ASPEN/SNOWMASS, Colo. (Jan. 25, 2007) — Snocross action from Winter X Games 11 begins tomorrow at 7 p.m. MST with Round 1 of qualifying from Buttermilk Mountain. The event will be telecast on ESPN, beginning at 9:30 p.m. EST.
Round 1 will pit the 32 invited WPSA PowerSprots Snowmobile Tour athletes against each other in four heats of eight riders each. The top-two finishers in each six-lap heat will transfer to the final.
Snowmobile helmet camera footage shot by the talented riders featured in Sledporn II by Yukon Powder Hounds. Plenty of deep powder and big air riding. Very well done.
Snow Kiting is the latest winter sport. Large highly controllable foil kites are used to blast kite pilots along with just the power of the wind! The ‘Big air’ jumps that boarders and skiers are pulling under the power and security of power kites are simply breath taking.
Snow Kiting is a lot easier to learn than kiteboarding on the water!
-It is easy to stand on snow, which makes the whole process easier!
-It also takes a lot less wind to drive a board across snow than it does across water.
-The whole learning experience is lot less daunting as you need much less power and wind to get you moving.
-Finally, holding an edge in snow is much easier than in water making up wind progress much easier to master.
In the Italian Alps, Argentine freerider Oscar Sosa showed the direction in which freeride skiing is to develop: his style earned him victory at the 11th edition of Red Bull Snowthrill.
In order to win the world’s most important freeride contest this year, you needed more than exceptional risk-affinity and skiing perfection. Argentinia’s Oscar Sosa, only seventh place at the end of the first day, came from behind over the next two days to take victory among 15 of the world’s best freeriders and five selected rookies. His success was due first and foremost to the unique style he celebrated on days two and three. “My colleagues valued clean style over the risky tricks performed by some of the other riders,” was the Argentinean’s post-victory analysis.
The event is traditionally judged by the riders themselves, following long evening sessions studying and evaluating the extensive video footage taken of each ride. Sosa is the first South American winner of Red Bull Snowthrill. More important to him than the 4,000 euros’ prize money is the symbolism of his biggest success to date: “I think it also shows the direction in which freeride skiing is going to go in the future.”
This contest between the world’s best freeriders, almost an institution by now, included jumps covering more than ten meters, garnished with backflips and grabs, as well as perfect lines—and not just the skiing conditions were outstanding, but also the level itself. Even so, Sosa, with his 1,415 points, put quite some distance between himself and the competition: Andrew “Noddy” Gowans of New Zealand, in the lead after the first day, lagged behind by a whopping 134 points (1,281), ahead of Austrian Martin “McFly” Winkler (1,230). The Italian Jacopo Bufacchi—one of those favored to win and, due to several drop-outs, the only local rider—took fifth place and wasn’t satisfied: “I have to admit that I’d rather be standing on the podium.” For 2007, in any case, he’ll be out to make a comeback.
Red Bull Snowthrill Monterosa Image Gallery
Speed skiing is the sport of skiing downhill in a straight line as fast as possible. It is the second fastest non-motorized sport on earth. The current world record is 156 mph (251.4 km/h). Speed skiers regularly exceed 125 mph (200 km/h), which is even faster than terminal velocity, the equilibrium speed of a body free-falling through the atmosphere. The terminal velocity of a skydiver in a normal free-fall position with a closed parachute is about 120 mph (193 km/h). (The fastest non-motorized sport is speed skydiving, in which divers reach speeds of over 300 mph.)
Speed skiers wear dense foam fairings on their lower legs and aerodynamic helmets to increase streamlining. Their ski suits are made from air-tight latex or have a polyurethane coating to cut wind resistance, with only a mandatory back protector to give some protection in the case of a crash.
The special skis used must be between 2.2 and 2.4 metres (94.5 inches) long and maximum 10cm wide and 15 kg for the pair. ski boots are attached to the skis by bindings. The ski poles are bent to shape around the body, and must be a minimum of 1 m long.
Speed skiing is practiced on steep, specially designed courses one kilometer long, and there are only about thirty of them world-wide, many of them at high altitude to minimize resistance from the air. The first 300 or 400 meters of the course (the launching area) are used to gain speed, the top speed is measured in the next 100 meters and the last 500 m (the run-out area) are used for slowing down and coming to a stop, with the speed being recorded over the 100 m between (the timing zone). The start point in FIS races is chosen so that, in theory, skiers should not exceed 200 km/h, hence competition is aimed at winning a particular event, not breaking world speed records.
On the 14th of June, François Bon and Antoine Mountant did the world’s first ski gliding descent down Mount Eiger in Switzerland. It gets crazy about half way down.
Stockholm, Sweden - Slovenian Matevz Petek was the winner of today’s first Big Air event of the Nokia Snowboard FIS World Cup 2006/2007 season. At the debut of Stockholm as a World Cup host in the Olympic arena Stockholm stadium, the boarder from Celje earned 26.4 points in the big final of the new knock-out-format and thus relegated Peetu Piiroinen (24.9) to the second spot.
The Finnish freestyler Piiroinen, who at 18 was the youngest snowboarder in the finals of the best 16 qualifiers, had beaten his fellow countryman Risto Mattila before. But Mattila (25.9) was able to jump on the podium after he had successfully competed against Austrian Florian Mausser (24.7) in the battle for third.
“It’s a miracle,” Petek cheered right after the final run. “In the training, I wasn’t able to land my tricks at all. But in the finals, I was doing better and better with every single jump.” Besides his fourth World Cup triumph, the 23 year-old rider celebrated a much better season opening than he had last winter. “Last year, I missed the first two finals and thus lost too many points to fight for the Big Air’s Crystal Globe.”
