Where will it Snow this Summer?
What did you like about Cliffhanger? Feel of the event, liked everything, family atmosphere, feel and mix of events, free stuff, fun stuff for kids, good location, good spectator points, high spirits, cinema tent, all the climbing, hot chocolate, lots to see and do, not previously our thing – now inspired!
The ever growing British Ski Cross Series arrived at SNO!zone Braehead on 15 June 2008, as competitors from across the UK gathered for the second round of the series, eager to pick up where they left off following the success of Round One in Castleford the previous month…
Speed favours the brave
While the course wasn’t as technical as at Round One, it had shown itself to be a lot faster, with a fair few skiers taking some heavy knocks during open practice. With the time trials underway the course proved to favour the stronger athletes, with Senior age group competitors packing the top ten rankings. As more skiers hit the corners, taking off the top layer of soft snow, the course gradually picked up speed, allowing the Youth and Junior racers a chance to use their second timed run to break into the top set.
In the Knock out Head to Heads, Graham Pinkerton took maybe the loudest cheer of the day when he threw an audacious backflip off the final jump on his way to finishing third.
Freezing the lead
As usual the women’s Final was first up and immediately brought about a shock result - Round One winner and fastest female of the day Jasmine Taylor tangled with Danielle Freeze and came off worse, with Freeze powering through to take the female victory, followed by Gracie Lake leaving Taylor to settle for third.
Onto the Youth Males Final where Max Baggio again showed his talent, cruising by the field to his second consecutive.
In the Junior Final Round One winner Jacob Lawless was under pressure from Marek Benkhe and Callum Mclennan from the off, and it eventually proved too much for the youngster as Benkhe made up for a disappointing Round One taking the victory from Mclennan, leaving Lawless to finish third, ahead of Chris Wadsworth.
As with Round One, the Senior Final proved to be the tightest, most physical race of the day. Top seed from qualifying Andrew Matthews took the lead out of the gate, but both Morton and Thomson caught him into the first corner. Amid a sea of flailing arms and ski poles Morton emerged from corner two with the lead, followed swiftly by Thomson and Ben Corby. While the trio were only inches from each other and barely ahead of Matthews, that’s how it stayed and Morton picked up his second Senior victory in two Rounds.
Going for the cash
As the four winning finalist lined up to dash for the cash in the Super Final, the smart money was on the experienced heads of Baggio and Morton. Marek Benkhe took a flyer out of the start while Baggio and Morton came together going into corner one. As the pair scrapped, the difference in age and strength showed and Baggio was sent crashing to the snow. Danielle Freeze took advantage of Baggio’s misfortune to snatch third place, and while Morton attacked the lower section of the course and started to claw back time on Benkhe it was too little too late as the Junior Race Winner crossed the line for his first overall victory and a pocket full of cash!
With his second place in the Super Final, Kenny Morton retained his position at the top of the overall leaders board, while Marek Benkhe moved into second above Max Baggio.
Don’t miss out on Round Three on 12-13 July - book your place at Hype Events.
The British Ski Cross Series would not be possible without its highly supportive sponsors:
SNO!zone, Atomic Skis, d3o, futur-3, Head Skis & Alibi Pretox
Media partners: Natives.co.uk, Ski Club of Great Britain & Metro Snow
British Ski Cross Series Round 2 Results:
Female:
1st – Danielle Freeze #32
2nd – Gracie Lake #94
3rd – Jasmine Taylor #26
Youth Males:
1st – Max Baggio #67
2nd – Ewan Matthew #80
3rd – Max Moss #66
Junior Males:
1st – Marek Benkhe #83
2nd – Callum Mclennan - #31
1st – Jacob Lawless #13
Senior Males:
1st – Kenny Morton #78
2nd – Ryan Thomson #21
3rd – Ben Corby #17
An expedition led by British polar explorer Pen Hadow, to take place next Spring, has earned the rare patronage of HRH The Prince of Wales.
Hadow’s Arctic Survey will make the first definitive measurements of the depth of the North Pole ice cap, thereby assisting scientists around the world in determining the declining state of the Arctic sea ice cover. The consequences of its melt will have consequences for everyone on the planet.
“Only polar explorers have the ability to undertake the necessary surface journey to make the vital direct surface observations in the dangerous and challenging conditions around the North Pole,” said Prince Charles, explaining the granting of his patronage, “something satellites and submarines have been unable to do.”
Not just polar bears and the bio-diversity of the Arctic will be affected by the seasonal disappearance of the sea ice – rising sea levels, escalating political tensions over energy resources, distorted weather patterns, unmanaged shipping routes and fish stocks, and fresh water shortages around the world are all significant consequences, says Hadow.
“The Prince of Wales is one of the world’s great environmental leaders who has been warning of the threat from climate change for decades. We could not find a better patron of our expedition and he has asked us to keep him informed on a regular basis as our journey progresses,” says Pen Hadow.
