Out of the videotaped auditions I’ve seen, these are my two favorites. Riders who want a shot at qualifying have until this Friday to upload their submissions.

I’m a skier, so I tend to gravitate towards skiers. My favorite by far has been this video of Brian Kish pulling off an I-don’t-know-what and barely sticking the landing.

There’s actually surprisingly little stoke going on with the snowboard auditions this year, with too many people submitting footage of probably-technical but definitely-boring spins. One of the bright spots so far has been Clint Allan, who did this stylish trick on nice-looking powder.

Community Connection

Check out these five ski resorts in the Southern Hemisphere.

New York Surf Film Festival

A three-day event whose stated aim is to “build upon and shape the idea of what a surf movie is.” Last year’s lineup included a Q&A with Rob Machado, a documentary on surfing in Cleveland, and a screening of the 1966 Bruce Brown classic The Endless Summer.

The New York Surf Film Festival returns to New York City from September 24-26. Tickets are available on the festival’s website.

San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition

For people who would rather be under the waves than ride them, the San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition is two nights of (mostly) hi-def original films about sea life and exploration. The 11th edition of the fest will take place on September 17 and 18 at San Diego’s Qualcomm Hall.

Midwest Ski Film Fest

With no serious mountains around, the terrain park is one of the few places in the Midwest where skiers can really push themselves.

That newschool style is the focus of the Midwest Ski Film Fest in Milwaukee, which brings together films from established companies like Level 1 with flicks from local amateurs. Last year’s event included gear giveaways from Jiberish, live music, and an after party.

The Midwest Ski Film Fest will come back to Milwaukee in October.

Boston Bike Film Fest

Besides being home to Harvard, MIT, and a good chunk of America’s hippie population, Cambridge is the spiritual center of Boston’s bike scene. For the fifth year running, the city is hosting the Boston Bike Film Fest, a two-night exhibition of indie cycling flicks.

The festival comes to the Brattle Theatre October 22-23, and will feature films from four categories: shorts, documentaries, features, and animated films. Tickets are available on the fest’s website.

Feature image: Steve Janish

Community Connection

Read about more film festivals on Matador Nights.

Held at Thredbo in New South Wales, the One Hit Wonder Down Under is as viewer-friendly as comps come. A group of skiers and riders, chosen through video audition, spend four days doing their most insane big-air tricks on camera. Afterward, the best cuts are posted online, and viewers vote for their favorite skier and snowboarder.

The end result is a bunch of riders sinking all their skill into pulling off the flashiest, best-looking stunts they can think of. Even little children do better in the terrain park than I do, so it’s nice to know that I can at least catch big air vicariously.

Here’s the video of last year’s comp, with winners Robbie Walker and Bine Zalohar:

Community Connection

This year’s competition goes down September 14-18. Hopefuls have until August 20th to send in their audition tapes.

Named after a Kyrgyz national legend, 40 Tribes partners with local villagers to run ski touring trips into the mountains of northern Kyrgyzstan.

The group, which manages a hut near the town of Ichke Jergez, will begin offering guided and self-guided tours this year. Besides following ecologically sound practices in the backcountry, the group will put much of its profits back into the community by offering home stays with families and training local partners as guides.

40 Tribes’ Ryan Koupal was kind enough to provide us with these shots of his group’s first forays into the Kyrgyz backcountry. While it isn’t a destination that gets a lot of attention from North American skiers, it looks to me like it deserves to.

1. The 4,400-meter Babash Ata mountains rise directly behind Arslanbob, an Uzbek village in Kyrgyzstan’s southern Jalal-Abad province. The village, also home to the world’s largest natural walnut forest, has seen a surge in tourism in recent years.

2. Uzbek elders take leave from wedding festivities in an Arslanbob family’s courtyard, where a massive PA system blasts traditional dance music. Kyrgyzstan’s south is dotted with Uzbek and Tajik enclaves, some of which require visas to pass through.

