Snow Alert - Whistler - Blackcomb

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Killington
Rrecieved 2 inches late Monday night and another 2 inches fell yesterday! We're skiing and riding on the MOST open terrain in the East on Wednesday, 17 trails and 5 lifts. This weekend we'll have up to 30 trails served by 13 lifts! For Wednesday, 10 trails will be groomed and the early-season terrain park on Reason will be open with six hits, rails and boxes. On Thursday, Cascade Headwall will open followed by the Superstar and Snowshed Express Quads on Friday serving additional trails, including terrain for all ability levels.

www.killington.com/

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FIS SKI

Snow is still scarce most everywhere in Europe while there are excellent skiing conditions in North America and the Freestyle FIS World Cup will launch on good snow in China this weekend. Let's hope it snows in Europe soon.
The world’s first indoor aerials site to be built in Minsk (BLR)
The Belarus Olympic Committee and the Government of Belarus announced last week that they have approved the construction of a new ‘Aqua Park’ in Minsk. This USD 30 million multi-purpose water training complex will also include the world’s first indoor freestyle aerials site (water ramp). Photo: Fis / Belarus
Located near the center of Minsk, the ‘Aqua Park’ – with a total area of some 8’000m2 - will be enjoyed by the 1.4 million residents in Minsk, the capital city of Belarus, along with the members of the Belarus Freestyle Team. The total height of the complex roof will be 35 meters off of the water surface and the height of the in-run of the water ramp will be some 38 meters. The facility can also be used for water jumping competitions since it will have three standard jump take-offs.
Victor Groshev, Vice President of Belarus Freestyle Skiing Federation, and Nikolay Kozeko, National Team Coach and member of FIS Freestyle Committee noted: “This project secures the future of Freestyle in Belarus. We will have the best facility in the world. We look forward to training here and also providing training opportunities for other nations. We will have several aerial jumps and these jumps can be used for training by snowboarders and ski cross athletes as well.” The plans for the new complex have been stimulated by the successes of the Belarus Freestyle team including such Olympic aerial stars as Dmitry Dashinski (Bronze in Nagano in 1998, silver in Torino in 2006) and Alexey Grishin (Bronze in Salt Lake City 2002). Their success has also played a key role in enabling further development of Freestyle Skiing in Belarus and its nearby region.

Swiss jumpers Simon Ammann and Andreas Kuettel made history in the e.on ruhrgas FIS World Cup Ski Jumping competition held in Lillehammer (NOR) last Saturday as they captured the first-ever double victory for their native country. It was also only the second time that Ammann won a World Cup in his career, more than four and a half years since the first time in Oslo in 2002. On Sunday, 16-year-old Gregor Schlierenzauer (AUT) claimed his first World Cup win in only his second start on the circuit after having set a new hill record of 141 m the day before as he ranked 4th.
At Lake Louise (CAN), the star of the first speed weekend in the ladies’ Audi FIS Alpine World Cup was Lindsay Kildow (USA), who was the only athlete to stand on the podium in each race; once at the very top (in Saturday’s downhill) and twice in 2nd place. However, she was joined there twice by the ever-as-strong Austrian veteran Renate Goetschl who took her 39th World Cup victory in Sunday’s super-G. Germany’s Maria Riesch showed that she has recovered from her repeated injuries by triumphing in the season’s first downhill whilst Kelly Vanderbeek (CAN) finally claimed her long-overdue career-first podium place by placing 3rd on Sunday.
On the men’s side, we have seen seven different winners from seven nations in the seven races staged in the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup so far. After Aksel Lund Svindal (NOR) took control of the season’s first super combined at Beaver Creek (USA), one of the season’s most spectacular downhills provided the stage for the ‘return’ of Bode Miller (USA) to the top of the podium. Young blood then took control of the slalom finale at Birds of Prey on Sunday as Andre Myhrer (23, SWE) edged Michael Janyk (24, CAN) and Felix Neureuther (22, GER) to take his third career podium. Neither Janyk nor Neureuther had reached the podium before. At the same time, the Austrians had never failed to win a race during a Birds of Prey World Cup tour stop since the venue was included in 1997. That streak ended on Sunday. After seven of the total of 38 events, Svindal - runner up to Massimiliano Blardone (ITA) with Ted Ligety (USA) in third in Saturday’s giant slalom - now leads the overall Audi FIS Alpine World Cup.
The continuing warm weather across Europe has forced additional changes in the FIS World Cup calendars. Following the cancellation of the ladies’ and men’s Alpine events in St. Moritz (SUI) and Val d’Isère (FRA) scheduled for the weekend of 9th-10th December, FIS offered the opportunity to the United States Ski and Snowboard Association to reschedule the events before the teams left North America. USSA was, however, unable to do so. The men’s Audi FIS Alpine World Cup will now continue on Reiteralm (AUT), near Schladming, next Sunday with a super combined consisting of a super-G and one-run slalom. The outlook for the races scheduled for Val Gardena/Groeden (ITA) from 15th - 16th December is also positive. The amount of manmade snow is already sufficient for the race course and crash zones. Low temperatures are forecast for this weekend to aid artificial snow production, and a final decision will be made on Saturday at the latest. The snow control for the ladies’ downhill and super-G events scheduled for 16th – 17th December in Val d’Isere is coming up soon, too.
Changing weather conditions have also wrought havoc with the Viessmann FIS World Cup Cross-Country. While the initially planned events – a sprint in Aosta and a distance race in Cogne – had to be cancelled, thanks to the persistence of the Valle d’Aosta team to make snow, they will now host a classical technique distance races in Cogne on Wednesday, 13th December.


