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?

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.

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!

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.

Year 2011 has been helluva busy for us, and that’s why we had to put Homeboy aside for some time. A year ago I knew that because of other duties we wouldn’t have time enough to keep pushing Homeboy, but like Arnold Schwarzenegger I kept saying “we’ll be back!“

As you see Homeboy looks a bit different now, and that’s because we developed a totally new look & feel just to provide better reading experience. We are still going to test some new features, so small changes are expected, but nothing radical.

We have a number of interesting articles coming up soon, so stay tuned. We are also looking for new contributors, so if you are interested in sharing your stories, pictures and videos with our readers, just let me know (contact via email homeboyski@fiercermedia.fi).

The weather here in Helsinki still pretty warm, and it looks like we are not going to receive snow for weeks. Anyhow, our ski season 2011-2012 begins today as Skiexpo event (ski exhibition just like ISPO but smaller) opened doors just few hours ago. For us Skiexpo is a tradition. It’s THE weekend when all skiers get together, check all the new gear and drink a ton of beer. Oh yeah, can’t wait…

What do you think about our new look? Drop a comment below!

We didn’t have that much time to celebrate the event. Marko and I have been way busy building our own local consulting company  (sorry, this is only in Finnish…for now at least).

So, what I like to say here is just thank you to every one who reads our posts and especially all our contributors who have kept the spirit alive through this fall when the founders of the blog have had way too much work with other duties.

Personally, I also like to thank Marko for founding this site and generally being a very brave person – dad of four kids who jumped into a life of a full entrepreneur few months a go! That and also thoughts of people like Sophie (see  this post: If you want to do It – Then do it) made me to take the same path recently…from December 13th I will also be a full time entrepreneur. Will this move give me more freedom and ski time is yet to be seen? At least from now on everything in life is more flexible than before. Not that there is nothing wrong with the steady monthly salary though. Still,  for now,  sure income doesn’t feel big enough reason to spend a life in a cubicle and listening orders what to do and what not…ok, exaggerating a bit here maybe but I guess  you get the point.

We also started a ski season here on our mole hills. We are actually enjoying a all time November cold here (up to -20C degrees). I am also taking a  nine day ski trip to Andermatt  (despite my very unsure future financial situation, heh) after New Year to celebrate a new, more flexible life style.  Life is good.

Below is an attached Flickr slide show (pretty practical feature by the way) of our favorite HBS readers pics. Thank you all,  keep’em coming and be not to afraid of comment/share your thoughts/suggest your own stories etc. – we appreciate any kind of feedback!

Back in June, the IOC received a request to include freestyle halfpipe and slopestyle. With this being an Olympic committee, they certainly took their time looking over everything before they came back for the next meeting. This meeting took place in mid October and the news was promising. All we managed to get out of the IOC was the line that they were “looking favourably on all of those for inclusion.”

That’s not bad right? Heck, that’s pretty good! OK, so they’ve delayed the decision until 2011 but that isn’t too far away and if we look at the FIS World Champs, the signs are even more encouraging.

But a mere few days ago, the FIS announced that they would be accepting slopestyle into the World Championships in 2011. That’s a huge leap forward for the FIS!

As they are an influential body in the snow world this will certainly be a step in the right direction and will push the IOC to take on the event as well. You can imagine in Sochi, 2014, we will be watching the best of the best take on each other in slopestyle and halfpipe. You’ll see athletes like Tanner Hall throwing down with the rest of them making 2014 the most influential year for skiing in Olympic history. In terms of progression anyway!

One thing they have to be mindful of though is judging. The TTR has already hit out at the FIS for not allowing progression within the sport and if this isn’t taken on board, the whole sport could suffer.

We shall see but keep those fingers crossed and I’ll see you in Russia!

Are you tired of spending your hard earned money on a ski area that doesn’t treat you as a valued customer? Are you concerned that climate change will affect your favorite winter pastime? Do you feel ski areas should be more socially responsible and better members of their surrounding communities?

So does a group of like-minded skiers and snowboarders who have formed the Mountain Rider’s Alliance (MRA).