3. Many villages in Kyrgyzstan are snowbound for a greater part of the winter, leaving locals to get creative in taking care of the daily chores. While most popular with rural children, sleds are also used to transport bundles of firewood and urns of water.

4. An unnamed 3,500-meter peak rises in the Suusamyr-Too Range. Less than three hours by road from Bishkek, the Suusamyr Valley has endless potential for backcountry skiing.

5. Colorado rider Austin Gibney airs in front of a massive cirque.This particular zone is accessible from the 40 Tribes yurt-lodge at Jalpak Tash, located at 2,700 meters above the village of Ichke Jergez.

6. The aftermath of the cirque, eventually named The Gamburger Stand after an inside joke stemming from our group’s obsession with Kyrgyz fast food. Despite widespread evidence of avalanches, we found excellent snow stability in the area.

7. If you’re a fan of the 60s, you’ll love the modern-day Kyrgyz aesthetic. In the north, it’s not uncommon for entire villages to be painted in Soviet-era colors, like this baby blue door.

8. Bishkek-area locals celebrate the spring solstice and Muslim New Year, Noruz, with a game of ulak tartysh at the national stadium. The centuries-old game is a lot like polo, except it’s played bare-handed with a headless goat carcass.

9. The moon hangs over the Kyrgyz backcountry.

10.The 3,000-meter Ala Bel Pass provides immediate access to some of the most impressive touring in Kyrgyzstan. The trick with Ala Bel is hitting in in the spring, when temperatures rise out of the negatives and the snow pack settles.

11. 6 pm is a normal bedtime during the Kyrgyz winter. Here in late March, we extended it to 7.

12. Coloradoan skiers Andy Wenberg and Ellis smith take a breather during an early-morning tour from Jalpak Tash.

13. Mud season in Ichke Jergez. Come June, families and their livestock will head for the high-mountain pastures, or Jailoos, above the village, where they will set their yurts and stay through the first snowfall of the following season.

14. Living near Kyrgyzstan’s largest ski resort, many residents of Jalpak Tash have seen skis, but never been on them. With his enthusiasm and passion, Nurbek (right, pink hat), one of our local partners, is destined to become one of the village’s first skiers.

Disclosure: No Connection, Unpaid, My Own Opinions

Community Connection

If you like the idea of traveling to help local communities, check out Matador’s sustainable travel focus page for more resources and trip ideas.

Christian Pondella photo, Eastside Magazine

As part of a typically grandiose and splashy roundup in Skiing Magazine entitled “The Future of Skiing: The 28 people, products, and inventions revolutionizing our sport,” writer Rob Story worked up a quick profile of his Telluride neighbor, master custom ski maker Pete Wagner.

Perhaps to give himself some traction on a list that otherwise includes some real shakers — the laser-guided pipe-shaping tool, the avy flotation backpack, surf-skis, and so on — Story felt the need to begin by flinging some empty and not-so-well researched hyperbole at “that mohawked dude in the Mammoth parking lot who’ll fire up power tools and cut you a pair of skis during lunch if you slide him $300.”

The dig (coupled with the one that follows) betrays not only a basic misunderstanding of what said dude might be up to, but also of what might actually be revolutionary in the state and future of custom manufacture.

I don’t doubt that Wagner’s planks are of exceptional quality, and as meticulously tailored to the individual gentleman-skier as a made-to-measure suit from William Fioravanti. According to Story, Wagner — institutionally-trained as both an engineer and a business administrator — crafts about six pairs of skis a week at a cost to the consumer of anywhere from $1500 to $2000.

I’m sure they’re awesome. I’d be thrilled to own a pair. I’d even put ‘em to good use.

Thing is, I’m not seeing the revolution in it. Au contraire, as they say over where the concept was invented. (Consider, for example, the flourishing of the bespoke trades in Bourbon France in the century and a half leading up to the guillotine.)

