Aksel Lund Svindal goes vintage.

I have mentioned his name before.  This Winter Olympic Games, Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway won a 1, 2, 3 (GOLD, SILVER, BRONZE).  He is a sexy beast on skis.  He is also humble and seems like a great guy. What you may not know is that he can rock some amazing hair too!  Since he is keeping his hair short these days, I near fell off my chair when I found this picture of him in 2003...

Photo: LUDVIG KILLINGBERG

In Oppdal (where Aksel attended ski school) he was honored for outstanding achievement back in 2003, most likely for his 4 medal win at the 2002 World Junior Championships. Well, we all continue to honor him this ski season for his medals at the Olympics and the Mens FIS Alpine World Cup in Val-d'Isère, Savoie, France in 2009.

Make it retro with a Hot Tub Time Machine!

It's simple, really. Read the ski movie equation for success below:
Skiing + Sex + Humor = Good Times (not the TV Show)

Skiing corn? I thought I was supposed to eat it.

Getting "back on the mountain" is both fun and confusing, especially learning all the snow community terms.  Before my sabbatical, I do not remember terms like EPIC and YARD SALE.  Another new term for me is CORN.

The glossary on the community section of SKI.COM defines CORN as:
Snow characterized by its large corn-kernel-sized granules found during the spring.

(Courtesy of snoboy via flikr.com)

As spring skiing approaches this season, I've been reading nothing but upcoming and current corn conditions. Are we farmers or skiers? Skiing the corn seems to be enjoyable but also something to watch out for in regards to difficulties. For instance, I've been sifting through what are some good and bad notes on corn time:

-Don't ski when it's like a rock
-Don't skiing corn conditions in the afternoon when it becomes a melted wet mess
-Do look towards the sun and mountain placement for best conditions (East slopes in morning, South slopes late morning/early afternoon, West slopes in afternoon)
-Do enjoy better corn in the Northwest Sierra's (Tahoe ski resorts like SQUAW VALLEY USA)

Go out and ski some corn!  Then, maybe celebrate more with eating some. Perhaps on the cob.

Corn Snow Spring Skiing Backcountry Photos - Wasatch Mountains, Utah. 

(Courtesy of tahoecam.com)

Mountain Snap: Can you read the sign?

Another unidentified mountain photo from my one of my parents' European ski adventures in the 1960's.  My guess, this is in the Swiss Alps.  I tried to secure the location by the sign in the foreground, but is very hard to read.  Can you make it out?  If so, please let me know!

Holiday Skiing. Just add more alcohol?

Every ski resort seems to have specials most days on and off the slopes. There's even more specials around holiday time, Hallmark holidays included. Of course St. Patrick's Day is no exception with lift tickets and drink specials.  For instance, America's Family Resort of Smugglers' Notch in Vermont is offering discounted lift tickets today. Wear green and adults can ski all day for $39, kids for $29. Acclaimed Squaw Valley in Tahoe, CA has specials and more importantly, Lenny The Leprechaun rocking the slopes!  If you are lucky to see Lenny, he'll give you a prize out of his gold pot. Now, that may sound suspicious but indeed fun.

Catch that edge, Lenny! (Photo courtesy of Squaw.com)

We all know skiers and snowboarders don't need a holiday to do celebratory damage pre/during/après-ski. Snow enthusiasts have been witnessed drinking beer and doing shots starting at 10AM.  Like something's new for St. Patrick's Day?  Well as the Irish Pubs open at 6AM today, the bars on mountains still open at 10AM (probably a good thing). Regardless, mountain lovers party hard all the time. Is doing car bombs at the Steeps Bar of McCoy Station on Mammoth Mountain different today? Sure, because today they are "lucky" car bombs. Let's just hope everyone remains safe out there and no one turns the lovely white snow into green stains of upchuck. 


But really, keep it safe. You'd think there would be major reports of snow lovers getting overly wasted in high altitudes and causing problems on a day-to-day basis, but au contraire. Are they just used to it?  What about the slopes first-timers? Skiers should teach the sloppy drunks today a lesson.

Swoomer Ski Movie Review: Downhill Racer

In 1969, Robert Redford sealed the deal to becoming a movie star. Not only was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid released, but so was Downhill Racer. It was the film debut of director Michael Richie (Fletch, The Golden Child) and produced by Richard Gregson (married to Natalie Wood, who actually has an uncredited Extra role in the film). Roman Polanski was originally scheduled to direct, but instead switched to direct Rosemary's Baby. Good move, Roman.

The original movie poster and full set of lobby cards

The  movie also stars another great movie star, Gene Hackman. Redford, an upcoming cocky ski racer (David Chappellet), joins the US Ski Team mid-season in Europe. Hackman (Eugene Claire) is the team's head coach with also well known actor Dabney Coleman who plays the team's assistant coach. Redford has a fling with actress Camilla Sparv (Carole Strahl) who works for a ski company promoting new skis for the team to race on. Mixing business with pleasure, how usual.