In the final, Piiroinen had to accept the dominance of the Slovenian athlete, but the young Finn was happy to repeat his best World Cup result to date, scored in Kreischberg, Austria in 2005. “I wanted to make it to the finals and then do my best. I’m stoked that it worked out fine!”
In who celebrated his eighth Big Air World Cup podium, Matilla complimented Piiroinen on his good performance. “Peetu is an outstanding young gun,” Matilla said. “He is riding super good and rarely doesn’t stick his tricks. One can expect a lot from him in the future. He will be big! I myself am stoked with the third rank but mainly because I landed the
Nokia FIS Snowboard World Cup 2006-07
Big Air - Stockholm, Sweden
Nov. 11, 2006
Final:
1. PETEK Matevz SLO
2. PIIROINEN Peetu FIN
Small-final:
3. MATTILA Risto FIN
4. MAUSSER Florian AUT
1/4-Finals:
5. WIIG Andreas NOR
6. GIMPL Stefan AUT
7. KRATTER Giacomo ITA
8. NADIG Benedikt SUI
Jamie Pierre successfully jumped a record breaking 255 foot cliff off the backside of Fred’s Mountain located just outside the boundaries of Grand Targhee Resort in Alta, WY. The feat occurred on January 25, 2006 witnessed by the Teton Gravity Research production team.
Pierre recor
After researching the monster air for more than seven years, Pierre finally found conditions that were suitable for the jump. In communication with professional skier and 20 year Jackson Hole local, Jason Tattersall, Jaime and “Tat” determined that thesnowpack was in prime condition for the jump.
Tattersall had rapelled the cliff during the summer months to examine the sheerness of the cliff and find out the features that lie under the snow in the landing zone. Tattersall reported seeing nothing bigger than softball size rocks on the steep terrain.
Withheavy and persistent snowfall having brought 335+ inches (27.9 feet) to the Tetons this winter, it was primed with a deep and consistent landing necessary to support the intense impact.
Before the shoot Pierre was heard saying: “If I do this I am not going to get hurt.” So after 30 minutes of preparation, full confidence and a brief prayer Pierre leapt off the massive buttress, holding a mute grab in first 50 feet and then continuing the 4 second freefall before hitting the snow. Jamie’s bomb hole left him buried 6 feet under the snow for roughly a minute until he was dug out by nearby photographer, Adam Clark. He skied away making deep powder turns from the record breaking air with a mere bloody lip.
Josh Nielsen, TGR’s supervising producer was onsite said this of the event: “It was a really, really heavy and intense experience for all of us, the event was managed by Pierre and we were kind of along for the ride”
The cliff was initially measured at 245 feet with a rage finder used for B.A.S.E. jumping. The day after photographer Wade McKoy went back to the site and measured the jump by rope with the speculation that the distance is greater, with the closer to exact result of 255 feet.
When asked, “How did you feel that night?” Pierre replied “That was the best night of sleep I have had since becoming a professional skier some 16 years ago.”
Some video of jamie pierre but note that this is not the record breaking jump
The ESPN Winter X Games will add Snowmobile Freestyle to its sports lineup at the Winter X Games 11, January 25-28, 2007. Winter X Games 11 will air live on ESPN and ABC from its home at Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen, Colo.
Snowmobile Freestyle will feature 10 riders competing on the inaugural Winter X Games freestyle course. Riders will take individual runs amd test their skills on jumps ranging from 45-100 feet. The bigger the tricks, the bigger the score.
Joe Duncan, Snowmobile Sport Organizer, said, “This will elevate the sport to a new level, allow new talent to emerge and bring incredible tricks to an already amazing sport. With 500-lb. machines doing backflips, it is sure to amaze on-site spectators as well as our television audience.”
The patented product called North Legion SMX, is a natural winter alternative for mountain bikers, BMX and motocross riders in the same way as the snowboard is a winter alternative for skateboarders and surfers. After just a few hours of training, freeriders and dirt jumpers can pull of the same sort of stunning tricks that they nail on their bikes.
“The SMX is a real cool thing”, says Norwegian freeride star Trond Hansen, who already tested the prototypes. “It is pretty much like riding a motocross or mountain bike on snow, but way more stable. The whole secret behind it is the carving, which means you can land better. It is really a cool new sport and hopefully a lot of people will do it. Doing tricks with the SMX is actually quite similar to being on a bike. And racing the SMX is as much as fun as tricking it.”
Carving turns
The core of the fmx is the suspended parallel motion frame that allows you to do perfect carving turns, both in sitting and standing position. By using three carving skies with steel edges the smx achieves unique turning abilities in groomed slopes as well as in the back country. As an added bonus you can really go charging in the halfpipe.
Airs and tricks With full suspension and the stability of the three ski design you san realy go hard on big jumps and in the halfpipe. Foot pegs attached to the parallel motion frame makes it possible to control the smx in the air and allows execution of tricks when standing. The emergency stop function is another new invention, and it has been designed facilitate execution of various fmx and bmx tricks. This skis also allows for fakie (backward) turns and landings.
Safe and easy transport in skilifts A special lift transport device has been developed for use with button and t-bar lifts. The device is easy to attach and detach, and will automatically release if the rider looses control or falls off. In combination with the emergency stop function this solution gives perfect safety.
Stopping and safety
The 3-ski design gives enormous stability, and testing has revealed that the smx requires shorter distance to make a full stop compared with a snowboard at various speed. With smx, you stop the same way you do with alpine skis. If rider looses control going down the slope the emergency stop function will be activated and should prevent that the smx races away from you.