“Wagner knows how much skiers enjoy saying, Yeah, I own custom skis,” Story wrote. “But he knows you’d be a damn fool to waste a minute of precious winter on skis built during lunch in a parking lot.”

Which misses the point, of course. And rings not slightly enough of “Let them eat cake.”

Michael Lish — that’s the mohawked dude’s name — is not selling craftsmanship. He’s not selling overhead or pedigree or attitude. He’s not even selling (and this is where he’s raised some ire in TGR Forums) skis. In essence, he’s not selling anything. He’s giving it away.

Lish is on the leading edge of a fast-growing movement in open-source manufacturing, a movement Wired magazine has recently dubbed “The Next Industrial Revolution.”

Sure, you can push your way to the top of Lish’s long list of orders-yet-to-be-filled, you can hunt him down wherever he happens to be camping, put in a day or two of your own labor, as I did last fall, using his tools and assembly process, his hard-fought expertise, plus whatever materials he has on hand, in exchange for $333, and thereby build yourself something unique to ski on.

But again, that’s not really the point. You could just as easily, or more easily, as quite a few of Lish’s critics (and briefly wannabe customers) have pointed out, pick up a pair of fairly clean mass-market boards from last year’s demo stock at about the same cost (to you), and, in Story’s sense of economy, not waste any time at all thinking about how your skis were made (or shipped or marketed or marked up and/or eventually discarded as excess to make way for the next season’s shipment of basically the same thing in a different package).

Joe Walker and Andy Bourne with the skis that Joe built

Alternatively, you could join the revolution, get together with a group of friends, invest about $1,000 for a kit — about half the upfront cost of one fine-minted pair of Wagner skis —, find some extra garage space or a trailer you can gut and haul around behind someone’s truck, and start your own micro ski factory.

The do-it-yourself approach allows you not only to customize your graphics, but to tweak specs and materials according to how you want to ski, to fill out your quiver economically, and at the same time take direct responsibility for your energy use and the sustainability of your materials, to keep your money out of unfair labor practices, and ultimately to cut out the whole wasteful chain from traditional industrial manufacture all the way to retail.

Don’t want to waste precious wintertime on it? Do it this summer. Here’s the gist.

Community Connection

It’s not too late: Matador Trips lists ten places where spring and summer are still ski season.

For more indie ski goodness, check out Sick Freeski, Straight From the Midwest.

Alaska offers many different destinations and outfitters for heliskiing trips. I flew with Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures (SEABA) out of Haines. Located about 90 miles Northwest of Juneau, Haines is considered one of the up-and-coming destinations for big mountain freeskiing and riding. The 2,000-person town can only be reached by plane or ferry and is situated at the foot of both the Chilkat and Fairweather Mountain Ranges, which, together, form some of the most insane ski terrain in the world. For adrenaline junkies, Haines has all you can handle, but it can be dangerous and it’s important to go with the best guides available. SEABA proved to me during my visit that safety is their first priority and that they can make skiing even the most challenging terrain, an safe experience for any rider.

1. The only downside to heliskiing is that the weather has to cooperate for the bird to fly. After waiting through three days of low pressure systems puking rain and snow, we awoke to this perfect day and rushed with our guide to the helipad at the Haines airport. This was my first look at these mountains and I had been in AK for almost 5 days.

2. Heliskiing is a very gear intensive sport. In addition to ski gear, every rider is required to wear a climbing harness (since cravasses are a danger on the glaciated terrain) and full avalanche gear (backpack, beacon, probe, and shovel). I hadn’t brought a harness but SEABA provided me withe the gear I was missing. They put everyone on a scale before takeoff so the pilot knows how much weight he’s flying with — I tipped the scales to 230 lbs with all my gear.

3. I had the pleasure of flying and riding with three very experienced backcountry riders from Durango, CO. Backcountry riding of any kind is a team sport and it’s critical that everyone trusts everyone else. John, Mike and Greg were great dudes to be with, and showed me the ropes on my first heli experience.

