Monday, October 29, 2012

Who Cares About Climate Change?


Who Cares About Climate Change?

Ski industry associations have the power to incite change. So why don’t they?

A dismal Squaw Valley on January 10, 2012. PHOTO: RYAN DUNFEE

As it stands, the peer-reviewed science says we’re skiing on borrowed time. With greenhouse gas emissions continuing to rise, causing global temperatures to rise with them, the future of skiing in North America in the face of climate change looks strikingly similar to last season. And if you don’t remember, last season sucked for almost everyone reading this.

This is what the science is telling us: By 2039, the East Coast ski season will be a full two weeks shorter; the chance of resorts being open for Christmas will be below 75 percent; and mountains will be increasingly dependent on snowmaking to get the season up and running, meaning less skiing in the trees, steepening ticket prices as snowmaking costs increase, and more hills going out of business. Out West, high-altitude snowpacks have been in a steady decline, and, like this past season, seasons will shorten, more precipitation will fall as rain, and spring melt-off will come earlier. Lower-elevation resorts in the Alps, where temperatures are rising at three times the global average, are already downsizing in anticipation of a warmer, low-snow future.

To date, the ski industry and its associated trade groups, such as the National Ski Areas Association, Snowsports Industry Association, Colorado Ski Country, and Ski Utah, have focused their response to climate change mostly on internal sustainability efforts. They’ve focused on making buildings, snowmaking systems, supply chains, and factories more energy efficient while installing small-scale renewable energy. Unfortunately, this strategy is nowhere near approaching the scale of global climate change. Regardless of those efforts, people will still be getting to resorts in a car or plane spewing CO2, coal will still power around 40 percent of our energy in the U.S., and emissions will continue to rise and likely accelerate. It’s time to scale the response to the size of the actual problem.

Fortunately, the ski industry has huge potential to create change where it does make a difference: the national legislature. The ski industry is cool and far more interesting to pay attention to than, say, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (sorry guys), and the image of ski slopes no longer covered in pristine white has a sort of iconic staying power. It’s a dead-obvious indicator of a lifestyle, and jobs, in jeopardy. Western states, where much of the ski industry is based, have outsize power in Congress relative to their populations, which gives Western senators an advantage in moving national politics. Not to mention that $66 billion—the estimated value of the entire snowsports industry—carries some serious clout in Washington.

Despite the real risks of climate change, none of the major trade groups (SIA, NSAA, Colorado Ski Country, and Ski Utah) have done much to let Washington know they’re even formally concerned about climate change, let alone included climate legislation as part of their formal lobbying programs. While both the NSAA and SIA encourage their members to advocate for policy changes, and the NSAA has sent a few letters supporting individual pieces of clean air or emissions regulations on behalf of member resorts (who seemed more concerned about the issue than their trade group does), none have been willing to take a firm stand on the issue themselves like Black Diamond CEO Peter Metcalf has on land use issues. In response to Utah governor Gary Herbert’s attempts to transfer public lands in the state to private ownership, which would diminish outdoor recreation in the state and sell off precious wilderness to private developers, Metcalf wrote an op-ed in the Salt Lake Tribune and then resigned from the state’s Ski and Snowboard Industry Working Group. Soon after, the Outdoor Industry Association threatened to move the $40 million Outdoor Retailer trade show out of the state. Metcalf has since been vocal about his opposition to the move, helping to put the issue on the state and national radar. That kind of commitment is what we need. Now.

Click to continue article....

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

How a professional skis big-mountain lines!

How to Ski It: 

Reggie Crist's INTERACTIVE guide to skiing Eduardo's in Las Lenas, Argentina

See how a professional big-mountain skier creates and executes a plan of attack on one of his favorite mountains in South America....click!


Friday, October 19, 2012

The 20 Most Notorious Snowboarding Criminals



Earlier in the month a drunken member of the US skiing team was dropped from the team after he pissed on a 12-year-old girl during an overnight flight - a story covered by the New York Post in an article titled “Urine Big Trouble!”. 18-year-old Robert Vietze was also hit with a federal indecent-exposure charge and could face a year in prison and a $1,000 fine if he is convicted. 
In strangely coincidental news just one week later the actor Gerard Depardieu also found himself in trouble after relieving himself on a plane in France. 
This got us thinking; what kind of legal trouble have snowboarders got themselves into over the years? This week Illicit Snowboarding lined-up a veritable rogue’s gallery of snowboarding miscreants who have run afoul of the law for a range of criminal misdeeds…

First up its snowboarding’s version of Point Break...

The Snowboard Bandits.......Read On

Monday, October 15, 2012

What can "rocker" skis do for you?


Still not sure what rocker can do for you? Better head over to this great article from skinet.com and read about their 10 on-slope problems that rocker can fix. Read on..

Monday, October 8, 2012

Ski and Board Shows 2012


Ski and Board Shows 2012

It’s that time of year again, the temperature's dropping and we’re all getting excited at the prospect of the winter ahead. 

That means it's time to get yourself over to one of the ski shows to check out what's happening for the coming season. Morzine local mag Yodel has put together a guide to some of the best ski and snowboard shows to tickle your tastebuds and get you prepped for the season. Read On..

Thursday, October 4, 2012

2013 Buyers Guide



2013's best skis, boots and bindings


Every winter POWDER Magazine calls on skiers who have made the sport the highest priority in their lives. East Coast/West Coast, old school/new school, mountaineers/park rats—we try to cover our bases, because everybody skis a little differently. 

Powder's goal is to find the new products that work best for us. We bootpack up to Four Pines and sidestep out of Granite Canyon. We lap the tram and the Mangy Moose bar line. The results are all here. In the following link they present over 300 products that make this the most comprehensive guide to skis, boots, and bindings on the planet.      

Partying Hard In Morzine and Avoriaz

  Partying Hard In Morzine and Avoriaz ...