A legendary combination of professional snowboarders Danny Kass and the Dingo with hip-hop artists The Game and Lil’ Jon made the Grenade Games 9 an epic snowboarding extravaganza, blowing up Mammoth Mountain Resort to a whole new level with street cred. Homies Danny Kass and The Game represented the Grenade Games, snowboarding in various competitions including the Chinese Downhill Race. Hundreds of pro athletes met at the top of chair 23 to bomb down mogul city in a race to Jamaica (the winner scoring a roundtrip flight to warmer climates).

Since 2006, with the help of Danny Kass, The Game has been hitting the slopes with his crew. 60 Days of Fitness was psyched off the full body workout, snowboarding all weekend long. Check out The Ski Channel exclusive clip of what went down at 11,000 ft at Mammoth Unbound.

Source: theskichannel

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When I was in seventh grade, our church youth group went on a white-water canoeing expedition for Spring Break. We drove up river, paired up in canoes, and then started down the river. Most of us had never done this before, but we all seemed to be doing well. Until the rain started. Within a few hours, the river had risen several feet and the rain was still coming down hard. Most of the group reached the camp where we were supposed to meet, but several were still unaccounted for. As the waters continued to rise, a few of our more experienced canoers got back in their canoes and headed up-river to find our missing people. We all knew that setting out, canoeing up-river with the water rising, was not safe. But teenagers were missing in the storm and someone had to go save them. So, even though the men were scared and we were scared for them, they headed out because someone had to save those teenagers lost on the rising river.

Looking at Acts chapter 9, I was reminded of that Spring Break trip by the reaction of Ananias of Damascus. Saul of Tarsus, the nemesis of the early church had been sent to Damascus to arrest and confine followers of Jesus. Without telling Ananias that Jesus had appeared to Saul on the road into town, Jesus appeared to Ananias, telling him to go find Saul and heal his blindness. Oh, and Saul already knew he was coming.  "But Lord," Ananias exclaimed, "I've heard people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem! And he is authorized by the leading priests to arrest everyone who calls upon your name"(Acts 9:13-14, NLT).  With some pretty good justification, Ananias was scared to death of walking right into Saul's hands.  But going to Saul was an important task. Saul needed someone to open his eyes, both literally and figuratively. And so, even though it scared him to death, Ananias went.

We understand the urgency of saving people who are in danger, of sending rescuers into burning buildings to save children from fires and of searching for teenagers lost on raging rivers when the water is rising. We understand that urgency and we commit ourselves to action because, even though we might be scared, something has to be done. But far too often, we fail to apply that same urgency and commitment to action to reaching the lost in spite of the fact that the consequences can be even more significant.

Every day we see people living without hope, never living out the potential with which they were designed to live in Christ. We see people who are either casually strolling or running at full speed down the road to Hell, people in desperate need of forgiveness and purpose. Yes, the idea of sharing the Gospel with them may be a little scary, but we wouldn't let fear stop us if there were children drowning in a river or standing in front of an oncoming car. Why would we allow fear to keep us from sharing the Gospel with people in need when the consequences can be even more profound? Do we hold back simply because the danger doesn't seem as immediate?

Source: sticklersmusings

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There is nothing quite like the exhilaration of skydiving — and students at the University of Cincinnati are taking advantage of it. The UC Skydiving Club — a small group re-founded in 2008 — is dedicated to helping students experience the thrill while improving safety with training and education. The club has a rocky history, as it struggled to have enough members to carry out operation in previous years. “It’s exciting and it’s new, and it’s very safe too,” said Whitnie Wright, a second-year economics student and UC Skydiving Club president for the 2013-2014 academic year.  “You can’t even get together a group of words that describes it. It’s addicting,” Wright said.  

The group is open to all students regardless of skydiving experience.  Members and coaches in the club are more than willing to provide instructional and financial assistance, Wright said. Members enjoy jumping together at Start Skydiving in Middletown, Ohio. “It’s a really great group of people,” Wright said. “We all face our fears together basically, and that’s what makes us so close.”The club gives members the opportunity to become engaged and informed about skydiving before choosing to take a jump on their own.

Each year, active members of the UC Skydiving Club visit iFLY Indoor Skydiving in Orlando, Fla. Indoor skydiving creates realistic free-fall conditions with a vertical wind tunnel. No jump or parachute is required and the wind tunnel creates a wall-to-wall cushion of air that participants float on. “The tunnel is what really got me interested in [skydiving],” Wright said.  “If people are even thinking about [skydiving], iFLY is a great way to see how everything works.  Everyone who is interested should definitely go to the tunnel with us.”