4. The most important thing to have with you in the Alaska backcountry is an experienced guide, and we were all glad we had been paired with Tom. After more than a decade guiding, Tom is a ninja of snow science and a beast of a skier. He’s also a really nice guy and has the kind of laugh that could only belong to someone who heliskis for a living.

5. Given the snow conditions, which the SEABA guides anticipated to be be potentially high for avalanche danger, Tom started us off on a moderately steep run and went out in the field cautiously to inspect what conditions were like.

6. In the first five minutes of skiing, Tom, leading our group, set off a decent-sized avalanche. He was especially concerned because he was still 80 feet above the crown when the slide broke. This particular avalanche triggered other slides on its way down the valley, which in turn, made the run safe to ski.

7. Safely at the bottom of the run, near the heli landing point, Tom is seen here about to record where the slide was and how it broke off. The specifics of every avalanche are recorded so that the SEABA guides can document the snowpack and monitor the ever-changing conditions.

8. Towards the middle of the day, Tom spotted a small landing zone that he wanted to put us on. Our ninja heli pilot, Steve, was able to hold the heli steady while we exited and Tom unloaded the gear. Being left on that ridge–and digging out a larger landing area for the heli to perch on in future runs–was one of the most exhilarating experiences of the day.

9. Tom recognized the precarious snow conditions early on and reiterated that snow safety was our number one priority for the day.

10. Towards the bottom of each 3500+ vertical foot run we would enter glades of trees in the shade of the peaks above us.

11. Alaska has a way of making you feel really, really small.

12. The snow was amazing, but even on the moderate slopes we descended one skier at a time to mitigate the hazards of avalanche.

13. Communication between riders is critical. Each of us had a radio, through which Tom directed the team. Since he would go down first and it was hard to see upcoming features or unsafe snow, Tom would direct us through the radio as we skied. This was extremely helpful. I didn’t have a radio, but again, SEABA supplied me with the right gear to stay safe.

14. Each of us was equipped with an Avalung system, but ultimately it was the know-how of Tom and the SEABA staff that kept us well out of danger’s path

15. Steve was able to bring the heli down on this gentle hill on the back of the glacier. Tom seen here again, taking notes on the instability in snow conditions that we safely traveled through.

16. Simply put, being out there in one of Mother Nature’s grand cathedrals makes you feel alive.

17.
At the end of the day, we had gotten one of the best ski days of our lives. We owed the safe ending to Tom and the amazing staff at SEABA.

18. Tom seen here briefing the other guides on all of the avalanches we encountered. The SEABA staff opted to return to the airport early and wait for another day to let snow conditions improve.

Marjan Kalhor, an Alpine and slalom skier from Iran, has little chance of placing at the 2010 Winter Olympics, but her presence at the games is an already an achievement.

Out of the four Iranian athletes who will compete in Vancouver, Kalhor is the only woman. In fact, she is the first woman from Iran ever to compete in the Winter Olympics.

Kalhor, 21, has been skiing since she was four years old. She won a national event at age 11 and a bronze medal at a competition in Turkey when she was 16. At 18, she won a gold medal in slalom and a silver medal in the giant slalom at a Lebanese event. More recently, she placed 60th in the giant slalom at the 2009 World Championships in Val d’Isere, France.

Photo: hapal

She has been aiming for the Olympics since the 2006 games in Turin, Italy.

Iran sent its first female Olympian, Lida Fariman, to compete in shooting in 1996, and Iranian women have since competed in rowing, archery, and taekwondo. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad even supported an initiative to encourage women athletes to participate in sports, but religious leaders have forced him to back away from the plan.

Iran’s mandatory Islamic dress code complicates things. Some female gymnasts and swimmers have switched sports in the hope of getting to the Olympics in an event that requires participants to be fully dressed. Skiing is one of those sports, though one mullah reportedly has said that women shouldn’t ski because the movement of their knees “looks like dancing.”

