by The Editors on February 28, 2009
Last night three snowboarders triggered an avalanche just before dusk on February 27, 2009 in the Central Kootenays of B.C. Canada, south of Nelson, according to a story in The Province. All are lucky to be alive.
The trio were swept up and carried an estimated 150 metres before coming to a rest. One of them had his snowboard snapped in half and ended up caught in a tree. . . . Professional ski guide Patric Maloney immediately hopped on the chopper, setting out with his wife, Mariah Grant, colleague Shawn West and pilot Ben White.. . “He was cut up pretty bad,” said Maloney of the injured snowboarder. “Our initial assessment was he had a broken leg, broken pelvis and internal injuries.”
Because the terrain was too dangerous for the helicopter to land, it reportedly took the rescuers four hours to get the snowboarder to an ambulance and a helicopter ride to Vancouver General Hospital.
[Link: The Province]
by The Editors on February 26, 2009
Royce Morgan, 18, was found dead near Alaska’s Hatcher Pass on Wednesday after snowboarding with his brother and getting separated, according to a story in the Anchorage Daily News.
Morgan was snowboarding with his brother, 25-year-old Matthew Theodore, in the late afternoon when the two became separated, troopers reported. . . . Theodore looked for his brother but couldn’t find him, troopers said. He went to the Hatcher Pass Lodge and called troopers. Theodore then went back up the mountain to look for his brother.
Theodore reportedly found Morgan a second time, but Morgan could not walk. So Theodore tried to push him back to the lodge on a snowboard, but was unable to and again went back for help. By the time searchers found Morgan at 9:15 PM he had no pulse and was not breathing.
[Link: Anchorage Daily News]
by The Editors on February 26, 2009
Next year all snowboarders who ride in Quebec may be forced to wear helmets if provincial lawmakers get their way, according to a story from the Associated Press.
Sports Minister Michelle Courchesne is echoing arguments by an association of provincial emergency medical specialists that helmets are needed to prevent head injuries in some winter activities.
When we think about how hard the snow is in Quebec most of the year (okay, icy), it’s probably not that bad of an idea.
[Link: Associated Press]
by The Editors on February 26, 2009
Steamboat Ski Resort ski patroller Paula Lepporoli jumped right into action when she saw a snowboard sticking out of some branches while she skied through the trees on the resort’s Typhoon run, and a 40-year-old snowboarder from Denver has her to thank for saving his life, according to a story in the Steamboat Pilot.
Lepporoli’s training kicked in as she popped off her skis and rushed to help. She dug out the rider’s head, stuck 3 1/2 feet under the snow in a tree well. . . . “He wasn’t breathing when I got there, and I cleared his airways, and he started breathing,” the 20-year Ski Patrol veteran said. “It took us 10 minutes to get him out of there.”. . . The 40-year-old Denver man survived and wasn’t hospitalized, Lepporoli said.
A few minutes later and the man’s wife and three-year-old son would have lost a husband and father. Reminds us to stick together in the trees. This can happen to anyone.
[Link: Steamboat Pilot]
by The Editors on February 26, 2009
Trevor Andrew has apparently caught the eye of Women’s Wear Daily and they decide to go shopping with him:
Inappropriately dressed for the bitter cold in a denim jacket, hoodie and skinny black jeans — accessorized with gold chains, a Gucci belt and oversize pink Oakley sunglasses — Andrew has a scrappy hipster-meets-B-boy look that doesn’t mesh with his “Trouble Andrew” moniker. Nevertheless, he insists, “I’m trouble — in a good way.” . . . A two-time Olympic snowboarder, Andrew is shopping for a few pieces to add to his wardrobe, which, he says, has been stretched thin by the spate of press obligations surrounding the release of his self-titled debut album earlier this month.
Guess this is the kind of coverage that starts happening when you win MTVU’s Freshman contest.
[Link: Women’s Wear Daily]
by The Editors on February 25, 2009
by The Editors on February 25, 2009
by The Editors on February 25, 2009
Three years ago Jeff Seymour, of Carlsbad, California wanted to help out the troops. So he started a program called “Magazines and Movies for the Troops.” With donated magazines and movies from Transworld Media and many other Southern California souces Seymour hoped to spread a little love from home, according to a story in the San Diego City Beat.
Now it looks like most of those donations ended up getting dumped straight into a San Diego landfill. According to the paper a supervisor at the Miramar landfill witnessed “a group of Marines dump as many as six pallets full of the donations—magazines, books, DVDs and hygiene products, packed in boxes plainly marked “For Our Troops in Iraq”—into the landfill last summer.”
“Transworld Media donated thousands of magazines, most of them so new they still hadn’t hit the stands yet,” he says. “They donated cases of beanies—like those skullcaps that kids wear—worth about $20 apiece. I asked them, ‘Do you think the troops will wear these?’ And they replied, ‘Hey, do you know how cold it gets over there?’
Guess, we’ll never know. For the rest of the Marine Corp FUBAR follow the jump.
[Link: San Diego City Beat]
by The Editors on February 25, 2009
After seeing video footage of guide Stephen Koch using a snowmobile in an area where they are not allowed for skiers and snowboarders, Jackson Hole, Wyoming’s Exum Mountain Guides fired the extreme snowboarding pioneer after 15 years of service, according to a story in the Jackson Hole Guide.
The action by the prestigious guide service came as park officials cited Koch twice for a Feb. 7 excursion that was videotaped and displayed on several Web sites, including Koch’s own. The world-famous alpinist was sacked even as he offered a public apology, printed as this week’s Jackson Hole News & Guide guest editorial, saying he suffered “a lapse of my good judgment,” in making and publicizing his trip.
Sadly, the kind of snowmobile that Koch used (a four-stroke) is legal for fisherman, but not for skiers and snowboarders. Apparently, they forgot to stop and do some ice fishing on the way to the Skillet Glacier.
[Link: Jackson Hole Guide]
by The Editors on February 25, 2009
We often find ourselves confused while trying to figure out what many eco-groups and events actually do.
The most recent is snowboarding’s TTR Series founder Drew Stevenson’s Breathe Foundation. After leaving TTR last year Stevenson apparently moved to Costa Rica and set up a eco-foundation. What is Breathe? Well, according to their website:
Breathe is an organic concept born in the jungles of Costa Rica fusing music, activities, discourse, and inclusive participation aimed at sharpening focus on many social and ecological issues facing our future. . . .Time is short to address the enormity of different challenges facing the globe’s biosphere, natural resources and us as species. They are as big as they are diverse. The solutions are as clever as they are wide ranging. The first step in addressing a problem, is accepting there is a one
Ah, wow. Okay. . . what was that again? Those who understand this should be in Costa Rica right now because the Breathe gathering began February 22 and it ends on March 1. In the meantime, Breathe is holding an online auction “benefiting underserved youth of Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica.” Autographed items from Axel Pauporte, Manoa Drollet, Ingemar Backman, Hannah Teter, Nicolas Mueller, Mads Johnsson, Wolle Nyvelt, Marc Andre Tarte and more are being auctioned off.
[Link: Breathe via Snowbroader.com]