The group also takes a weeklong trip every winter. Members took multiple jumps a day with skydivers from all over the world during the club’s most recent trip to Sebastian, Fla. The location of the next trip is to be determined. UC Skydiving Club generally meets twice a month to discuss objectives and plan events.  The club offers a free event that teaches students how to properly pack parachutes, which is a required skill for students hoping to obtain a skydiving license.  

Members hosted a showing of the documentary “Pink Skies” — a film about the empowerment of women and overcoming obstacles as athletes and human beings — in November 2012 to raise money and awareness for breast cancer.  The club will continue to host the fundraiser in the future, Wright said. Wright encourages any student interested in skydiving to become a part of the UC Skydiving Club. The group provides an opportunity to meet people with similar interests and become involved on campus, which can be particularly appealing to new students, Wright said. “Freshman year, it’s hard to adjust, and it’s nice to have a strong group who supports you and has fun with you,” Wright said.  “It’s like a giant family.  It’s always good to have new faces.”

Source: newsrecord

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The issue of water skiing is making waves in Lake Elmo. The city council is poised to reduce the hours for water skiing on its lakes -- after a unanimous vote April 16 to expand those hours. In that confrontational meeting, the council voted to allow power boats and water skiing from sunrise to sunset. But after a public outcry, the council seems likely to trim water skiing by three hours a day -- allowing it from 9 a.m. to sunset.

That's not enough for the dozens of residents who never wanted the hours changed in the first place. They favored leaving the restrictions as they were last summer -- permitting power boats only from noon to sunset. "Shame on the city council," said Jill Lundgren, who lives on Lake Olson. "This is a very hot issue, and it will not rest."City administrator Dean Zuleger said council members are not bowing to public pressure and are not necessarily changing their minds.

"It is too cavalier to say that. They are weighing other information they didn't have before," he said. "The city council is making sure we do the due diligence based on facts. We are looking at the whole issue."For decades, power boating had been permitted on lakes Olson, DeMontreville and Elmo from noon to sunset. The permitted hours were longer on Lake Jane -- from 9 a.m. to sunset. The April 16 vote extended the hours on Olson, DeMontreville and Jane from sunrise to sunset. It did not change the noon-to-sunset hours for Lake Elmo.

But as soon as that vote was taken, the public erupted. At the meeting, the standing-room-only crowd strongly favored leaving the rules alone. Of the 67 people who spoke at the meeting, only five supported the expanded hours, according to Roger Johnson, president of the Lake DeMontreville/Olson Lakeshore Homeowners Association.

Several water skiing opponents said they were mystified by the council's unanimous vote against them. In particular, they targeted council member Justin Bloyer, who sponsored the rule change along with council member Nicole Park.

Bloyer, the most outspoken supporter of expanded power-boat hours, lives on Lake Jane and likes to water ski. He argue that property owners who live on lakes have the right to make the most of their property. Bloyer said that he has spent weeks informally surveying property owners and that about half of them favor the expanded hours. It only makes sense, he said, to maximize public use of a public asset.

He said he tells homeowners: "You are living on a recreational lake, not an environmental lake."But Johnson doesn't see it that way. "A compromise has been in place for 30 years between the wake and the no-wake people. Now we have one guy on the city council causing all the trouble," he said. "Someone who wants to water ski is ignoring the rights of everyone else. The people have spoken. They have told the council what they want."

Supporters of expanded water skiing have said that adding hours would improve property values, because lakefront homes would sell for more if the owners were able to get more use out of their boats.

Lake Olson homeowner Lundgren called that argument "very bogus.""We moved here for the peace and quiet," she said. Noise matters to the Rev. Patrick McCorkell, because he is essentially in the business of selling silence. He is the director of the DeMontreville Jesuit Retreat House, which hosts up to 70 men on 47 weekends a year. They come, he said, for meditation, prayer and, above all, silence.

"We have been in the retreat business since 1948," McCorkell said. "The men are silent. They turn off their cellphones. They devote themselves to prayer."The retreat center and the buildings of the Carmelite Sisters and the Carmelite hermits occupy about one-third of the Lake DeMontreville shoreline. Right now, McCorkell says he can accept the sound of motorboats on the lake in the afternoons. But he pauses at the prospect of a sunrise heralded by engines blasting across the lake. "The present division of availability," he said, "is equitable."

