"Endless Winter Snow"

2.19.2008

Snow Alert - Steamboat, Silverton, Durango,- Lake Erie & Great Lakes Region

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Colorado
Events
02/20 Ski Cooper Senior Days
02/22 Winter Park Detention Rail Championship Series
02/22 Sunlight Special Olympics
02/23 Loveland American Cancer Society's Vertical Rally
02/23 Powderhorn Colorado DiscoverAbility Challenge
02/23 Arapahoe Basin Free Rail Jam

www.coloradosnow.com

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Banff Centre - Canada
Exhibitions
October 27, 2007 - September 29, 2008 - Winning Images from the 2007 Banff Mountain Photography Competition Breathtaking images celebrate mountain areas, animals, and cultures.

Music
February 20 & 27 - Midweek Medley
Concerts feature a range of music - from the classics of the great masters to the exciting works of modern composers.

February 22 - Concert Night Out
Violinists Livia Sohn and Geoff Nuttall perform.

Mountain Culture
February 20 - Mountain Culture Speakers' Series - Liquid Truth
Join David Lavallée for a behind the scenes look at the production of Liquid Truth. This documentary film features an expedition from the "water summit" of North America, Mount Snowdome, along the length of the Athabasca River watershed.

www.banffcentre.ca/events

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Alyeska - Alaska
New snow: 14"
Base Depth: 32" - 164"
Hours open: 10:30 AM - 5:30 PM
Park recut: 0
Jumps: 0
Pipes: 0"
Open Lifts: 9
Conditions: Wet, Wind Blown
Open runs: 65

EVENT
Alyeska Resort, Alaska, April 2-6, to push their limits against the Chugach Range’s palette of jaw-dropping steeps, couloirs, and wide-open Alaskan faces. Adding even more incentive, final round athletes of the Alyeska event will be rewarded with a heli-drop at the start of the Finals, courtesy of Chugach Powder Guides, where they will compete in the final run on an area of Alyeska Resort named “Big League,” a section of the mountain not open to the public until 2010.

“With the creation of The North Face Masters, the riders who live and breathe this aspect of snowboarding finally have a stage on which to show off their skills and creativity,” said Jason Ford, Group Publisher for Future US, home of Future Snowboarding magazine, The North Face Masters media partner. “It’s been a long time since the U.S. has taken a good look at the big mountain side of the sport, so this is a huge opportunity for the riders, as well as the spectators!”

With the induction of the The North Face Masters 2008 comes the gathering of the big mountain snowboarding tribe from all over the world. All male and female snowboarding competitors over the age of 18 are welcomed to participate.

“Today's riders are redefining what is possible—they're taking the tricks and skills learned in the terrain parks to the big mountain environment,” said Joe Flannery, Vice President of Marketing for The North Face. “As a company that was born in the mountains, we're excited to see today’s brightest snowboarding stars with a venue that celebrates what they do.”
Fans of big mountain snowboarding can also catch same-day live coverage of the Semi-Final and Final rounds on the event website, where there are complete videos, photos, athlete profiles, detailed event schedules, registration information and more.
Please visit www.thenorthface.com/masters

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Lake Louise

Photo: Lake Louise Ptarmigan face
Events
Friday, February 29, 2008 - Friday, March 14, 2008 :
Ladies Only Ski the Backside Freerider Camp
A Ladies Only 3-week program that will have you skiing crud, picking the perfect backside line, hucking cliffs, learning the lingo and more! The package includes private instruction with highly qualified freerider coaches, Starbucks vouchers, weekly apres event, retail store discount and a complimentary gift! Call Tracy Bruns for more details on (403) 760-1272.

Friday, February 29, 2008 - Friday, March 14, 2008 :
Guy's Only Ski the Backside Freerider Camp
A Guy's Only 3-week program that will have you skiing crud, picking the perfect backside line, hucking cliffs, learning the lingo and more! The package includes private instruction with highly qualified freerider coaches, Starbucks vouchers, weekly apres event, retail store discount and a complimentary gift! Call Tracy Bruns for more details on (403) 760-1272

Saturday, March 08, 2008 - Sunday, March 09, 2008 :
Snickers Junior Big Mountain Challenge
The last stop in the Junior Freeski Series is the Lake Louise Big Mountain Challenge. Set the weekend before the Senior Big Mountain Challenge, this event is always an amazing show. Age categories will be 7-11 years, 12-15 years, and 16-18 years of age for both guys and gals. Competitors will warm up Saturday in the qualifying runs so that they can move on to the Sunday’s finals and award ceremony. Helmets mandatory and parents or coaches must be available to sign waivers. Online registration is now closed as the competition full. To have your name put on a waiting list please email rhornung@skircr.com with the name, age and gender, as well as a contact number

