Tag: Snowboarding

Police foil quarantined snowboarder’s plan to ride early

A snowboarder from the U.S. was fined $1,150 after cutting his 14-day quarantine in Canada short to try to hit the slopes at Whistler Blackcomb resort.

A snowboarder from the U.S. was fined $1,150 after cutting his 14-day quarantine in Canada short to try to hit the slopes at Whistler Blackcomb.

The plan might have worked but the man was pulled over last Monday as he neared the British Columbia resort for driving with expired license-plate tags.

According to CBC, the police officer contacted the Canada Border Services Agency and learned that the unidentified man still had two days left on his quarantine order.

“They had chosen to leave their home in North Vancouver and were attempting to go up to Whistler to do some snowboarding a bit early,” Kevin Goodmurphy, a CBSA spokesman, told CBC. “It’s all risky behavior. There are quarantine rules in place for a reason … and we take it seriously,”

The man was ordered back to the home to continue his quarantine.

Whistler Blackcomb has opened for 2020-21 under a reservations system designed to limit access and allow for social distancing. Other measures designed to stop the spread of COVID-19 also are in place.

–Snowboarding image is generic

Snowboarder acts quickly to avoid avalanche

Snowboarder Alex Gavic was cautiously making his way down a couloir when he noticed a fracture in the snow 200 feet below. He acted quickly.

Alex Gavic, snowboarding the Utah backcountry with a friend, was cautiously making his way down a couloir when he noticed a fracture in the snow 200 feet below, forcing him to quickly take evasive measures.

Gavic, using a 360 GoPro Max camera mounted on a pole from his backpack (it automatically edits out the pole), captured his slick move in video:

“We knew the avalanche stability was touchy,” Gavic told USA Today/For The Win Outdoors on Tuesday. “I entered this line with caution. When I thought I was safe I started to make some turns. I saw the dope fracture 200 feet below me so I gunned it to the shelter of the rocks.

“Had I not made it there, I would’ve definitely ‘gone for the ride’ for the remaining duration of the slope, about 500 vertical feet. I was so relieved to grab on to that rock. I don’t think I would’ve gotten buried, as the avalanche debris trickled out, but it’s never something you want to do, get carried down a slope with a bunch of snow.”

Also on FTW Outdoors: Spearfisherman dragged out to sea by great white shark

Gavic, snowboarding out of Salt Lake City, always carries a beacon, probe and shovel, and knows how to use them.

“That’s the key, knowing how to use them” he told For The Win Outdoors. “But this was the first time I’ve almost been carried away in the 10 years I’ve been in the backcountry.”

Photo courtesy of ViralHog.

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Vail apologizes, explains ‘lift line apocalypse’ 5 days later

Fallout on social media of what was described by one skier as a “lift line apocalypse” prompted Vail to issue an apology and an explanation.

Fallout on social media of what was described by one skier as a “lift line apocalypse” prompted Vail Mountain to issue an apology and an explanation Wednesday, five days after long lift lines and long wait times frazzled guests.

Vail Mountain received 38 inches in a 48-hour period, and skiers and snowboarders were eager to enjoy the fresh powder, but the mountain wasn’t quite ready for the glut of customers, many showing up two hours before the resort opened.

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Photos and videos of the monster lift lines circulating on social media led to Beth Howard, chief operating officer for Vail Mountain, to make this statement as shared by The Aspen Times:

Wow, what a storm. Last weekend, in a 48-hour period, we received 38 inches of snow at Vail Mountain, which ranks as a top-five snowfall event in our 58-year history. We know that no one wants to miss powder like that — so we got straight to work. We had a lot on the line.

Digging out from that kind of snowfall to get our mountain open and safe for guests requires a Herculean effort by ski patrol, lift operations, groomers and the entire Vail Mountain staff. I want to express my deepest appreciation for their hard work.

We were fully staffed — it was truly an all-hands-on-deck scenario — and we spared no expense to get the mountain open as quickly as possible. In fact, our patrol team used a record number of explosives in their thorough avalanche mitigation. But safety always comes first — and to ensure terrain is absolutely safe for guests and employees, it takes time.

