Monday’s announcement at the iconic downtown park by professional skiers Ryan and Breanne Dodd, along with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and city Commissioner Patty Sheehan. Freddy Krueger, who holds the world ski-jump record, performed jumps from a ramp set up not far from the Lake Eola fountain.
“Water skiing has seen nothing like this event before,” Breanne Dodd said. “Orlando is the heart of water skiing. … All of the top athletes, we spend so much time in Orlando, and it’s so exciting to actually have an event here.”
The Sept. 7-8 festival will light up the lake, featuring both daytime slalom and nighttime jumping competitions.
“You’re going to see some huge jumps,” Ryan Dodd said. “We’re going to be flying 70 mph, 230-plus feet, in the dark — over that fountain, hopefully.”
The event was timed for the same weekend as the watersports industry’s Surf Expo trade show in the Orange County Convention Center. Lovett predicted 15,000 people will attend the festival, with tickets selling for $15 each at soakedorlando.com.
While Lake Eola may seem an odd choice for a ski competition, it won’t be the first time skiers have been on the lake. Skiers were part of the celebration when the fountain was unveiled in 1957 and have been back to the 29-acre lake a few times since.
mschlueb@tribune.com or 407-420-5417
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May 12th, 2012
Johnny Lyons, left, of Vail, and Aspen native Matt Lanning, now of Breckenridge, prepare to ski during a snow squall Friday morning at the summit of Independence Pass.
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May 12th, 2012
WHISTLER, British Columbia – A Seattle man is lucky to be alive after he plunged more than 160 feet down a deep crevasse while back-country skiing Friday near Whistler Resort in British Columbia.
Nikolai Popov of Seattle was rescued a few hours after his fall – surviving the ordeal without a scratch. But rescuers said the outcome could have been a lot worse.
The drama unfolded as Popov was skiing on Decker Mountain, just northeast of Blackcomb.
“I saw that there was a little crack and started probing with a pole to see where the crevasse is,” Popov told CTV News. “Just as I was doing that, the whole thing collapsed under me and I found myself in a very nasty hole. It was quite deep.”
Popov said he was lucky that he did not fall all the way down the crevasse.
“The hole itself treated me better than it could have because there were at least another 20 meters down,” he said. “I could have gotten stuck there.”
Another person who had been skiing ahead of him noticed he had disappeared and called search and rescue. Still, it took two hours before the search and rescue team could reach the scene.
The rescue crew flew to the area in a helicopter and landed a safe distance away. They then hiked towards the crevasse – being very careful to test the stability of the snow as they approached the edge.
They used a rope-and-pulley system to hoist Popov out.
While rescuers said Popov was lucky that he was not injured, they warn that skiing alone at this time of the year is a bad idea.
“I wouldn’t recommend touring alone,” said Daren Romano with Whistler Search and Rescue. “Be prepared for self-rescue if you’re going with a party. Take some ropes with you.”
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• Read the original CTV-BC news story »
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