During the competition, Kalhor will wear an aerodynamic ski suit and helmet, just like her opponents. Off the slopes, she will still be expected to observe the Islamic dress code, or hijab.

Community Connection:

If you’ll be traveling to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, here are six side trips you shouldn’t miss.

Pictures by Michael Jantzen

Still a design proposal, the North Slope Ski Hotel has 95 rooms and is powered primarily by wind and solar energy. The whole thing would be constructed with sustainable building products, including gym equipment designed to help contribute power to the hotel.

The best part? The hotel has a 400-foot-high ski slope built right into it. Not only is the design swanky, it’s functional.

An aerial view of the hotel.

Using an elevator, skiers climb to the top of the hotel and then ski or snowboard down into the landscape. The slope has a special surface that eliminates the need for snow, so guests can ride year-round.

After a long day of skiing, you can head to the hotel’s rooftop bar to check out the view.

The slope is also designed to catch rainwater and snow and store it in large containers at the building’s base. The water is then recycled and used throughout the hotel.

The eco-hotel is only one of the many environmentally friendly designs created by Jantzen, who hopes to “demonstrate how even the most luxurious places on earth can, and should be, built in an earth friendly way.”

Community Connection:

Check out these six American ski mountains you’ve never heard about for more ski inspiration.

Photo by: Tim in Sydney

I’m fairly skilled at paying as little attention as possible to sports news. I know just enough about football to have an idea about which teams might end up in the Super Bowl. I’m aware of where the 2010 World Cup will be played, and I know that Tiger Woods’ career is as good as over.

But when it comes to coverage of the Olympic Games, I’m all over it like cliches in bad writing. I follow all the major sporting events, but I especially like underrated ones like curling and the biathlon.

Leading up to any Olympic Games, there is always plenty of media coverage (remember the pollution problems in China?). The Olympics are, in many ways, a short-lived sports soap opera that drops in, engulfs our lives for a few weeks, then leaves quickly and quietly. I admit, I love every minute of the drama.

Photo by:Lululemon Athletica

So goes the story in Vancouver, home of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Last week, Whistler Ski Resort, the official alpine skiing venue for this year’s games, ran into financial problems and is scheduled to be auctioned off on February 19th. Though the owners of the property say it’s business as usual at Whistler, my guess is this has kept a few Olympic planners up at night thinking about back-up plans if the property goes bankrupt.

A more tangible problem for skiers is the lack of snow falling on the slopes. Cypress Mountain, located on Vancouver’s North Shore and site of the freestyle skiing and snowboarding events, has not had a particularly snowy season, and forecasters aren’t predicting any additional precipitation for the mountains prior to the Olympics.

So Plan B is in place: use straw and wood to build up courses, then cover the straw and wood with snow hauled in from other areas of the mountain. This could impact the ski cross and snowboard cross races because the technical nature of these sports relies on high jumps, which will be difficult to manipulate without natural snowfall.

But none of this matters if athletes don’t show up to compete, which is the situation a few skiers and snowboarders in Britain are facing. The British Ski and Snowboard Federation is also dealing with funding issues and could fold before the Olympic Games. This would leave 15 British athletes without membership in a federation, which is a requirement for Olympic athletes to compete. British Olympic officials are preparing a contigency plan for the athletes, but there is no guarantee the plan would satisfy the International Olympic Committee.

Community Connection:

There are two sides to every story. In addition to bringing athletes together from around the world, the Olympic Games in Vancouver also has a dark side.

If you’re headed to the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, here are some hints on how to find free accommodations.

Photo by mike warren

Ski resorts are experiencing the heaviest influx of skiers in years, thanks to one hell of a winter season. 20,000 people and counting have torn up the slopes at Scotland’s biggest ski resort, Aviemore, four times last year’s number from around the same date.

