Lindsey Caroline Vonn (1984) is an American alpine ski racer with the U.S. Ski Team. She has won three consecutive overall World Cup and downhill championships (2008, 2009, 2010), the first American woman and third woman ever to accomplish this. Vonn won the gold medal in downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the first ever in the event for an American woman. Vonn also won three consecutive World Cup season titles in Super G (the first American woman to do so), and two consecutive titles in the combined.

Vonn is one of five women to have won World Cup races in all five disciplines of alpine skiing – Downhill, Super G, Giant slalom, Slalom, and Super combined – and, as of October 2011, has won 42 races in her career. With her Olympic gold and bronze medals, two World Championship gold medals in 2009 (plus three silver medals in 2007 / 2011), and three overall World Cup titles, Vonn has become the most successful American skier in ski racing history.

Lindsey started skiing at age two. They say that her father Alan Kildow, who had been a national junior skiing champion before a knee injury at 18, “pushed” her very hard. Her hobbies include cycling, tennis and reading.

Oh, and did you know that Lindsey Vonn has a number of merits such as making #59 on Maxim’s Hot 100 list?

Now what’s the point?

Even though the climate here in nordic countries is not perfect for skiing, I still recommend skiing and traveling in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland. Winter nights above the Polar Circle can be prettty awesome as the northern lights light up the skies.

An aurora is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere.

In northern latitudes, the effect is known as the aurora borealis (or the northern lights). Auroras seen near the magnetic pole may be high overhead, but from farther away, they illuminate the northern horizon as a greenish glow or sometimes a faint red, as if the Sun were rising from an unusual direction.

I lived my first 20 years above the Polar Circle, and I’ve seen pretty amazing northern lights. I believe this is one good reason to travel and ski in nordic coutries. Check the videos below and get yourself over here!

Northern lights in Finland.

Northern lights in Norway.

Northern lights in Iceland.

One more. Pretty awesome, right?

So, what is powsurfing? Well, it’s like surfing on snow. No, it’s not snowboarding as powdersurf board has now bindings. It’s more like a surfboard.

Guys over at Grassroots Powdersurf Company took the two things that they love to do most (skateboarding and snowboarding in fresh pow) and combined them into one.  The Powdersurf board was born.

“We build our boards with progression in mind and our shapes and style of build reflect this.  We believe that there is so much more to powsurfing than simply taking the bindings off of an old snowboard.  This is why our boards are designed from the ground up to be ridden without bindings”, is said in Powsurf website.

Powdersurf boards are designed to be used only in powder snow.  They are not recommended for groomers or hardpack snow, which sounds pretty obvious. Just think about crashing and losing your board in a crowded slope. Not good… So, powdersurf board is clearly a backcountry tool .

They claim that you don’t need bindings to hold your feet to the board. Surfers have been riding without bindings for centuries, but why not powdersurfing with straps like big wave surfers? Riding big mountains with straps could be easier, but I guess it’s the philosophy of bindingless powdersurf boards saying “no no” to straps. Anyhow, it looks really cool.

It’s funny to see that we are actually going back in time with powdersurf board. I find certain similarities between powsurfing and “snurfing” (or riding snurfer or what ever it’s called), which was the early version of snowboard. At least both are bindingless. You think the same?

He he.. Look at these “outrageous hotdoggers”

Man, snowboarding has come a long way since those days…

All in all powsurfing looks really cool! These guys are soon releasing “The Powsurfing Chronicles”, an upcoming series of short films about Powdersurfing. No bindings, no handles, no ropes or gimmicks. Simply the purest mix of skateboarding, surfing, and snowboarding on earth. Yeah, I’m interested!

Photo by Powsurf.com

There is a lot powder and tree skiing in this movie. Featuring JT Holmes, Robb Gaffney, Jason Mack and Aaron McGovern, this film captures the true spirit of skiing. For more about this movie check skiing-blog.com. Watch the movie below the image.

Supported by long-time partner Swatch, the Freeride World Tour enters its fifth season solidifying its position at the very top of competitive Freeriding. Alongside Chamonix Mont-Blanc will be Austria’s best kept big mountain secret, Fieberbrunn and a new Scandinavian stop – the tour will descend upon Røldal in Norway for the first time.

