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Snowboarding News - October 2009
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Saturday, 31 October 2009Over $700K of California state grants for both land restoration and forest fuels management at the Homewood Mountain Resort are helping to further basin-wide efforts to help keep Lake Tahoe blue. This past summer, Homewood completed an additional 80,000 square feet of land restoration on mountain thanks in large part to a $650K matching state grant to study and implement ways to help keep storm w ater runoff and sediment in place and from flowing into streams and eventually Lake Tahoe. The resort announced today that had reached its milestone goal of restoring a total of 240,000 square feet of decades-old abandoned work roads to a natural state thanks in large part to the grant funding. The work on site was managed by Integrated Environmental Restoration Services (IERS). IERS has been at the forefront of innovative sediment source control in the Lake Tahoe Basin and was brought in to work at Homewood Mountain Resort by JMA Ventures when they acquired the property in 2006.
Homewood is actively reducing overall land coverage at the resort, with a particular focus on removing old mining and logging roads - known to be one of the largest contributors to sediment in the Tahoe basin. Key to this effort, Homewood is monitoring the sediment reduction that is a direct result of the land restoration work and in combination with modeling, can clearly demonstrate significant reductions in sediment yield after restoration. Since inception of the land restoration work in 2006, Homewood’s restoration efforts have resulted in a reduction of over 60 metric tons of sediment runoff. Within restored areas, sediment runoff has been reduced by more than 97% meaning that water is largely being absorbed into the ground as opposed to running off into streams and the lake. The land restoration efforts at Homewood are expected to serve as a Lake Tahoe basin-wide model for how a public/private partnership can work to maintain the environmental health and water clarity of the lake. The proposed Homewood Mountain Resort ski area master plan includes a significant continuation of the land restoration efforts as well as other environmental improvement projects.
With the land restoration completion date originally set for summer, 2010, Homewood is pleased to be ahead of schedule. Treated areas have been restored to a natural state by following the guidelines of the Sediment Resource Control Handbook, authored by Michael Hogan of IERS and published in 2008 by the Sierra Business Council in collaboration with the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board and the California Alpine Resort Environmental Cooperative. The land restoration goals at Homewood were established shortly following JMA Ventures’ acquisition of Homewood in 2006. The efforts received additional support from the State of California Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Tahoe Resource Conservation District (Tahoe RCD) via the $650,000 matching grant in June, 2008.
Equally important has been Homewood’s forest fuels management. This fall, an additional five acres of fire prevention efforts are to be completed on particularly steep sloped areas at Homewood. Due to challenges of thinning forest fuels on steeper slopes, the planned forest fuels management work will further help Homewood with the goal of forest fuels management on all 1200 acres of the resort by 2012. To date, over 450 acres (or slightly more than one-third of the mountain) have been treated. Homewood’s forest fuel mitigation work on the steeper slopes are being carried out due to a $65K matching grant from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection agency.
“Homewood is the Lake Tahoe Basin’s largest parcel of private land,” said Art Chapman, president of JMA Ventures, LLC. “That said, Homewood is also enjoyed and appreciated by all who live here or visit for vacation. “It’s up to us to protect the land Homewood encompasses; which is why our team places a premium upon environmental restoration and planning. We’re thrilled with progress to date and we’ll continue to set the highest of environmental standards for ourselves and ideally serve as a model for others.”
Source: www.californiasnow.com
Friday, 30 October 2009Carinthia, New England’s only all park mountain face, was given recognition this year in October’s edition of Transworld SNOWboarding. A reader’s poll voted Mount Snow #1 Resort on the east, #1 Terrain Park on the east, and #2 half-pipe on the east. Big Boulder, another Peak Resorts mountain, also made it into the top 5 list of parks on the east at number four.
Other accolades awarded to Carinthia was #1 in the east as voted by Ski Magazine readers and being the only east coast resort ranked in the Top 10 for parks by Skiing.
Year one of the Carinthia transformation was a huge success. To improve upon that Mount Snow will be adding curved rails and boxes to its already impressive cache of steel features. The feature park Nitro has been widened by 25’ to allow for a wider passerby lane on skiers left. This will help improve the flow to Carinthia’s most popular park. While cliffs may be natural and abundant out west, on the east coast creativity comes into play. Elia Hamilton, Mountain Manager, built a 12’ unnatural cliff on the lower Nitro pitch that is sure to be an instant favorite.
Orage is "respecting the revolutionaries" this year by outfitting a select few terrain park crews, including Carinthia, with its limited edition, "LTD" line of outerwear. Be sure to check out the video and photo contests on facebook this winter for a chance to win gear and prizes, including Carinthia specific bandanas and pint glasses.
Source: www.prlog.com
Thursday, 29 October 2009Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ: COLM). a global leader in the active outdoor apparel and footwear industries, has chosen a site in the Sendlingerstrasse near the famous Marienplatz in Munich to house its third European Columbia-branded store, expected to open in December 2009. The new store, which will occupy 450 square meters, will present the company’s Columbia brand outdoor apparel, equip ment and footwear and Sorel brand footwear to millions of outdoor enthusiasts who live in Germany.
