Sure hope they were wearing something under those kilts.

Even on the ski hill, the Scots still love wearing their kilts.

So much so that 235 Scots set a world record for the largest number of kilted skiers and snowboarders skiing down a piste at once Saturday on the slopes of CairnGorm Mountain.

The kilted skiers and boarders were in a single consecutive line from the Ptarmigan Top Station at CairnGorm Mountain all the way down to car park level, a run of over 2km.  It took participants about a half hour to complete the event.

Continue reading ‘Hundreds of kilt-wearing Scottish skiers set world record’

The New Chair at Squaw Valley, USA.

The freeskiers on the Freeride World Tour aren’t messing around.

They tackled the permanently closed Tram Face at Squaw Valley today on the tour’s only North American stop.

The world’s best skiers and snowboarders are battling it out again for the Freeride World Tour Championship title at four of the world’s most prestigious ski resorts, and today they made history at the third stage in Squaw Valley.

Continue reading ‘Freeride tour hits Squaw Valley’s closed terrain’

Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong succeeded in his goal of not coming last in Saturday's slalom event.

On this sixteenth day of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Ghana’s famous Snow Leopard wasn’t last in the men’s slalom event at Whistler.

Ghana’s only winter Olympic athlete, who only began skiing six years ago, gave it his all in the men’s slalom event today at Whistler Creekside. Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong succeeded in his goal of competing rather than becoming a gimmick or a side show, in finishing both runs and beating Albanian skier Tola Erjon.

The Snow Leopard came 47th of 48 who completed both slalom runs, putting him ahead of Erjon as well as six other competitors who either didn’t finish or were disqualified. Acheampong’s combined time of 2:22.60 beat Erjon’s by more than 20 seconds.

At the other end of the finishing list, Italian Giuliano Razzoli won gold with a combined total of 1:39.32 over the two runs. It was 0.16 seconds ahead of Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic. Andre Myhrer of Sweden took bronze.

Continue reading ‘Olympic Update: Italian wins slalom, Snow Leopard races, 30k photo finish’

Freeskiers love any excuse to head for the Alps.

Austria’s Zell am See-Kaprun is hosting the world’s freeskiing community this weekend at the Austrian Freeski Open.

For the first time in its history the most important freeskiing event in Austria is taking place in the holiday region between the Kitzsteinhorn and Schmittenhöhe. The four day event attracted freeski celebrities like the Swedish freeskiing legend Jon Olsson, Australian Russ Henshaw, and Bobby Brown from the USA.

The professional freeskiers are competing against each other at the ‘Slopestyle Contest’ staged in the snow park on Kitzsteinhorn, attempting to win their share of US $20,000 in prize money.

Continue reading ‘Freeskiers invade Austrian Alps’

The Ski season is all year round in the UK.

Scotland’s indoor snow slope is bringing back it’s Himalayan ski challenge this summer.

After a two year break, July 24th 2010 sees the return of the Ski Everest Challenge to SNO!zone  at Xscape, Braehead, Glasgow.

The Ski Everest Challenge is no small feat. Individuals are challenged to complete 45 runs – the equivalent of the peak height of Mount Everest (8850m / 29035 feet).

Continue reading ‘The Mt Everest of ski challenges’

Games organizers on a recent visit to the site: Val Aosta, Italy.

Seven hundred military athletes from 40 nations will face the snows to compete for the victory in the first Military World Winter Games this spring.

For six days at Val d’Aosta, Italy from March 20th to 25th, the whole valley will be marked by a brilliant display of uniforms from different national army, navy and airforce staff that are competing in Nordic skiing, biathlon, downhill skiing, climbing and short track.

Events will be staged in the villages of Brusson (for the biathlon), Cogne (Nordic ski races and ski orienteering), Courmayeur (climbing and short-track), Gressoney-Saint-Jean (women’s giant slalom and slalom), Flassin of Saint-Oyen (Alpine skiing), and Gressan (men’s slalom and giant slaom).

Continue reading ‘Soldiers gunning for winter glory’

The US's Bode Miller.

On this eleventh day of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the Americans continue to dominate the medal count after Bode Miller captured super-combined gold on Sunday and Lindsey Vonn added a super-G bronze on Saturday.

Bode Miller’s gold was his third podium finish in as many races and the United States’ eighth medal (two gold, three silver, three bronze) out of a possible 18 from six alpine disciplines raced so far. It’s a record-breaking Olympic campaign for the US Ski team, but superstar Vonn had to settle for third in Saturday’s womens super-G after being upstaged by Andrea Fischbacher of Austria and Slovenian Tina Maze. Fischbacher’s win eased the huge pressure that had been mounting against underperforming alpine giants Austria.

In Sunday’s ski-cross debut, the heavily favored Canadians went home empty-handed after Canada’s Chris Del Bosco crashed near the end of the final race. Gold went to Michael Schmid of Switzerland, silver to Andreas Matt of Austria, and bronze to Norway’s Audun Groenvold.

Continue reading ‘Olympic Update: Miller time, ski cross time, slalom time’