There’s never been a better time to check out the Scotland snow scene. In fact, tourism officials say that ski accommodation bookings are up 500% in Scotland.

Ski resorts in Scotland have been suffering these past few years due to inadequate snow conditions and mild winters. Just three months ago, the Glencoe ski resort was threatening to close due to lack of business.

The site was put up for sale, and a last minute takeover allowed the resort to open in time for the New Year. Now, the slopes are so packed, skiers are having a hard time finding parking spots.

It’s not just skiing either. Sledding has become so popular that the Nevis Range resort has run out of toboggans. Enthusiasm is running so high that skiers in campers are staying out overnight in the CarnGorm’s car-park to be the first people on the slopes in the morning.

Travel can be dangerous in these snowy conditions. To keep yourself and others safe, check out Traffic Scotland.

Community Connection

Looking for more information about Scotland’s slopes? Check out Skiing in Scotland.

Photo: moohaha

[Editor's note: This piece is sponsored by our friends at the State of Montana.]

Montana’s downhill skiing resorts are as varied as the state itself. From massive Big Sky Mountain outside of Bozeman to rentable-for-a-private-party Turner Mountain in remote northwestern Montana, you can pretty much find whatever you’re looking for in a downhill ski vacation – except glitz, glamor, and pretension.

Big Sky – Photo: Dennis from Atlanta

Big Sky Mountain

Most Montanans agree that Big Sky Mountain Resort is the best downhill skiing opportunity in the state.

From big, steep, scary chutes and bowls, to long blue cruisers and fun beginner runs, Big Sky can keep everyone satisfied. Boasting over 3,800 acres of skiing and over 400 inches of snow annually, Big Sky is popular for a reason. Tickets – $79. (800) 548-4486

If you somehow get tired of Big Sky’s runs, just over the ridge is Moonlight Basin, a smaller but equally challenging resort. Big Sky’s less glitzy cousin, Moonlight is more of a local’s hill. One $94 dollar ticket lets you ride both resorts, even though they’re technically different operations. Together the resorts offer over 7,000 acres of incredible skiing. Tickets (Moonlight Basin only) – $55. (877) 822-0432

Bridger Bowl

If Big Sky is considered the state’s best resort, Bridger Bowl just an hour north in the Bridger Mountains, is likely the state’s favorite. Known for legendarily big dumps, it has snowed well over four feet in a single storm at Bridger. Basically a long ridge with steep, scary lines dropping down to the base, Bridger is the definition of steep and deep. Avalanche gates at the top of the resort let riders access the incredible backcountry that continues past the resort’s boundaries. Tickets – $42. (800) 223-9609

Whitefish Mountain Resort

Whitefish Mountain Resort is one of Montana’s oldest ski resorts, first cut into Big Mountain back in the 1940’s by former Tenth Mountain Division veterans. A sprawling family resort that stretches to roughly 3500 acres, Whitefish Mountain Resort is impressive. At times steep and deep, at times mellow and easy, “The Fish” is lot like Montana itself.

A free shuttle bus gets you from the mountain to the fun bars and fantastic restaurants that line the quaint downtown of Whitefish. The Empire Builder (Amtrak) runs right into town, providing a great option for folks coming from Seattle or Minneapolis. Last season Whitefish Mountain Resort received 420 inches of snow, and storms often settle over the resort dumping six inches of fresh every night for two weeks. Tickets – $61. (800) SKI-FISH

Bridger Bowl – Photo: RichardBarley

Snowbowl Mountain

Just twenty minutes from Missoula, Snowbowl is a second home for Zootown’s skiers and many of its 12,000 college students. Despite its proximity to town, with only two chairs to get you to the top, the 1000 acres of steep, challenging skiing is often untracked well into the day.