Source: twincities

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The deadline for proposals has come and gone, and there are officially two ideas on what to do with Mount Blackstrap. “Neither of the proposals has anything to do with the ski hill reopening. We want to make that clear,” said Kevin Engel, manager of business development and leasing with the province’s ministry of parks, culture and sport.

The small ski facility closed in 2007. The ski lodge burned down in 2009 and the government sold the remaining chairlift equipment. Despite a high-profile social media campaign, B.C. developer Torey Spink decided not to go ahead with his proposal to rebuild the park into a year-round park facility with the ski hill reopened. On Tuesday, a letter bearing Spink’s name was posted to the proposal’s Facebook page, announcing he would not go through with the idea and thanking those who had supported the effort.

Although details of the two official proposals have not been released publicly, two companies previously approached the province about leasing land within the park to build cabins, yurts and concession stands.

“We are at the starting point. We are going back to each of them to get a clear understanding of they want to do,” Engel said. “The good news is we do have interest in development.”Engel is not ruling out the idea that both proposals will go ahead, if each of them is located in a different area of the park. He said the province will go back to various stakeholders in the area before making any final decision. The parks branch aims to choose a developer and at least one operator by late summer or early fall.

Source: thestarphoenix

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THE State Government said the Margaret River Pro delivered a significant tourism lift for the South West. This year’s event, won by Hawaiians Dusty Payne and Carissa Moore, attracted thousands of visitors and had a record number of viewers on the internet.

Tourism Minister Kim Hames said the number of people who watched the event live through its website had increased by 174 per cent this year, providing promotion for the both the Margaret River and South West regions and Western Australia as a whole. “More than two million viewers from around the world watched the webcast of the 2013 Margaret River Pro, compared with 760,000 in 2012,” Dr Hames said.

“With the expanded competition window of nine days, due to the elevation to World Championship Tour (WCT) status of the women’s event, the 2013 Margaret River Pro attracted an estimated 25,000-30,000 spectators.”The event was broadcast live into the United States and the final day was also shown locally on Foxtel’s Fuel TV. Next year, the men’s event will also carry WCT status and the competition window will expand to 12 days.

Source: busseltonmail

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I live in Kars, a snowy, cold eastern Turkey town that author Orhan Pamuk describes as  “the edge of the world.” Sometimes when I am staring off the dramatic dropping cliffs of the Anatolian plateaus, I couldn’t imagine a place that would better fit the description. Everywhere I look, it is white rolling mountains uninterrupted by trees or roads or houses—a wide-open backcountry heaven. Going on my third year of living here (one of two permanent, registered native English speakers for more than 200 kilometers) and the only resident backcountry skier in the region—I recently came to a realization that if I am going to live out here, I better go big or go home. I should take advantage of this amazing terrain or go live in a place with a few more daily comforts.

Other than a heliski operation on the Black Sea, out here there are thousands of kilometers of untouched backcountry terrain that has never been explored on a pair of AT skis. Coupled with daily fluffy snowfall and meters upon meters of annual snow accumulation with very few avalanche casualties a year, northeastern Turkey is a backcountry skier’s dream. However perhaps the casualty number is low because no one is going into the mountains–especially a young woman.

As a solo American woman living here on the Turkish/Georgian/Armenia/Azeri borders, I am used to spending my days getting funny looks and humored variations of “yapamazsin” a saying that means “you aren’t able to do this.” They are not accustomed to woman trekkers, let alone a young woman hiking through villages in full gear up mountainsides through snow and trees, over bear tracks and towering ridges, out doing it solo.

This is new for me, too. I was born and raised skiing all terrains in Colorado, but I am a backcountry novice. Out here in Kars, we have a quaint nine-slope ski resort (Sarikamis Kayak Merkezi) where there are as many people barbequing and walking around with sleds as there skiers. Jokes aside, the snow is actually great, and it feels like pure skiing without all of the distracting bells and whistles of fancy resorts. Just you, the mountain, and a kebab.

But for a good challenge though, the backcountry calls. So while I had two weeks home in Colorado, I went big. I bought all of the gear I thought I could help me live large while staying alive. I get one chance a year to buy gear and because I reside in a remote village in Turkey, I have a zero return policy option. As such, I buy gear is as if my life depends on it, because, well, it does. And when you are a woman breaking snow ceilings in eastern Turkey, you want to know you have the best tools possible.

Here are some of the beginner backcountry and all-terrain purchases I made, why I made them, and how they are holding up after a month of backcountry skiing in the South Caucasus.