The tagline, "How fast must a man go to get from where's he's at?" almost sounds like a math question. The answer is simple. Fast -- Duh. In the film, Redford's character, a mighty American ski racer from Idaho Springs, Colorado, wins the GOLD medal in the downhill. Like what the movie Major League did for the Cleveland Indians, I believe Downhill Racer did for US Olympic men ski racers. Even though it took fifteen years after Downhill Racer, Bill Johnson took home the GOLD medal for downhill in the 1984 games in Sarajevo. He was the first US man to do so.

Bill Johnson, 1984 (Getty Images)

The movie is entertaining and location beautiful!  Shot in Switzerland, Austria, France, and Colorado, the mountain views are majestic and the camera stunt work is smart. They got a camera/stunt man to ski alongside the skiers for in your face shots. Something new and experimental at that time. The best quote of the movie is from a woman reporter interviewing the US Ski team minus Redford. As the men talk about the US women's team training elsewhere, the lady reporter is surprised there are even women who ski race. "Men look stronger in the morning..." Wow. Hello 1969.


Some other fun and memorable quotes I noted:
"I'm here cause I ski and ski fast." -- David (Robert Redford)
"All you had was your skis and that's just not enough." -- Eugene (Gene Hackman)

2009, Criterion Collection DVD

Robert Redford is a stud and playing a ski racer increases his stud status. I've said it before, but people who ski/snowboard tend to be good-looking. Casting Redford was no mistake! If you want a night of ski racing fun with a 60's twist, you'll like this film. The Criterion Collection re-released the film this past November in re-digitized splendor! It includes the restored high-def trailer, interviews, and more. Go get it!  It's worthy for any ski film fanatic collection.

Winter Olympics are over. Risk and drama galore!

A recap of the 21st Winter Olympic Games would be one of risk and drama. Let's face it, all events at the games have risk factors. Skiing, Speed skating, Luging, etc. Those athletes are going fast. Are they going too fast? I read an interesting article in February 26 edition of THE WEEK asking this very question.

Nodar Kumaritashvili, photo by Elise Amendola/AP

The games started on a sad note with the death of the 21 year old Georgian lunger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, who was thrown from the track during a training run before the Opening Ceremonies. Unfortunately, I saw the footage. So you do not have to see it (if you haven't already), he caught a wicked curve and flew off the track and slammed into an unprotected metal pole. A side note: the track in Vancouver is the fiercest and fastest in the world. It wasn't the best way to start off these Winter Olympics and the Canadians did a good job dealing with it. Hey, they're Canadians!

Alexandre Bilodeau, Getty Images

It was great watching Canadian freestyle mogul skier Alexandre Bilodeau be the first Canadian to gold medal on Canadian soil early in the first 10 events. Though, not so much fun watching the mens Canadian hockey team beat the US hockey team in overtime. Grrr. But seriously, the US Ski Team and all US athletes did our country proud and brought home a leading total of 37 medals! 9 GOLD, 15 SILVER, 13 BRONZE. U-S-A! U-S-A!

And there was drama you say? Well, it was extenuated by the media of course. Especially since it was between the US Ski Team's leading ladies Lindsey Vonn and Julie Mancuso. Julia, who won GOLD 4 years ago, won 2 SILVER this year. Lindsey got a GOLD and a BRONZE. So in a nutshell,  Julia was flagged on her first defending GOLD Giant Slalom run after Lindsey crashed right before her on the course. By the time Julia got back up the mountain to redo her first run, the course was trashed (I guess she knows how the girls lower on the ladder feel) and left her in 18th place. Julia got emotional and the media brought out Lindsey and Julia's "we're friendly, but not friends" competitive relationship. Julia was defending her GOLD, and got emotional when she didn't perform how she wanted. After Julia's killer 2nd run, she didn't medal and finished in the top 10. I can understand, even though others have pegged her as a drama queen.

Left to Right: Julia Mancuso, Lindsey Vonn (Andrew Mills)

They say Lindsey is the Golden Girl but didn't Julia win GOLD first in 2006? I like both of these fierce ladies, but it seems the media wants to hop into bed with Lindsey. She gets an interview on The Tonight Show, Julia gets the George Lopez Show. I understand Lindsey's the one who got the GOLD this year (and the World Cup), but I hope Julia got the acclaim Lindsey is getting for her GOLD 4 years ago. I don't remember since I wasn't "back on the mountain" yet.

The next Winter Olympic Games are in Sochi, Russia. Getting excited?

Mountain Life: At Sunset

A picture is worth a thousands words. That is such a worthy statement. Thanks Chinese for your proverb!

This is what I think about when I think about mountain life -- BEAUTIFUL. Even better, this is European mountain life in the 1970's. Just another snap shot from the collection of my parent's ski adventures. This is probably in Austria or Switzerland at sunset. Or could this be sunrise right before hitting the slopes? Enjoy!