The world’s best Freeskiers and Snowboarders will then meet for the season finale on the legendary Bec des Rosses in Verbier which continues to stand alone as the world’s biggest and most prestigious Freeride competition. Competitive Freeriding has evolved rapidly over the last four seasons with the pros spinning, cliff-jumping and stomping with an ever increasing intensity. We’re expecting to see further progression in 2012 as the experienced big mountain riders compete against a new wave of young talent.

The men’s skiing line-up will feature big mountain specialist and two-time World Champion Aurelien Ducroz, the furiously fast and fluid Reine Barkered, Zermatt’s favourite son Samuel Anthamatten and the ebullient Henrik Windtsedt. The rapidly advancing female skiers will again be pushing the limits with reigning World Champion Janette Hargin battling it out with USA’s Angel Collinson and kiwi Janina Kuzma.

Rider Xavier de la Rue. Copyright © freerideworldtour.com.

Riders Aurelien Ducroz, Jérémy Prevost, Samuel Anthamatten. Photo by J. Bernard. Copyright © freerideworldtour.com.

Photo by J. Bernard. Copyright © freerideworldtour.com.

Xavier de le Rue, widely recognised as the world’s best all-round snowboarder, will no doubt be “charging down the Alps” to win back his title, although Austrian stalwarts Mitch Toelderer and Flo Orley as well as exciting newcomer Christian Schnabel might have a few things to say about that. Swiss rider Anne-Flore Marxer impressed everyone in her rookie season taking the World title at the first attempt but will face stiff competition from Germany’s Aline Bock and a field of contenders from both sides of the Atlantic.

The Freeride World Tour welcomes Swatch as its main sponsor partner alongside a growing array of ski industry partners – Scott, Dakine, Marker, Powderhorn, Kask, Snowpulse and Teko.

Rider Henrik Windstedt. Photo by C. Margot. Copyright © freerideworldtour.com.

Rider Gennady Khryachkov. Photo by D. Carlier. Copyright © freerideworldtour.com.

Photo by J. Bernardt. Copyright © freerideworldtour.com.

“This fifth season promises many things. The riders’ performance improves every year and we’ll undoubtedly see the bar raised even further in 2012. We have a first-ever Norwegian tour-stop, where we’ll be working closely with a very experienced group of local organisers and we will be launching an Expo and Test at three tour stops – Chamonix Mont-Blanc, Fieberbrunn and Verbier. We will continue to actively support the 30+ qualifier events around the world and encourage the next generation of riders with three Juniors stops. I’m also absolutely delighted to see Swatch alongside us as well as so many ski industry partners.” says Freeride World Tour founder and organiser, Nicolas Hale-Woods.

Freeride World Tour 2012 schedule

Freeride World Tour, Chamonix Mont-Blanc 2012 by Swatch

• Dates: 21- 27 January; Location: Chamonix (FRA)
• Disciplines: Men’s and Women’s Ski and Snowboard

Freeride World Tour, Røldal 2012 by Swatch

• Dates: 25 February – 01 March; Location: Røldal (NOR)
• Disciplines: Men’s and Women’s Ski and Snowboard

Freeride World Tour, Fieberbrunn 2012 by Swatch

• Dates: 09 -15 March; Location: Fieberbrunn (AUT)
• Disciplines: Men’s Ski and Snowboard

Freeride World Tour, Verbier 2012 by Swatch

• Dates: 24 March – 01 April; Location: Verbier (SUI)
• Disciplines: Men’s and Women’s Ski and Snowboard

Freeride World Tour stops in Rosa Khutor-Sochi (Rus) and North America are to be confirmed.

For more check out Freeride World Tour website.

Rider Adrien Coirier. Photo by M. Weiler. Copyright © freerideworldtour.com.

Rider Mitch Toelderer. Photo by C. Margot. Copyright © freerideworldtour.com.

Rider Sebastian Hannemann. Photo by J. Bernard. Copyright © freerideworldtour.com.

If you are going to ski pillows make sure there is snow enough. Otherwise you’ll just break your skis and bones. Before skiing pick your line wisely. Pillows can be surprising, so choose a line with wide and clean run-out. Make sure there are places in the pillow line where you can check your speed because most probably you will go faster than you expected. Planning really helps to avoid crashing big time.

Despite of good planning long pillow lines can provide surprises, so you need to look ahead to avoid obstacles. Avoid skiing pillow lines that has trees and rocks in the run-out. Finland, where Homeboys come from, is NOT located in the list. That sucks.