1. I started with my skis. I needed something light that I could spend 50 percent in country when I was skiing on the resort with friends, but something that could handle the powder and extremely varied terrain of the backcountry. I also hike long distances with skis on and off my feet, and my commute to and from my hills includes anything from a 5 km walk through a village to an hour-long bus-ride full of farmers. With these considerations, I went with the VOLKL NANUQ,  and they are the perfect fit for me. They are great for flying and travel because of their weight, and I am stunned by how well they transition between groomed slopes and 1 meter backcountry powder. I have also learned that I spend a lot of time looking at my skis when I am climbing, and the icy bears on the Nanuq are a classy touch, especially in parallel to the bear tracks I am finding underfoot.

2. The next purchase was footwear. For boots, I wanted a light boot that could be stiff enough for the front country but flexible enough for a good 10 km hike. I went with the Scarpa Gea RS that has a 120 flex index, a respectable number for a regular downhill boot. I had the boots fitted and find them still a bit loose in the ankle, but they are comfortable, and the walk-on walk-off flip option is great.

3. Other than my ski boots, I get one pair of shoes to be my everything else – running shoes, walking through villages shoes, jumping into a meeting shoes. My criteria for this shoe is first and foremost not-white because none of the local roads are paved and are dominated by muddy runoff. This brings me to my second criteria,the shoe must also be waterproof yet breathable. And as with everything I own, the shoe has to be light. I have gone with the Women’s Hedgehog GTX XCR by The North Face. I am training for a marathon so I add inserts for support, and throw on a pair of yak tracks for ice training. They fit my wide foot well and so far they are keeping my feet dry, and they are small enough to throw in the ski pack.

4. Next for poles, I have gone with the Black Diamond Expedition Ski Pole that has so far been my biggest disappointment. The pole is light in weight and adjustable, but the basket engineering is off and I am constantly loosing them. They don’t stay on with my speed. Without the baskets, the pole feels nearly useless in deep powder when I am skinning up a mountain face. Because I can’t easily get replacements out here, the poles–even if light and collapsible–will stay home until I can get new baskets that don’t fall off during the first run.

5. Perhaps my favorite purchase has been the Dynafit TLT Radical FT Binding. From the outside, it looks like your boot is held down by two tiny pins at the toe. But in reality, this is a nice piece of engineering that keeps your boot locked-in for high downhill speeds and then free and elevated for the steep climbs. Shifting between the different settings took some arm-work at first, but when I learned how to hold down the instep piece of the binding, I noticed they clicked nicely to every setting I desired.

6. I went with the standard Black Diamond custom fit skins that have been fairly good except for super steep climbs, where to my surprise, I have caught myself sliding back down the hill. They also don’t fair well with wet snow.

7/8. I have started putting my iPhone into a bright pink Griffin Survivor Case while I ski due to its water proofing abilities and the fact that I am always trying to catch a good shot of tracks, or snow, or light. I am thrilled how well it protects my IPhone from moisture and elements so far. I am less happy that my new Olloclip iPhone lens  doesn’t fit with it, or any iPhone cover for that matter, making it hard to bag some of the wide angle or fish eye shots that I must save for drop and moisture free scenarios.

While breaking the figurative snow ceilings of eastern Turkey, I want to know that I have gear that can keep up with my dreams and requirements. Gear is one of the pillars to keeping us safe in the backcountry, so we can both live big and go home.

Source: adventureblog.nationalgeographic

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We experimented with one-day heliskiing too.  In fact, the world’s very first attempt at commercial Heli-Skiing in 1963, exactly 50 years ago this spring, was a one-day trip. It was led by CMH Heli-Skiing's founder Hans Gmoser, so we know a thing or two about how it happened. On our very first day, we strapped a car's ski rack onto the skids of a helicopter and flew out of Canmore, Alberta, onto the nearby Old Goat Glacier, to try using a helicopter as a ski lift.

Granted, there were a few problems. First, we were using a Bell 47 helicopter, which could only carry 2 skiers at a time. Second, we tried Heli-Skiing in one of the driest areas in the Canadian Rockies so the snow was terrible. And third, everyone was wearing long, skinny, straight skis which made the terrible snow really difficult to ski. It cost 20 bucks a person to be one of the world’s first Heli-Skiers.

Two years later, in 1965, we finally got it right in the Bugaboos. While the helicopter was still too small and the skis to skinny, we were in the right place - and we spent a week Heli-Skiing instead of just a single day.

