These three venues will progressively determine which riders truly have what it takes to rock the gold in Vancouver.

The beginning of the official trail to Olympic glory started yesterday with Gretchen Bleiler stealing first at the women’s qualifiers event, with their finals on Saturday.  50 ladies threw down in the pipe at Copper in Colorado, with two heats determining the final eight for Saturday’s event.

1st Gretchen Bleiler:

Women’s Grand Prix Qualifiers:

1. Gretchen Bleiler, 47.1
2. Kelly Clark, 45.7
3. Soko Yamaoka, 43.5
4. Maddy Schaffrick,  43.2
5. Quera Castellet, 43
6. Ellery Hollindsworth, 41.4
7. Holly Crawford, 41.1
8. Clair Bidez,  41.07 (everyone else has her listed at 41.70, but they’re wrong)

Dreams will be made and broken during the 2010 US Snowboarding Grand Prix as the tour makes three stops in its 14th season.  A total of five Olympic qualification competitions will take place at Copper Mountain in Colorado’s Summit County and Mammoth Mountain in the Mammoth Lakes region of California.  The tour will make its final stop at Park City Mountain Resort, the venue for the 2002 Olympics, to announce the 2010 Olympic halfpipe team.

The Grand Prix series will narrow down the competition for Olympic spots through its first two tour stops and solidify the 2010 team at the final event in Park City.  “Copper, Mammoth and Park City are all classic Grand Prix sites and will provide a most fitting stage on which to name the Olympic halfpipe team for 2010,” said Grand Prix Tour Director Eric Webster.  “Copper, Mammoth and Park City all have a proven track record in hosting world class snowboard events, which lends confidence to the riders and coaches in a season with so much on the line.”  Each with their own 22′ halfpipe, these three venues will progressively determine which riders truly have what it takes to rock the gold in Vancouver.

The competition will heat up as Olympic gold medalists Kelly Clark (Snow Mountain, VT), Hannah Teter (Belmont, VT), and Shaun White (Carlsbad, CA), along with fellow Olympic medalists Gretchen Bleiler (Aspen, CO), JJ Thomas (Golden, CO) and Danny Kass (Portland, OR) all look for another shot at Olympic glory.  Joining them in the hunt will be Grand Prix overall champions Steve Fisher (Breckenridge, CO) and Louie Vito (Sandy, UT) as well as Grand Prix podium performers Ellery Hollingsworth (Stratton, VT), Clair Bidez (Minturn, CO) Greg Bretz (Mammoth Lakes, CA) and Olympian Elena Hight (South Lake Tahoe, CA).

2010 US Snowboard Grand Prix Schedule:

1. Dec. 10-12, 2009, Copper Mountain
2. Jan. 6-10, 2010, Mammoth Mountain
3. Jan. 22-23, 2010, Park City Mountain (followed by the Vancouver Olympic Team Announcement)

Check out US Snowboarding for more information about the Grand Prix Tour and its venues.

- Get On The Scene -

Which rider are you gunning for, my snowboarder amigo?

Let me really explore the boundaries of what I can do and the tricks that I’ve contemplated over years, and never really had the chance or inspiration to try.
~ Shaun White

Project X is not a sexually deviant playhouse, nor is it an alien research base.  For those of you who don’t know, Red Bull and Silverton Mountain partnered to provide Shaun White with the most innovative sport-advancing facility to date.  Project X is that arena of freshness: a perfectly produced 550′ long monster pipe with a 20′ by 30′ foam pit at the end.

With Silverton being the only snow area designed exclusively for advanced and expert skiers and riders, they have less patrons all year than most resorts have in a day.  It’s also the highest ski area with some of the most prime powder in the nation.  So considering all of these factors, why wouldn’t Shaun and Red Bull go straight to Silverton?

They were sneaky, stealthy, sexy assassins putting the whole venture together.  Before creating any of the snow structure they had to flood the basin with pow produced by means of large 25lb charges (bombs), which instigated 30 avalanches and allowed for 250,000 cubic yards of snow to be molded into Project X.  Then consider the 8,000lb steel structure made into a diesel foam pit.

34 hours in the pipe developing new tricks never seen before, Shaun White learned in hours what otherwise could have taken years.  If you go to the Project X site and meander over to the New Tricks section, you can see his Front Double Cork Ten, Switch Back 900, Double Back Rodeo, and Cab Double Cork Ten practiced and then gracefully executed.