A small, rustic lodge at the base rents rooms for 40-80 bucks a night, so if you down a few too many of the slope-side bar’s delicious Bloody Mary’s, you can still be well positioned for first chair the next morning. If you want to stay in town and catch the best music scene in Montana, hotels and even a hostel are available for every budget. Tickets – $39. (406) 549-9777

Maverick Mountain

Located on the edge of the Pioneer Mountains, Maverick Mountain is a fun, family-style ski hill where the camo your lift operator is wearing is the real deal, not some outfit purchased from the ski hill boutique. Maverick is conveniently located next to Elkhorn Hot Springs where you can rent a rustic cabin and soak your tired legs in the warm water.

The cabins are off-grid and wood-stove heated, and the pool could have used a cleaning the last time I was there, but it’s close and the bar food tastes pretty good after a day on the slopes. There’s also a network of groomed cross-country ski trails and a huge snowmobiling system if you’re ready for a break from the hill. Tickets – $30. (406) 834-5434

Whitefish – Photo: Katie@!

Red Lodge Mountain

Way down in southwest Montana lies the town of Red Lodge and Red Lodge Mountain. Red Lodge is often referred to as an undiscovered Aspen, Bend, or Telluride, and the cowboy hats you see here are as real as the cowboys wearing them.

The mountain, at 1600 acres, isn’t as big as others in Montana, the snow not as deep, but the skiing is definitely exciting. Plus it’s always fun to say you were there long before everyone else even knew it existed. Tickets – $47. (406) 446-2610

Lost Trail Powder Mountain

Just off Highway 93 and ninety miles south of Missoula sits Lost Trail Powder Mountain – and powdery it is. Snow seems to collect here like few other places in Montana and if a fun, family ski hill laden with the white stuff is what you’re after, Lost Trail is your place.

Lost Trail isn’t fancy or super steep, but it’s fun and cheaper than many other resorts in Montana. It also closes Monday through Wednesday, so on Thursdays and Fridays its runs are often untracked. There’s a small hot springs resort just up the road where you can get a cabin and soak before the next day on the slopes. Tickets – $34. (406) 821-3211

Discovery Ski Area

Tucked into Pioneers and between the cool, old mining town of Philipsburg and Georgetown Lake, Montana’s ice fishing and snow kiting hub, is Discovery Ski Area. If you’re a family or your group has mixed abilities and you’re looking for a true Montana experience, Discovery is a fantastic option. The front side is mellow and fun, complete with a terrain park. The backside is a haven of double black diamond shots, and the chairlift that runs back up allows lapping until your legs are toast. Tickets – $35. (406) 563-2184

Turner Mountain

If sharing the hill with anyone you don’t know is a problem for you, Turner Mountain is your solution. This small, snow-filled resort in far northwestern Montana is only open Friday through Sunday, but it’s rentable any other day of the week. Just get thirty or so of your favorite friends, give them a call, and the entire hill is yours. If you don’t need the whole hill, just head over for the day and enjoy the powder and super small feel. Tickets – $25. (406) 293-2468

Community Connection

Looking to relax? Check out Matador Trips’ Montana Resorts: Treating Yourself Right in Big Sky Country.

‘Tis the season to hit the slopes, but in the last week, dozens of people have been caught in avalanches across the European Alps. Hikers, skiers, snowboarders and rescuers are falling victim to the avalanches, even though many of these people are seasoned winter navigators.

Though stats vary about how many people visit the Alps every year, the number hovers somewhere around 120 million people annually. That’s a lot of people spread out across the 600 miles of mountains, which span six countries and one independent state. When conditions are perfect for skiing and snowboarding, it can be difficult to convince people to stay off the slopes.

Many of these adrenaline junkies specifically look for backcountry skiing, which makes keeping track of—and finding—skiers particularly challenging, despite the pleas by avalanche forecasters to would-be off-piste skiers to stay on established trails.

Despite these warnings, however, people are still searching for their own space in the mountains. In one instance, an avalanche triggered by off-piste skiers forced a ski resort in Chamonix, France, to close. A similar occurrence in Switzerland forced a snow slide onto the established slopes of the resort.