Where are the best places for pillow skiing? Probably in British Colombia, Japan, Kashmir, Norway… All those countries and resorts that receive huge amounts of snow every year.

Watch below probably the best pillow skiing videos in the Internet.

Rock on!

Thanks guys over at UnOfficialSquaw for finding these two above!

You know more pillow skiing videos? Drop a comment below with a link to your video.

So, back in 1997 I  finally landed in Chamonix, and couple of weeks later I found myself skiing some of the classic runs like Glacier Rond. Some guys went even bigger like the north face of L’Aiguille du Midi. I met a lot of fantastic people like Skipe Oivo, Jarkko Henttonen and many others. Together we killed the mountains day after day, we skied chest deep powder, we climbed beautiful mountain faces, and when the weather was bad we drank a ton of beer. It was all perfect, or may be even better.

Today it’s different. As a father and entrepreneur I can’t ski +100 days a year anymore. I just don’t have time enough, and I must prioritize my time. Sometimes I find myself thinking about moving to the mountains just like some of my fellow ski bums, but I made my decision to build my own business, so I stick to my guns. Anyhow, I will always fucking love the ski bum lifestyle.

Talking about ski bumming check the video below. Isn’t that pretty cool? These guys are in their seventies or something, and they keep riding year after year. They ski +100 days a year, which in my mind sounds unbelievable. How many people you know that are older than 60 years and ski +100 days a year? I love these guys. They don’t get bored at home, watch TV and drink beer. They ski until they die. That does not suck. Respect!

Jordan Manley is a 24 year old political science student who travels the world to ski places most of us never do. Jordan is a photographer and videographer who won Whistler’s Deep Winter Photo Challenge twice, and graced the covers of both Powder and Skiing Mag.

A year ago he was shooting “The Skier’s Journey”, and below is the first episode in which skiers Chad Sayers and Tobin Seagel travel halfway around the world to Kashmir to ski the high altitude Gulmarg gondola, only to find the snow pack is a ticking time bomb. Never the less, they find safe areas to ski and discover the beauty of Kashmir and the Himalaya – its people and its landscape.

Even though this video is from last year, it’s still rocking out. Needless to say I would pay strawberries to join these guys.

Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range. Today Kashmir denotes a larger area that includes the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir (the Kashmir valley, Jammu and Ladakh), the Pakistani-administered Gilgit-Baltistan and the Azad Kashmir provinces, and the Chinese-administered regions of Aksai Chin and Trans-Karakoram Tract.

Gulmarg( “Path of Roses”) is a town, a hill station and a notified area committee in Baramula district in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Gulmarg has been a resort for the kings like Yousuf Shah Chak and Jahangir who used to visit frequently. The total distance covered by ski lifts is five kilometres and the resort peaks at an altitude of 3,950 m (12,959 ft). The area receives heavy snowfall during the winter season, so if you looking for powder, you can get a ton of it in Kashmir.

The average monthly snowfall in Gulmarg, Kashmir:

• December 110 cm
• January 210 cm
• February 430 cm
• March 185 cm

The average temperatur in Gulmarg, Kashmir:

• December -3.0 Celsius degrees
• January -5.5 Celsius degrees
• February -2.5 Celsius degrees
• March +1.5 Celsius degrees

This about these stats for a moment. Here in Finland we receive like max 100 cm of snow a year, and it’s just friggin cold in mid winter…

Nanga Parbat, one of the highest mountain peaks in the world, is in the Kashmiri region of Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan

In the winter, the diverse and extreme terrain combines with torrential snowfall to create a snow destination that is among the best in the world. As the destination itself is still undeveloped, skiers and riders never have to suffer the long queues that are so prevalent in other international snow destinations – it is not uncommon to get up to 10 runs in a day from the top of the gondola and to be carving fresh lines in untracked snow for the best part of a day.

But it’s not only winter and skiing. The summer is just as busy. With temperatures ranging from 25-30°C, Gulmarg attracts outdoor sports fanatics with its world class trekking, mountain biking, horse riding, water skiing, and fishing.

Sounds like heaven to me.

Mike is a lucky duck. Imagine having your own heli and ski patrol for six days. You can ski runs most people never do. You have your own ski patrol throwing bombs to avoid avalanches. And what’s best there are no other skiers as the resort is not open yet. Sounds like luxury to me! Check out the first 3 days below.