Mountain Rider’s Alliance believes the great ski and snowboard community  can make a change

MRA believes that it’s time for the ski industry to make a radical change for the better…that is if you think working together is positive. On a belief system that is a bit like a food co-op: i.e. those involved in the co-op do so to sell nurturing products because they are a member of a health conscious community, MRA believes that it is time to unite the giant ski and snowboard community in creating healthy ski areas. Acting as a rider-owned and operated ski resort, their business core values are based on helping the environment, providing an atmosphere that focuses on a great ski experience for everyone, despite economic status, and being socially responsible to the communities that they serve.

Or as described by one of the co-founders Dave Rubin, “This isn’t just another ski area, this is a way of consciously working together to make ski areas positive in our communities again. “this is collaborative effort to move away from the current trend of involving highly leverage real estate and marketing geared toward intermediete skiers looking for their second and third homes. This is embracing the people in our community that have been forgotten for a long time. The hard working lifties, waiters and waitresses, the teachers, firefighters, ski patrol. The ski bums. The artists. The nature lovers.”

Can a ski resort create more energy than it consume? MRA believes so!

MRA’s plan will also incorporate renewable energy into the business model with the goal of creating more energy than it consumes. Not only will this help to combat climate change, but it will create an additional year round revenue stream, take pressure off the need to sell expensive lift ticket prices, and stop basing profit margin on skier visits. Another one of the founding nucleus, Jamie Schectman explains, “MRA is bringing together multiple revenue streams, instead of depending on how much the base village condos are selling for and how many people we can get on the hill. We are also hoping to make it the norm that ski areas are helping Mother Nature out, not hurting her. As we all know, we skiers and snowboarders are pretty dependent on snow.”

The newly formed group is currently evaluating projects in the United States as well as Canada. As projects are studied for terrain, yearly snow totals, renewable resource potential, and proximity to communities, MRA will create feasibility studies of each area. Upon deciding which area has the most potential, MRA will offer shares in the ski-energy centers. Share prices will be around $500, as stated on the website. They expect to make an announcement of the location of their first project in December, 2010.

They have a detailed website, www.MountainRidersAlliance.com, blog MRABlog, Twitter and Facebook page.

For more information, contact them directly at info@MountainRidersAlliance.com

The man was skiing off piste near Evolène in the Swiss Valais when he was buried by the slide. His parents reported him missing and search operation began. Soon they found the remaining of an avalanche measuring 50 by 150 meters with tracks entering. Unfortunately the rescue team was not able to do anything due to security issues, so they came back next morning with a helicopter.

The man was buried but the top of his helmet was just below the surface of the snow so he was probably able to breath but amazing he didn’t not suffer severe or fatal hypothermia.

“I’ve never heard of such a case before,” said police spokesman Jean-Marie Bornet. “It’s already very difficult to survive more than 45 minutes beneath an avalanche.”

So far unidentified Swiss skier was skiing alone in the avalanche prone backcountry in the Evolene region about 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Geneva. Last month a series of avalanches at the same spot killed six people in central Switzerland, the country’s worst such disaster in more than a decade. Every year dozens of skiers are killed by avalanches in the Swiss Alps.

The skier has been hospitalized but appears to have suffered no serious injuries, Bornet said.

“He’s a very lucky man,” he said.

In case you didn’t notice our previous article check how massive and avalanche can be.

Source [Le Nouvelliste and TSR]

Aadne Olsrund is our mate living in Tamokdalen, Norway. Although early January is pretty quiet up there, a fellow skier told Aadne about the remains of a huge avalanche. Aadne decided to take a look, and what he found was maybe not the biggest avalanche on Earth but very big and literately massive.

This “avalanche from hell” was a wide giant of about 700-800 meters  that slid over one kilometer pushing the snow down into a valley. According to Aadne, the thickest part of the slab was well over 3,5 meters. The slope is only about 20-25 degrees steep, but in lower section the grade becomes 30-40 degrees.