I want to thank our guests for their patience this weekend and apologize for any experience that was less than ideal. I’d also like to use this opportunity to acknowledge and provide context around two particularly striking lift lines that people saw on social media.

On Friday and Saturday, the line at the bottom of Gondola One was undeniably long. Guests began lining up at 6 a.m. — more than two hours before we opened — eager, as I was, to experience the historic powder. While I don’t like to see anyone waiting in any line, I want to assure you that those lines were gone by 10 a.m. on Friday and by 9:15 a.m. on Saturday. That gondola can manage a lot of guests — and once the initial group dissipated, the line was around five minutes long the rest of those days.

Midday on Saturday, while the majority of the mountain was free from lines, we saw a more challenging situation in the limited amount of terrain we had been able to open safely in our Back Bowls. As many of you know, when skiing or riding the Sun Down and Sun Up bowls to the bottom, the only option to upload is Chair 5. At 10:30 a.m. the wait time began to exceed 30 minutes, and the line grew much longer. By 2 p.m., the line had subsided, but that period in between created an unacceptable experience for our guests and I apologize to anyone who got stuck in it.

We considered whether to limit or meter guest access to that terrain, but candidly it was not something we had done before. We also tried to warn guests about the line, but fell way short in our effectiveness — and even when we did, guests tended to ski right past our staff because they wanted to enjoy the untouched powder. To help make up for any guest impacts, we decided to keep the lifts running an additional half-hour.

Again, I know we could have done a much better job anticipating these situations and communicating with our guests. As we head into another big weekend — with more snow in the forecast — I’m focused on improving those communication channels. You’ll see more updates and information on all of Vail Mountain’s social accounts, and I’m pleased to share the EpicMix app has been upgraded so that you can rely on it for accurate lift line wait times.

I am well aware that a picture is worth a thousand words, but I truly hope my words here help provide context for what happened. I have complete confidence in our team at Vail Mountain and the huge investment we’ve made in high-speed chairlifts to alleviate lift line concerns across our resort. I am confident this was an isolated incident in the midst of extreme conditions.

Today our operations are back to normal – and conditions are truly outstanding. I hope to see you up here soon.

Sincerely,

Beth Howard

Chief Operating Officer, Vail Mountain

Photo courtesy of Joel Salamone.

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Also on FTW Outdoors:

Spearfisherman dragged out to sea by great white shark

Shark affects world-famous yacht race

Hunter acts fast when charged by mountain lion

 

Snowboarder wins 10th straight superpipe event

Scotty James defended his X Games gold medal in Aspen, winning the event for the third time in four years. Watch video of him in action.

Scotty James won his 10th consecutive worldwide superpipe competition by repeating as X Games gold medalist in Aspen on Thursday night, winning the prestigious event for the third time in four years.

The Australian, who is undefeated since the start of the 2018-19 season, pulled off a switch backside double 1260, cab 1080, frontside 900 grabbing nose and a double backside 1260 among his tricks in the Monster Energy Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe at Buttermilk Mountain.

His victory lap consisted of high-fiving fans along the deck of the superpipe.

“It never gets old, that feeling is unbelievable and to do it here at X Games is very, very special to me,” James told ESPN X Games afterward. “I mean, X Games is a pinnacle for us and I dreamt of getting one X Games medal and now I’m adding another to my collection, so I’m absolutely pumped.” 

Yuto Totsuka of Japan took silver and Jan Scherrer of Switzerland got the bronze. U.S. snowboarders Chase Josey, Danny Davis, Taylor Gold, Toby Miller and Chase Blackwell finished fourth through eighth.

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In other X Games action, Miyabi Onitsuka won gold in Pacifico Women’s Snowboard Big Air, Kokomo Murase took silver and Reira Iwabuchi grabbed bronze. All are from Japan.

X Games rookie Colby Stevenson of Park City, Utah, won the inaugural Ski Knuckle Huck.

In Special Olympic Unified Snowboarding, Mike Schultz/Daina Shilts won gold, Davis/Dmitrii Tiufiakov took silver and Jack Mitrani/Henry Meece got bronze.

Photo of Scotty James with gold medal by Phil Ellsworth/ESPN Images

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