Photo: FIS / Jilin Beida Lake (CHN)
The Nokia Snowboard FIS World Cup parallel giant slalom races in San Vigilio di Marebbe (ITA) were rescheduled there just ten days later on 13th December 2006. The snowboardcross races in Bad Gastein (AUT) were postponed by just three days to 17th–18th December while the parallel slalom stays on its original date. Last but not least, the aerials season opener for Freestyle FIS World Cup is secure as there is great snow in China (see photo). The snow control for the moguls opener in Tignes (FRA) will take place tomorrow Thursday 7th December. Some weather forecasts are predicting a significant snow storm for the South side of the Alps for the weekend.


FIS. Some pictures © Agence Zoom.

www.fis-ski






BUMP Bash
Open Mogul / Freestyle ORg. Zermatt
The new English book “new School - SKIING´S NEXT GENERATION” Gerhard Blöchl (double German master 2004, olympia participant 2006) published briefly after the olympic plays 2006 together with its brother its new book “new School - SKIING´S NEXT GENERATION”. Methodical ways are described how one can learn simple upright and over headers. Beyond that arrange this book for the reader the appropriate basic knowledge, as one drives with Skiern into the Halfpipe and in the embossment runway or over Rails grindet. Since his first book with the title became “new School fascination on Skiern” within short time the best-seller of the publishing house, Gerhard, this decided with his American friend David Babic, member US of the ski team to revise. The new book appeared in English language for the international book market and is book-taps for the coming winter. Above all Flips with spin such as Misty 540, Misty 720, D spin 720, bake Full or the Rodeo 540 received a descriptive leading over the Riesentrampolin and water-dig to the jumps on the snow. That do not only purchase-tap applies to the beginner, but also for ambitionierteren Springer. The English book with the title contains many new jumps and is for each ski driver a super update for the German version, since in the scene anyway English one speaks.

Bump Bash Organisation
www.bumpbash.com


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Dolomites News - Italy
The ski resorts with the most number of open slopes are
Kronplatz (8 slopes) and Val Gardena/Alpe di Siusi (9 slopes); in the valleys Cortina, Alta Badia, Fassa, Alta Pusteria and Obereggen will open singular slopes.
Events In Italy
15-16/12/06 - Fis Ski World Cup Val Gardena
17-18/12/06 - Fis Ski World Cup Alta Badia

DolomitiSuperskiPremière, at the beginning of the season: from 2nd to 23rd December 2006 if you book a skiing holiday of 4 days you will get one day free. This offer applies to accommodation and skipass at all participating establishments. In addition, in this period many hotels have very advantageous pre-season prices and many ski schools and ski rentals offer reductions

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Valle Nevado -Chile
Translated,.... get next SEASON's pass now and recieve a Discount!
Toll free USA: 1 800 669 0554
www.vallenevado.com


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Bear Valley - Ca
BEAR VALLEY OPENING DAY PROJECTED FOR DECEMBER 15TH With winter storms in the forecast for this weekend and well into next week, Bear Valley is now projecting Friday, December 15th for opening day! (Weather & conditions permitting). "Our ski area rests its reputation on a quality product and we intend to preserve that reputation,” Jim Gentling, Chief Operating Officer, stated. A few more good storms should enable the resort to open with Kuma and Cub lifts. The new Polar Express will open as conditions permit. When Bear Valley Mountain Resort does open for the season, it will be ready to move skiers and boarders around the mountain more efficiently with its first major on-mountain improvement in 33 years. The Polar Express, with a capacity of 2400 people per hour, almost triples the uphill capacity of the old lift. WINTER SPORTS HISTORY NIGHT The Ebbetts Pass Historical Association plans to honor Bob Shedd & Roy Miller. The public is invited to a free party at the Bear Valley Lodge for the annual Winter Sports History Night, December 9, 7pm. The Ebbetts Pass Historical Association will honor the late Bob Shedd with the Peter Brinkman Award for outstanding contribution to winter recreation in the Ebbetts Pass area. Shedd was the first ski patrol leader for the brand new Mt. Reba ski area in 1967, and later became the Mountain Manager. He developed policies and procedures and elevated ski patrolling to a new height of professionalism. He was a co-founder of the western professional ski patrollers’ association, establishing standards and credential testing. He was also a talented artist. He created the first trail maps for the new ski area and made many of the on-hill signs.
Bear Valley Mountain Resort is operated under special use permit on the Stanislaus National Forest

WWW.bearvalley.com