Fast-forward 50 years, and Heli-Skiing has become a mature industry, but the problems with one-day Heli-Skiing have remained.  We experimented again with one-day Heli-Skiing just a few years ago, and the problems are as plentiful now as they were that fateful day on the Old Goat Glacier in 1963.

At first glance, considering the expense of Heli-Skiing, the one-day idea seems like a good one. But when you dig in a little more, the reality tells a different story. Here are the five big problems with one-day heli-skiing trips, and the reasons that CMH Heli-Skiing does not offer one day trips:

Training: Every Heli-Ski operator worth their googles trains guests in helicopter, avalanche, and skiing safety. A minimal training session takes an hour, and a good training session takes closer to two hours. In a three-day ski trip, spending an hour or two learning safety protocol doesn’t eat into much of your skiing time. In a one day trip, especially during the short winter days, the training cuts into your ski time dramatically.

Burn per turn: How much money you spend per glorious, choker, blower, over the head powder turn goes down significantly the more days you can afford to ski. The best value heli-ski vacations are more than one day. No exceptions. If you are considering a trip with a “cheap” Heli-Ski outfit, do the math. For dollars per face shot, “cheap” Heli-Skiing is often the most expensive. Check out this article about one-day trips and other myths about Heli-Skiing.

Conditions: No mountaineer travels to a mountain destination with only a single-day window to bag the ultimate mountain goal. In one day, you’re more than at the mercy of the mountain’s conditions – you’re a slave to them. CMH Heli-Skiing’s weeklong Signature trips were designed to take into account the fickle nature of mountain weather and conditions, as well as give people time to adjust to the rhythms of the wilderness.

Friendships: For the guides and staff of CMH Heli-Skiing, this is the biggest reason we don’t offer one day heli-skiing. We don’t want to meet new people every day and then watch them leave before we even get a chance to become friends. And our guests don’t want to leave either. Everyone has more fun in the mountains after we get to know each other.

Life: One day of surfing. One day of golf. One day of sailing. All one day does is get you ready for the second day. Even the best skiers amongst us have more fun Heli-Skiing the second day. If you’re going to throw down for the ultimate ski experience, you owe it to yourself to make it worth the cost, the time, the travel and the potential of Heli-Skiing.

CMH Heli-Skiing’s spring trips are some of the highest value options in the entire recreation industry.  Join us this spring for a three to seven day trip that you’ll never regret. Photo of one of the world's first commercial Heli-Ski flights from the CMH archives. Photo of the rewards of multi-day Heli-Skiing at CMH Gothics by Topher Donahue.

Source: blog.canadianmountainholidays

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PESHAWAR: The Peace Skiing Gala at Maalam Jabba situated on 8700 feet high above sea on the top of the Karakoram mountain range will be commencing on March 5-8, 2013, Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Skiing Association Mati Ullah Khan told APP here on Sunday. He said all arrangements in this connection has already been completed and expressed the hope that like in the past this year the event will be organized in befitting manners.

He said they are expecting good numbers of skiers from all across the country. He said the accommodation in this connection has been arranged in the Tent age village and hopefully the event would also attract local as well as foreign tourists. Malam Jabba is home to the only ski resort in Pakistan wherein the area also contains two Buddhist Stupas and six monasteries that are scattered around the resort.
 
The presence of the monuments at such a height indicates that the area has been inhabited for over 2000 years. Two trekking trails are located near the Malam Jabba resort. The first passes through the Ghorband Valley and Shangla Top and starts about 18 km from the resort. The other trail passes through the Sabonev Valley and is about 17 km from the resort. In late June 2008, the Malam Jabba Ski Resort was set on fire and destroyed after being closed for more than a year.
 
Residents said a large portion of the resort had been reduced to ashes and the militants also damaged chairlifts and a tower belonging to the meteorological department.  In May 2009 however the army started an offensive against the Taliban and retook the area. The ski hill at the resort has now been rebuilt and is fully operational.(APP)

Source: thenews

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Snowboarders worldwide usually dress warmly, covering as much skin as possible to avoid frostbite if not hypothermia. Russians are normally no exception to the rule, with winter temperatures dropping to sub-zero levels with great frequency.

To catch the attention of winter vacationers and lure them away from Moscow to Sheregesh, a Siberian resort, this video has bikini-clad snowboarders having fun on the slopes. "We can't guarantee a show like this every day but we're pretty relaxed out here in Siberia," said a Russian tourism spokesperson in a Travel Mole post today. With some of the best snowboarding powder in Europe, Sheregesh hosts travelers every winter for its popular snowboarding and skiing during a season that lasts from November till March.

Source: gadling

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