“There was an element of ‘What the hell do we do with it?’ but I had a wish list of the kind of tricks I wanted to do.  And every single trick I set out to do, I can now do, which is awesome.  Trial and error was really how we found out what was possible.  You look at what other people have done and try to improve on that or add variations.  Or you just wonder, what if?  What if I just kept flipping?  That was the luxury of the foam pit, because you would never try it otherwise, you would just beyond hurt yourself.  The first tricks I attempted were just hideous.”

Even though Justin Hynes spells it Sean, here’s a link to the Staying on Top interview I quoted.

- Get On The Scene -

Project X launched Shaun White even further ahead of the game.  Unfair ahead.  If there’s a way, Shaun has the will.

Can you imagine the freedom to practice in an ultimately optimal facility, my snowboarder amigo?

Underage and somehow abide by the law of the land that restricts you from imbibing.

I love deals, treasure hunts, discounts, bogos, thrift shops, garage sales, and bartering. Problem is that coupons for these sometimes include fine print details that you would rather not deal with.  The situation at hand with Long Trail Brewery in Vermont is one which I’m definitely willing to work with the fine print limitations.

Upon standing in front of the beer fridges at the liquor store, contemplating what tasty beverage I wanted to sedate my senses with, I noticed Long Trail’s 12-pack mixer.  Why not?  For those of you who are underage AND somehow abide by the law of the land that restricts you from imbibing alcoholic beverages, I’m sorry if I am teasing you with talk of the forbidden fruit.  In any case, I purchased the twelve pack only to get home and discover that there was a half price ticket voucher attached to the assortment of delicious liquids.  Since Long Trail is based out of Vermont all of the participating resorts are in the Green Mountain State, and lucky for me out on the east coast, there’s a lot of prime snow up there.

I put up these humungo photos so that you could inspect the fine print to debate whether buying a Long Trail twelver for the offer is worth it.

- Get On The Scene -

If you’re reading this blog because you love to hit the mountains, and maybe you also love beer, then check out Long Trail’s delectable selection.  Oh yeah, and their IPA is bomb.

Would your beer selection be influenced by this half price ticket, my snowboarder amigo?

I love the icy design, defrost-able with your fingers.

If a brand wants to make money advertising to me via their applications, I won’t pay to use it while providing them with an additional revenue stream.  For simplification of this review, I’ll divvy the apps into two categories: Snow Resort Info and Miscellaneous.  I’ve also included my ratings to further distinguish app quality.  1 (wanted to throw my phone at the app designer ) 2 (just don’t bother) 3 (on the fence because there’s potential) 4 (thoroughly enjoyed myself and is useful) 5 (will do anything to baby-make with the app designer).

- Miscellaneous -

Addicted to Snow – Calendar Shots 2009 2**

ATS utilized rupa’s eBOOK for their Calendar Shots 2009 photobook.  It’s not a utility calendar, but simply an iPhone photobook.  It doesn’t refresh with new photos every time you open it, so once you get to December you’re punked.  There are some beautiful images.

Addicted to Snow – Snowboard Photography Around the Globe 2**

125 virtual pages of great shots and film clips where the introduction describes “this snowboard book… captures some of those moments that not every snowboarder will witness personally.”  And then I arrive at page ten to find that I have to pay $1.99 to see anymore of this.  Addicted to Snow, so far you have not impressed me.

Boarder Lounge 3***

This is an app for people to add and show off their favorite spots for skating and riding, with the capability to add media and descriptions of the spot’s details.  The Lounge is a forum.  Unfortunately, the community isn’t too large right now, so if you search for spots with relevance to your location there most likely won’t be anything.  Maybe in a year.

Crossy 3***

Insert a photo from your phone behind the falling snow/crosses.  Not really useful, but it made me giggle.  I thought it was Swiss propaganda at first.

Malakye 4****

Malakye is all about jobs, business, and news  for action sports and outdoor lifestyle industries.  You can browse job openings posted daily in these industries, check out the Malakye news, and if you’re running a biz they have a B2B offering many resources.

Phresheez 1*

Sign up for an account.  Select different items.  Waste an hour for nothing.  I believe this app is supposed to be a social networking platform for snowboarders, but who knows…

Ride Snowboards 4****

I love Ride Snowboards.  Their app gives you access to great news, wild videos, rider information, and of course Ride product selling tools.  Other than the sales pitch inherent in any company’s app services, this is a rad app for media.

