Four snowboarders who got lost while riding at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine on Sunday afternoon were located today after spending a cold night on the mountain, according to an Associated Press story.
A group of three snowboarders, plus a fourth one who was on his own, went out of bounds late Sunday afternoon in an area known as the snowfields, a large section of ungroomed expert terrain on the backside of the mountain. . . The Sugarloaf ski patrol and the Maine Warden Service searched late into the night Sunday, communicating with the lost snowboarders by cell phone and text messages and coming within shouting distance. But the search was hampered by high winds, steep terrain, thick spruce woodlands and the more than 5 feet of snow that had fallen since Wednesday. The temperature fell to 22 degrees.
The search was called off after midnight and the snowboarders were told to “hunker down” for the night. It appears that all four of the snowboarders (Luke Poisson, Cory Koop, Machali Belluscio, and Aaron Nadeau) are all doing fine after their night outdoors. Koop is literally from North Pole, Alaska so he probably slept fine.
Canada’s Jasey Jay Anderson won the men’s snowboard parallel slalom gold medal today (Saturday, February 27, 2010) in a nearly blinding rain storm at Cypress Mountain. Austria’s Benjamin Karl who took silver and France’s Matthieu Bozzetto claimed the bronze.
With this this win Anderson capped off an amazing career as a professional snowboarder. Alpine racers have it tough. Snowboarders don’t like them, major snowboard manufacturers don’t support them, and they have to train harder than most. But anyone who thinks that Alpine racers aren’t snowboarders needs to open their minds a little wider and remember that no matter what you think about them at least they’re not boardercrossers. . .
Medals were awarded today in the Women’s Parallel Giant Slalom. Yes, it is a form of snowboarding where racers see who can get through a course faster than everyone else. Here’s how it stacked up:
1. Nicolien Sauerbreuij, Netherlands Gold
2. Ekaterina Ilyukhina, Russia Silver
3. Marion Kreiner, Austria Bronze
Each year, apparently, BusinessWeek magazine creates a Power 100 list of the most powerful athletes in the world. Being an Olympic year, they’ve also created a sister list of the Most Powerful Olympic Athletes. And Shaun White is featured on both. He’s number four on the Olympic list checked in between a couple hockey players and on the athletes list he is all the way down at 51 between golfer Jim Furyk and New York Mets’ third baseman David Wright.
Why he’s on the list: Having dropped the “Flying Tomato” moniker, White has picked up the ability to carve his place in the national consciousness despite competing in a niche sport.
The only other real notable on the list was Ryan Sheckler who just squeaked in at 100 “now that Tony Hawk is retired.”
Shaun White has more than a few look-a-likes; some funnier than others. Now, he can add a forty-one-year-old Winnipeg, Canada woman to the list. For a while Liz Schaeffer didn’t believe it, now she playing it up.
The massage therapist has been given free drinks, had her face flashed on the big-screen TV at the China vs. Slovakia hockey game and has been asked by visiting Americans whether they can take a photo of her. . . When a friend took her picture in front of the Olympic cauldron, people in the lineup were whispering, “Shaun White! Shaun White!” . . . Her ultimate goal is to meet White and have her picture taken with him. She is thinking of offering him a massage in exchange for a snowboard lesson.
Snowboarder Wayne Alexander Brown, 42, of Almosa, Colorado was found yesterday (February 23, 2010) after going missing for three days in the wilderness near Wolf Creek Ski Area, according to a story in the Alamosa News.
Brown was found by a helicopter search team Tuesday, the first day air operations were possible, when the team flew over a forest service cabin and saw tracks leading away from the dwelling. “They saw the tracks and then saw Mr. Brown hiking out just moments later,” said Downing. . . The first night, Downing said, Brown sought shelter in a tree well in the back country and dug a small snow cave. . . In the continuing snow of Sunday, Brown trekked down the mountain on his board and came upon a US Forest Service cabin and was able to access the structure for what became a two-day stay while the storm raged outside, eventually dumping 41 new inches of snow in the region over the weekend.
Officials say Brown did everything right. You know, aside from getting lost in the first place.
Jessie Huffman sits down with Vermont’s Jessie Loomis to get the story on Powder Jets, Loomis’ “forward-thinking” back to basics wood snowboards. After taking a couple runs on an old Burton Elite a few years ago, Loomis apparently had a rather luddite epiphany.
That’s when I realized that space-age technology wasn’t increasing my enjoyment of the sport. I thought I’d just bring it right back to the fundamentals, get rid of all the technological geekiness, just take a step sideways and make it fun again. Play in the back yard with the kids; make it quiet, remove the fashion, remove the stress. It’s just snowboarding, right?
Indeed. Follow the link for the rest of the interview.
The New York Times checks in with Scotty Lago after he was forced to duck out of the 2010 Olympic Games a little early thanks to a huge overreaction to some late-night party photos. They found him all rested up and well armed.
In Seabrook, Lago’s spirits have been buoyed. In the yard of the spacious house where he grew up, on a ridge overlooking his family’s 80-acre spread, he called “pull,” aimed his shotgun and blasted another clay pigeon. Later, Lago shot pool with friends in the nearby three-bedroom house with an indoor swimming pool he bought last fall. . . “It’s really cool and I’m definitely thankful for all of it,” Lago said of his newfound fame, “but I would be just as happy to be here shooting guns with my friends.”