Patience…

Look at the scenery out there! I like bombs. I wanna be a ski patrol, for sure.

Not a bad way to spend a birthday, right?

You can see more Mike Douglas Embedded stuff over here.

Jamie Pierre most probably died from trauma that incurred during the slide as his body was found only partially buried. According to the official report neither Jamie nor his friend were carrying avalanche rescue equipment.

Jamie Pierre was known as a religious person and for once holding the record for the biggest cliff drop on skis. Later Norwegian Fred Syversen went even bigger even though it was an accident. Jamie was a respected skier who will be missed by the community.

In the video below you can see Jamie dropping a huge 255 feet cliff in Grand Targhee ski resort. Most of us wouldn’t have done it, but Jamie praised the God and jumped. After the jump Jamie had to be dug out of snow. He didn’t land on feet but on his back or neck. Pretty wild, eh?

Here is another very popular video of Jamie Pierre skiing powder.

Jamie Pierre worked with a number of companies such as Teton Gravity Research, Warren Miller Entertainment and Rage Films. He was known as a good dude. Professional photographer and Jamie’s friend Lee Cohen updated his Facebook-page by saying “RIP Brother! A great person, a little misunderstood at times but anyone who knew him knows he had a heart of gold.”

It’s absolutely heartbreaking to see pictures of Jamie and his child jumping on Lee Cohen’s trampoline. As a father Jamie Pierre didn’t want to take huge risks anymore so he continued skiing less extreme. Unfortunately even smaller risks can be fatal. We send our condolences to the friends and family of Jamie Pierre. Rest in peace bro.

Nevado Sajama is an extinct stratovolcano and the highest peak in Bolivia. The mountain is located in the Oruro Department, Sajama Province, Curahuara de Carangas Municipality, Sajama Canton.  It is situated in the Sajama National Park in the southwest area of the country some 16–24 km (10-15 miles) from the border with Chile. The date of the most recent eruption of Sajama is uncertain.

An interesting detail related to Sajama is the treeline of Polylepis tarapacana which is as high as 5200m above sea level, one of the highest altitudes trees can be found growing anywhere in the world.

Another interesting detail is that in August 2001, two teams of Sajama villagers and Bolivian mountain guides played a soccer match on top of Mount Sajama in an effort to show that altitude itself is not a limitation to physical strain. Not much frenzied activity, I assume…

The first attempt to climb the mountain was done by Joseph Prem in 1927. He attempted the northwest ridge but was stopped short at 6,200 m. After several more attempts, Prem along with Wilfrid Kuehm reached the top in August 1939 by a more difficult southeast ridge.

Check also the blogs of Andreas and Bjarne.

Recon Instruments is a Vancouver (BC) based technology company that has released a micro optics display for ski/snowboard goggles.

So what the heck is that?

It took me some time to figure it out as the press release is pretty “nerdy”, but shortly said their two versions of their GPS-enabled goggles provide skiers and riders with a variety of data including speed, jump analytics, vertical, altitude, location, distance, chrono/tracker, run-counter, and temperature. This means that you can record lots of different data during your day on the slopes, and you can share all this data in the Internet. You can re-live and learn from your trips and runs, add images and video to create a highlight reel to share with other community members or with friends and family via Facebook and Twitter. Pretty cool I would say. Kids must really like this.

There’s even more. The Android-based MOD Live ships with four new, industry first applications:

• Buddy Tracking
• Smartphone Connectivity
• a Navigation app pre-loaded with the largest database of trail maps in the world
• Music Playlist Mode
• Camera Connectivity for use in the future with select wireless point-of-view action cameras.

“The transition to modular based optics allows us to expand our reach exponentially,” said Darcy Hughes, Chief Marketing Officer, Recon Instruments. “The snap-fit design, Bluetooth interaction, combined with the ever-evolving Android platform, is a game changer for the action sports industry in terms of connectivity, real-time information direct to eye, and community sharing.”

Other new features this season include a fasten-anywhere Bluetooth remote control, 33% larger widescreen optics, and an adjustable optics arm for a truly custom fit. Recon Ready goggles are already available from Uvex, Briko, Alpina, and Zeal Optics, with several more leading goggle brands scheduled to come onboard this winter and spring.

MOD and MOD Live are available now for $299 and $399.

This is a pretty good Christmas present idea. Products should be available in Amazon soon.