Avalanches are classified by their morphological characteristics, and are rated by either their destructive potential or the mass of the downward flowing snow. Some of the morphological characteristics used to classify avalanches include the type of snow involved, the nature of the failure, the sliding surface, the propagation mechanism of the failure, the trigger of the avalanche, the slope angle, direction, and elevation. Avalanche size, mass, and destructive potential are rated on a logarithmic scale, typically made up of 4 to 7 categories, with the precise definition of the categories depending on the observation system or forecast region.

I guess in the European avalanche size table this avalanche is considered “large” (biggest one on scale 1-4). Any arguments?

In avalanches the snow pack is composed of deposition layers of snow that are accumulated over time. The deposition layers are stratified parallel to the ground surface on which the snow falls. Each deposition layer indicates a distinct meteorological condition during which the snow was accumulated. Once deposited a snow layer will continue to evolve and develop under the influence of the meteorological conditions that prevail after deposition.

For an avalanche to occur, it is necessary that a snow pack have a weak layer (or instability) below a slab of cohesive snow. “I wasn’t able to recognize layers in snow cubes, but they I can say they were huge and hard as concrete“, says Aadne.

Avalanches are always caused by an external stress on the snow pack, they are not random or spontaneous events. Natural triggers of avalanches include additional precipitation, radiative and convective heating, rock fall, ice fall, and other sudden impacts; however, even a snow pack held at a constant temperature, pressure, and humidity will evolve over time and develop stresses, often from the down slope creep of the snow pack.

Human triggers of avalanches include skiers, snowmobiles, and controlled explosive work. The triggering stress load can be either localized to the failure point, or remote. Localized triggers of avalanches are typified by point releases from solar heated rocks. Remotely triggered avalanches occur when a tensile stress wave is transmitted through the slab to the start zone, once the stress wave reaches the start zone a fracture initiates and propagates the failure.

These pictures from Aadne are truly impressive. Personally I have never seen anything similar out there and I hope I never get the chance to either. I mean I would rather stay away from such avalanches. I just wonder if Aadne was worried about a second avalanche when standing in front of that giant snow wall..

Have you witnessed anything similar? If yes, please share your experience by leaving a comment. If you have photos and you would like to share them with our readers, please send them to info@fiercermedia.com.

If you are new to backcountry skiing you might be interested in checking our ultimate backcountry ski gear list.

Here are few examples of huge avalanches.

This is what a huge avalanche can do. This occurred in Argentiere, France back in 99. I woke up 6 am in Chamonix and went photographing when I saw helicopters flying. In an hour I started receiving phone calls and heard about the disaster. It was a sad day for many.

The second reason to report from this event is that in a way it was groundbreaking: the event organizer Soul Productions combined the two unique event elements in a creative new way. A Bagjump was put together with the great Finnish innovation of Spedelinko (Ski jumping sling,  see also the video below. Btw. If you want to know more about the innovator of the system, read this, it is definitely worth checking out)

The ingenuity of the whole set-up: it seems like you don’t need any hill or even a landing to organize a jump contest/session anymore, just a little bit of open space and tiny piece of snow! (Ok, of course the electricity but let’s not start nitpicking here…)

The start list for the event was also pretty impressive:

Telemark: Joonas Karhumaa (the guy we interviewed a week ago! Check the crazy long jump in the start of the YouTube video, he almost missed the whole damn landing bag…I said he goes big!)

Freeski: Matti Räty, Roope Leppänen, Oskari Raitanen, Aleksi Laitinen

Snowboard: Nuutti Niemelä, Niko Länsiö, Matti Kinnunen, Markus Haka, Ville Uotila, Jaakko Ruha, Petja Piiroinen, Roni Rintala, Martin Kalliola, Aleksi Kuusisto, Heppu Pentti,Arttu Pulkkinen, Toni Viitakangas, Jani Isaksson, Jeppe Rontti, Juha Rautanen,Simo Rautava, Risto Mattila

(Yeah, I guess every second Finnish teenager/twenty-something is a pro snowboarder these days…heh)

Couple of my own shots from the event: