A 38-year-old British snowboarder was found dead 16 feet down in a crevasse on a glacier at Grand Montet in Chamonix France on Wednesday, March 27, according to a story in the Daily Mail.
It is believed the man had snowboarded over a snow bridge on the Rognon glacier and it had collapsed under his weight. . . A helicopter immediately flew over the scene of the accident at Grand Montets and two rescuers were winched down into the crevasse. . . But the man was already dead.
The man was a local who lived in Passy. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
Bear Mountain, Neff, and Malakye are hooking up the entire shred industry with a free day of riding at Bear tomorrow (Friday, March 29, 2013) for Office Booyz Snow Industry Day. If you work for a snow industry company just bring your most recent pay stub and a valid ID and you can ride all day. There’s no pre-registration. Just show up and ride. Springbreak! Springbreak! Follow the jump for all the details. [click to continue…]
“Very few people in the world ride big mountain lines the way Ralph does,” says Jones Snowboard founder, Jeremy Jones. “It’s no surprise he took the Freeride World Tour crown this year. It’s an epic accomplishment and we can’t wait to celebrate back home with him.”
Dude is gnarly. Seriously. For the rest of the results, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
It’s rare to read a celebrity snowboarding story without seeing that the person died while doing it, but it appears that Justin Bieber who has been having health problems took some time off to make a few Euro laps on a snowboard in Switzerland, according to a story on AceShowBiz.
“Snowboarding this morning and working this afternoon. We go hard,” the teen star tweeted, before raving about his encounter with some Beliebers, “Love to fans i met today. thanks for the letters.” He added in another message, “I like #switzerland #BLESSED.” . . Bieber was in town to perform at the Hallenstadion in Zurich as part of his “Believe” world tour. He will head to Italy afterwards and continue his European leg until May before hitting Dubai and South Africa and eventually return to the States for the remaining dates.
Guess the guy just needs to get outside more during the day.
Kathleen Willhide-Michiulis, 45, of Saugus was snowboarding at the resort on March 25, 2011, when snowcat driver Clifford Mann allegedly turned in front of her unexpectedly. She became entangled in the machine’s tiller, and it took rescue workers about 30 minutes to disengage her legs from it. . . Willhide-Michiulis suffered serious, debilitating injuries in the accident. Her left leg was partially amputated above the knee, her right leg sustained multiple fractures and she suffered a brain injury, according to City News Service.
The woman is also suing the Kassbohrer company for a “negligently designed” snow cat. This is like one more reason why many resorts no longer operate snow cats on the mountain when the public is on the hill. Then again, the same thing happened in Solden, Austria last week.
JP Walker with help Finnish rappers Rico and Chebaleba put out a little rhyme to “a remix of Pökötti” and it’s not all that bad. But the crew at Yobeat has decided it’s time to start a snowboard rap battle, so they lobbed a spit back JP’s way. This is it!
Valhalla Design & Conquer’s Action Logo March Madness is down to the elite eight. In this round it’s Adidas vs. Vans, Powell vs. Element, Burton vs. Santa Cruz, and Volcom vs. Quiksilver.
Only you can help decide which of these logos makes it into the final four and eventually on to the finals of Champion Action Logo of 2013. Click the link to make your vote count.
The US Department of Agriculture apparently has a “Low Temperature Scanning Electron Microscope” at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland that allows them to get some amazing photos of snowflakes, according to a post on Twisted Sifter.
Samples of snow, ice and associated life forms are collected by dislodging the crystals or biota from the face of a snow pit or the surface of the snow onto copper metal sample plates containing precooled methyl cellulose solution. Within fractions of a second these plates are plunged into a reservoir of liquid nitrogen which rapidly cools them to -196°C and attaches these pre-frozen materials to the plates. . . After arrival at the Beltsville Electron Microscopy facility, the copper plates can be stored at -196°C in storage dewars. Selected samples are transferred to the preparation chamber for sputter coating with platinum. This renders them electrically conductive and they are placed on the pre-cooled (-170°C) stage of a Hitachi S-4100 field emission Scanning Electron Microscope where they are imaged and photographed.
So that’s how they do it. Click the link to see a few more of the images and then realizes that on a powder day we go blowing through billions of these crazy micro architectural masterpieces.
An snowboarder cruising out of bounds in Aspen, Colorado’s Highland Bowl yesterday afternoon (March 20, 2013) discovered the body of what is thought to be a skier Jeff Walker, 55, (pictured right) who has been missing for two weeks, according to a story in the Aspen Daily News.
Aspen Skiing Co. spokesman Jeff Hanle confirmed a snowboarder found a dead body in what’s known as the “grey zones,” beyond the Northwoods portion of the bowl and an area called Child’s Play. The snowboarder reported the body to Highlands ski patrol around 4 p.m. Patrollers went to the area, confirmed that a body was there, took photographs and called the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office.
Our thoughts are with Walker’s family and friends as well as with the snowboarder who found him. Not exactly the way to end a day in the Grey Zones.
Want to know the future of building objects? In The Diamond Age futurist novelist Neal Stephenson outlines “the feed” from which citizens can create anything they want for free. We’re not there yet, but that hasn’t stopped Signal Snowboards from creating the world’s first 3D printed snowboard in this month’s Every Third Thursday. Check it out.
A 38-year-old British snowboarder was found dead 16 feet down in a crevasse on a glacier at Grand Montet in Chamonix France on Wednesday, March 27, according to a story in the Daily Mail.