Sendlingerstrasse is one of the fastest developing shopping streets within Munich, with approximately 50,000 people visiting each day. City planners and developers are working together to turn a portion of the street into a pedestrian-only shopping area within the next three years. Sendlingerstrasse and the surrounding area currently feature stores owned by Columbia’s key customers and competitors, as well as other famous consumer brands such as Starbucks and Apple.
“We’re very excited about locating a Columbia-branded store in Munich, one of the premier retail shopping destinations in Europe and the business centre of Germany as well as a gateway to the Alps. The street sits in the heart of the ‘outdoor’ shopping area of Munich, only a five-minute walk from the very famous Marienplatz,” said Christian Finell, general manager Europe, Columbia Sportswear Company. “The planned opening of our store in Munich is an exciting move for our Columbia and Sorel brands in Germany.”
Columbia’s planned Munich store follows the opening of branded stores in Frankfurt and London in August and September, respectively, as part of the company’s strategy to establish a network of branded stores in key metropolitan markets around the world to drive consumer demand by elevating the presentation of its complementary outdoor brands.
Source: www.columbia.com
Wednesday, 28 October 2009We are now officially in the longest ever UK recession and as a consequence many people are deciding not to go on their annual ski holiday this year, or cutting down some of their costs by buying discount ski wear and booking last minute package deals. Skiing is still expensive though and not all of us can afford to get away anytime soon.
Last year, however, 1.27m Brits did get their w inter break, and it is thought that a similar number will manage to get away this year. The Ski Store @ Camping World has already seen strong pre-season sales figures across their whole ski wear range, with White Rock’s luxury ski clothing lines surprisingly outselling the cheaper Trespass ski wear range, and even the ultra-funky Surfanic snowboarding gear. This in itself points to the survival of a key core market at the very least, and may be an early indicator of the winter sports holiday industry picking up and having a good season this year.
There are other factors that stop people managing a whole week on the slopes though, and sitting here in this office I am thinking wistfully of the next time I can get the adrenaline rushing by dropping down a vertical black. I have recently had a child you see, and there is zero chance of my wife allowing me a week on the slopes sans child-care duties. With 2008 proving to be a massive boom-year for babies (I’m told people stayed in when news of the recession struck) and 2009 following suit, there have got to be a fair few mums and dads in my situation. Not willing to brave ski resort child-care and not allowed to slope off on my own, I’ve been looking at other ways of getting my fix.
So, decked out the trendiest Surfanic Snowboard Gear (even though I am a skier I like to look good and most of their snowboard clothing hits top 10/10 technical specs as well as having funky urban designs) and carrying my Salomon boots in a boot bag (I’ll hire skis), what can I do?
The answer: get a green card from management for a day’s skiing one Saturday in February, and get a quick solo skiing fix. After all, I enjoy the peace and adrenaline of a good run, and if I can get there for a day, why not? Other people would just slow me down.
How is it done? Lastminute.com is offering a day’s return overnight train travel on Eurostar from London St Pancras (or Ashford) to the Alps. Leave work on a Friday and jump on the train; arrive early Saturday morning at any of the resorts listed below, stow your luggage in lockers provided and spend the day trying to do every run you can; as the sun goes down forgoe the après ski bars and jump on the return train to London taking full advantage of the buffet car serving drinks until midnight (or in the decent bottle of wine you handily purchased before boarding), and arrive back in London early on Sunday morning.
Source: www.prlog.com
Tuesday, 27 October 2009So you love skiing? You are passionate about snowboarding? And are wondering why all the juicy charity events are only available for lycra clad cyclists or lunatic long distance runners? Well now is your chance to raise money for your favourite charity doing your favourite sport at the same time – heaven awaits!
The Reach 4 the Peaks Ski Marathon (February 27th – March 2nd 2010) is a c harity event on snow. You can ski it, snowboard it, monoboard it, do it on blades – whatever works for you as long as you undertake to be fit enough on your mode of transport to complete the challenge.
Along the way we will be attempting to summit 24 peaks in 4 ski regions in Austria. We will take the Saalbach Hinterglemm Ski Circus by storm first and then transfer to the Zell am See area where we will start at one end of the crescent and finish at the other taking in 13 peaks as we go. Tradition has it that we always walk one as well – well it is a challenge! The next day we transfer to the beautiful Hoch Konig Ski area where we ski like the wind all the way to Muhlbach before transferring to our finish resorts, Badgastein and Badhofgastein to rack up our total 24 peaks.
Sounds like fun? It will be but most of all, like a normal marathon, it will be hard work as well. You will be following local guides in groups of no more than 10 people. There willl be no stopping to read piste maps; no having cups of hot chocolate when it’s cold; no cool beer when it’s hot. Just snowboarding – when the lifts open to when the lifts close… doing your favourite sport… remember how much you love it?! Now that’s what we call sponsorshipworthy!
Source: www.prlog.com
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