The disastrous start to the season may or may not be linked directly to global warming. Though rising temperatures and melting permafrost contribute to create the perfect conditions for avalanches, a few of the avalanche-related deaths occurred during colder-than-usual temperatures.

Rescue crews fear a repeat of the dreaded “winter of terror” when, over the course of three months in 1950-1951, more than 265 people died in avalanches. A similar scenario played out in 1999 when 75 people died in three weeks from avalanche-related incidents.

Community Connection:

Looking to avoid the Alps this winter? Here are ten of the best budget ski resorts in North America.

From all of us at Matador, have a happy holiday!

Sponsored by Level 1 Productions, Superunknown is an freeski video competition that’s fast becoming one of the toughest on the scene. The contest is aimed toward amateurs, and videos can be no longer than 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Level 1 is hoping that this year’s entries will top last year’s in both quantity and quality.

Last year’s winner, Niklas Ericsson, beat a pool of over 100 entries from around the world to take the prize. In this week’s video, Ericsson comes back with a taster of what’s coming in this year’s contest.

If you’re planning on entering Superunknown VII, you’d better get moving: entry closes on January 31.

From all of us at Matador, have an extreme weekend!

Last month, Jibulant got one of their biggest breaks so far when their latest feature, “Let’s Dance”, popped up at the Midwest Ski Film Festival in Milwaukee, after winning a contest at Newschoolers.com.

Jibulant Productions “Lets Dance” Teaser from Chris Todd on Vimeo.

“We got a really awesome response from the viewers,” says Chris Todd, who films and edits Jibulant’s productions. “I was actually surprised how many good comments we got, and praise by some pretty legit guys.”

If the eye-popping aerials and rail slides in the trailer are any indication, the film deserves all that praise and more. If this is amateur, you wonder what we’re paying the pros for.

“Let’s Dance” is scheduled to be released online next week.

Community Connection

Check out Jibulant’s work on Vimeo.

Photo: Ecnerwal

70-plus days of riding the Utah powder. Free lift tickets and early admission to the slopes. Olympic clinics in sports like biathlon and Nordic jumping. Maybe even a free pair of skis or snowboard.

You might as well call Salt Lake City’s Winter At Westminster program “Semester at Ski.” The program, which bills itself as a study abroad alternative for adrenaline junkies, pairs liberal arts education with some of the world’s best skiing and boarding.

Students in the program spend their afternoons taking classes at Westminster College, rated by Newsweek as one of “America’s Hottest Colleges.” Mornings, afternoons, and Fridays are for riding at any of the seven ski resorts that lie within half an hour of campus.

As part of the package, students get two lift tickets, one to The Canyons and one to either Snowbird or Alta. Students who applied early this semester also got their choice of a free Rossignol snowboard or pair of Dynastar skis.

In addition, Winter At Westminster students get access to extra-curricular clinics in various Olympic disciplines and backcountry techniques, as well as chances at internships with outdoor companies like Dynastar, Lange, and Backcountry.com. To cover the program’s costs, students pay an extra $3,300 fee on top of the normal semester tuition.

About 25-30 students take part in Winter At Westminster each semester, and the program generally gets good reviews.

Westminster graduate and Canyons employee Hannah Bowling said that she loved the program so much, she decided to transfer from her original school, Montana State.

“I actually started at The Canyons through an internship with the Winter at Westminster program, so I can completely attribute Winter at Westminster for me having a job,” Bowling told Examiner.com.

Besides helping students land jobs, Westminster has a reputation for turning out an incredible number of world-class athletes: out of the 36 members of the current US Freestyle Ski Team, 14 are Westminster students or grads.

Winter At Westminster is accepting applications for spring 2010 until November 15, with late applications considered for another month after that.

Community Connection

Learn more about study programs around the world at Matador Abroad.

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