- Snow Resort Info -

Fizz Snow 4****

Add your preferred mountains.  It provides 24 hr forecast of temperature, wind, visibility, and precipitation, as well as surface conditions resort information.  Trail maps and photos.  There is a cool “view all mountains” button that displays all your favorites, and includes the new snow and base depth info for each.  Pretty good artwork and user interface.

iTrailMap 5*****

If I ever end up using a map, I don’t think I could stand using paper ones that get ripped or lost or are poorly made.  Once you have your mountain’s high quality map logged in your phone you’ll love it.  Come to think of it, it’s pretty impractical to use gloves or mits on the surface of an iPhone.  Take your hand covers off because I don’t care, I’m still repping this as five stars because of how it fulfills the simple purpose of providing resort trail maps.

Save our Snow 5*****

Brilliant design by none other than CLIF BAR.  By clicking above the main header a box fades down, highlighting different energy alternative uses by snow resorts.  In addition to the information, forecasting, and mountain conditions, each resort has been individually rated for different energy-oriented categories.  I love the icy design, defrost-able with your fingers.

Ski & Snow Report 3***

The only nominal value added is the ability to view mountain cams.

Skullcandy 4****

Music, media, shred spots, and Skullcandy shopping capabilities are all rolled into one app.  In addition to the other snow resort information provided as other apps do, this one lets you map the resort you are browsing in google maps.  The music offerings are quality but not quantity.  It is a little excessive and pertains to skate, surf, snowboard and their accompanying cultures, but I personally enjoy having all the options at hand.

Snow and Ski Report 3***

This is leans more towards a promotional and sales tool.  Once you figure out how to get past the REI-centric opening, you can select your favorite resorts to be a part of this same opening.  The app enables you to have a multi-faceted start page of sorts.

SnowBomb 3***

Although this doesn’t pertain to snowboarding, I wanted to give props to the developer of this app for thinking of cross country skiers, as they are hardly ever included in snowsports considerations.

The Snow Report 4****

The North Face is overrated.  That means that even though this app deserves a five star rating due to brilliant user interface and graphic design, unlimited amounts of resort information, and mountain specific twitter feeds, I scorn this application because I am not a fan of the company that produced it.  Check it out for yourself, because I’m clearly biased.

- Get On The Scene -

The applications that are now on my phone are iTrailMap, Save Our Snow, and The Snow Report.  Seeing as the CLIF BAR and The North Face applications are practically the same, I’m debating which of the two to keep.  I would rep CLIF’s company culture over The North Face’s ANY DAY.

What do you think of the trade-off between corporate sales and beautiful functionality in applications, my snowboarder amigo?

In comparison to skate parks, which give teens who are otherwise headed to drugs and misdemeanors an outlet for their angst, this type of indoor snow park is a year round activity.

Seems like they’ve really got it going on in the UK. Why?  Because there is an indoor snow park in Manchester that I would love to have access to during my endless summers.  Unfortunately, the USA doesn’t have any snowscape complexes just yet, but Xanadu in East Rutherford, NJ claims that it will be fully functional and the first to open in 2010, while rumor has it that Las Vegas, NV and Tunica, MS will house the second and third by 2014.  We’ll see.

All for indoor fun, the Chill FactorE has four elements: a 197′ luge, the tubing section, a 132′ bunny slope for the newbz, and then the 591′ main concourse.  For the beyond worrisome mothers, or the friends who don’t know how to hit the slopes but would love to watch, there are viewing galleries to keep an eye on your fam.

“With consistent snow conditions all year round – no wind, no ice, no slush – Chill FactorE will allow you to practice until you are perfect.”  It’s clearly not a mountain, but the prices are still the same as your typical ski resorts.  30-50 USD for 1-2 hours on the main run is what you should expect, somewhat justifiable because it’s an indoor snowscape that you can hit up any time of year.

I think that we should go petition in wealthier neighborhoods to build these mega structures instead of constructing skate parks.  The only set back would be that they’re wicked expensive.  Clearly.  In comparison to skate parks, which give teens who are otherwise headed to drugs and misdemeanors an outlet for their angst…, this type of indoor snow park is a year round activity.  Or we could just start building skate parks with awnings and roofs for the wintry areas.

Check out Homies rocking their first session of the season at the Chill FactorE.

- Get On The Scene -

Other than extensive energy consumption and enormous buildings, the snow park seems like it would be a great community center with potentially beautiful architecture.  Can you imagine driving on the highway and, much like you remark when infrequently passing large indoor tennis bubbles, with an ordinary tone of voice saying “yeah, that’s just my neighborhood indoor snow park.”

Would you head over to Mississippi or Nevada for summer snow fun, my snowboarder amigo?