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - Sunday, March 16, 2008 :
Smith Optics Big Mountain Challenge
The second and final stop in the Senior Freeski Series, Lake Louise shows off its epic Powder Bowls for the fifth annual Big Mountain Challenge. Competitors from all across North America are expected to take part in the multi-day event. The event starts with Registration and Venue Inspection on the Wednesday, a Qualifying Round on the Thursday, Semi-Final Round on Friday and Final Round, Awards Ceremony and Wrap-up Party on the Saturday. Sunday is held as a weather day.

www.skilouise.com

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Whitefish Montana
Rest assured, the snow is continuing to fall. Three-hundred-forty-two inches and counting as I write this, and it’s still light and fluffy. Our snowpack is the deepest in our great state. So don’t be content to stay down there, wondering when Spring is going to show up. Come up here and enjoy the real bounties of Winter.

You could come eat a wonderful meal at the Summit House and ski down by the light of the full moon Thursday and Friday nights (February 21st and 22nd), or you could come volunteer for the Montana Special Olympics State Winter Games on Monday and Tuesday (February 25th and 26th). You could just take a well-deserved “sick” day, or use that vacation time you've been saving up and hop on a plane (or train)

www.skiwhitefish.com
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Bacardi Gets the job Done

Heavenly Mountain Resort
South Lake Tahoe, CA/NV—— Heavenly Mountain Resort received 167 inches of snow in January, marking the most snowfall in a single month since the resort began keeping snowfall data in the 1975-76 season.

“We’re in one of those epic snow cycles that the Sierra mountain range is famous for,” said Blaise Carrig, Heavenly’s chief operating officer. “We beat the next closest month by 20 inches. There is no destination in the U.S. that has the kind of snow we have right now.”

In addition to the record snowfall, Heavenly’s snow pack is 23 percent higher than average, its base depth ranges from 78 to 100 inches, and it has received over 300 inches of snowfall to date this winter. In response to this amazing amount of snow, Heavenly has announced that it is extending its season into May. The resort had planned to close for the season on Sunday, April 20, 2008, but now has an expected closing date of Sunday, May 4, 2008.

“We wanted to reward our pass holders and other loyal guests with an extra two weeks of skiing,” Carrig said. “Heavenly already offers the best views, best surface conditions, best grooming and best tree skiing. Now our guests can enjoy it all into May.”

www.skiheavenly.com
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From Patrick Thorne of Snow365.com
High Wycombe Snowdome Moves Forward

The High Wycombe Snowdome proposal on the site of the former artificial surface ski centre in southern England, largely destroyed by fire two years ago, have been given the green light by local councillors. Members of Wycombe District Council's Development Control Committee have voted unanimously to pass the application put forward by the owners of Wycombe Summit, Snowdome Ltd, who also own the existing indoor snow centre at Tamworth and the UK copyright for the name ‘snowdome.’

The company wants to build a new ice rink, reception area, function rooms and viewing gallery along with a newly enclosed 100 metre training and nursery slope. There will be a new four-story club house will also be constructed as part of the plans to replace the original building on the site.

Martin Smith, managing director of Staffordshire-based Snowdome, said he was delighted with the decision.

"It's been four years since we acquired the site, two years since the lodge burnt down and finally our application has progressed substantially," he said.

2008 Openings

North America’s long awaited first indoor snow centre at Meadowlands in New Jersey, Xanadu, is likely to be the most talked about new snow centre this year. The controversial and long delayed project currently aims to open ‘late’ in 2008, much of the indoor snow centre building is already complete.

Elsewhere another project delayed several years from the original date, the indoor snow centre at Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi, looks set to open in the first half of 2008.

Moscow’s first snow centre, like Xanadu already mostly complete and having already been supposed to open on various dates in 2007, should certainly open this year.

In the UK, the Bluestone Holiday Village in Wales, which plans to begin work on Phase 2 including an indoor snow centre next year, will open this summer. Work on two new snow centres at Hemel Hempstead and High Wycombe should start this year and a decision on whether the country’s largest and most southerly slope so far proposed, Snoasis, from a Public Enquiry launched a year ago, should be published any day.

www.Snow365.com
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Who ever is going to walk away with Rossignal’s 2007-08 Scratch skis better be ready to throw down at our Saturday Rail Jam Series being held in the centre of the village. The only rule we have for this contest is that the footage must come from any or all of the Saturday Rail Jam events being held during the evenings on , February 23, 2008, and March 29, 2008. We’re also going to award four lift tickets to the winning entry to get them out of the village and up on the mountain.

www.sunpeaksresort.com
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photo: Harbin Ice Festival