“The Arctic Ocean sea ice is ‘the canary’ of climate change,” he continues, “as it is critically important as a reflector of the Sun’s heat, but it is melting at an alarmingly fast rate. The experts are unsure whether it will disappear in 100 years time, or in less than five.”
“Hadow’s measurements will provide an unprecedented data set of snow and ice that will allow us to better characterise the current state of the Arctic sea ice cover and project its declining trend,” explains Dr Ron Kwok - Senior Research Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA.
“Good science is essential as we grapple with the consequences of climate change,” says HRH The Prince of Wales. “The work of Arctic Survey is crucial to ensure we have the information to know the scale of the damage we are doing. For the sake of our children and grandchildren, I pray that we will heed the findings of Arctic Survey.”
The £2.5 million project is already two-thirds funded by individual philanthropists, corporate sponsors and grant-awarding bodies.
The 8th British Freeskiing performance training Camps (www.britishfreeskicamps.com )in association with Freeski Britain, will be held this summer in Saas Fee, Switzerland.
The Summer dates are 12th - 19th July, 19th - 26th July and 26th July - 2nd August and 2nd - 9th August 2008.
The camps will be focused once again on bringing the British freeskiing community closer together and building a basis for training riders to become top level New School Freestyle skiers, Big Mountain competitors and Moguls competition skiers. The camps are not elitist and also give less experienced skiers who have never had the chance to ride the park or skier cross a unique learning and confidence building experience.
Saas-Fee is currently the top summer skiing glacier due to the snow quality and the shaping in the Saas-Fee snowpark and skiers cross course. Because the terrain available in the summer in Saas-Fee, the camps also have the opportunity to test skiers on steeps, moguls and amazingly well groomed pistes.
During the camps you will also get the chance to witness the Saas Fee Ride 08, an international level freeski competition with some of Europe’s top riders and also the best of British. See last years event live right now on www.saasfeeride.com.
For more information go to www.britishfreeskicamps.com
Warren Smith taught “Big Guy” Lawrence Dallaglio how to tackle the steeps in Verbier this winter, so how better for him to return the favour than signing Warren up to cycling 933kms through the Pyrenees in aid of the charity Bliss…
Quick learner
Warren Smith took Lawrence Dallaglio skiing this season to see what the big man was made of on the slopes. It was an amazing three days of development and Lawrence was one of the fastest learners in skiing Warren had ever coached. On day one Lawrence was making basic parallel turns; on day three short radius turns and the steep slope of Mont Fort was conquered. Quite an achievement!
Stepping up to the plate
On a chairlift in Verbier on the third day Lawrence asked Warren if he fancied joining in with a cycle challenge in France. Warren agreed to doing it without realising too many of the details. He was a bit shocked when he found out it was 933km over the French Pyrenees, but as it was the big man asking and in aid of the Bliss charity (for babies born too soon, too small, too sick), he felt honoured to be a part of it.
This event will test more than just personal endurance. The team have also taken on the challenge of raising an amazing £175,000 for Bliss. From March through to September 2008 a range of fundraising events are taking place to help boost the £50k that has already been raised by one individual alone.
Warren starts training in July for the challenge and has set up his charity fundraising page on JustGiving, which has more information on the challenge, so please give generously. There’s also more information on the challenge on the Bliss website and we’ll be keeping you up to date with Warren’s progess here too.
Continuing the Tour of the cities, Snozone will be hosting another real snow Jam session in York on Saturday 14th June. St Sampsons square is where all the action will take place, so get along and check out the action.
In one of the most exciting strategic moves in the Chinese snowboard market to date, Burton has signed as the title sponsor of The Burton Qiaobo Mellow Park, a brand new indoor year-round terrain facility.
With the country’s top park firm, the snowboard industry’s most recognisable name and a state-of-the-art indoor snow dome, the landscape of Chinese snowboarding will be forever changed this June 14th when Qiaobo Ice and Snow World unveil their brand new Burton Mellow Park.
“The drive behind the project is to get more people on the snow riding and having fun,” comments Steve Zdarsky,” Mellow CEO. “With Burton as our partner and their LTR program in effect, the new park is really going to draw the crowds. Besides we are all just super stoked we can now ride in Beijing year-round!”
Indoor facilities are becoming more accessible in non-winter friendly environments around the world. The park, located just outside the city center, will boast a kicker line, wallride as well as rail and box combinations. “The park will be as sick as we can make it,” explains Marco Huang, Park Designer. “The snow in Qiaobo is surprisingly good, and the management is stoked to have a new Mellow Park, so it’s going to be a fun area for all levels of riding”.
Mellow is the owner of many events including the TTR 4Star Red Bull Nanshan Open as well as many international standard parks around the country. With nearly every single advancement in Chinese snowboarding on its long list of accomplishments, Mellow Constructions is the only partner of choice for snowboard marketing and events in China.
For more details about the park, hit up www.mellowparks.cn
Many of Australia’s ski areas are gearing up to open this weekend. The country’s resorts have had several good pre-season snowfalls although some reports say much of that cover has subsequently melted, but snow making is endeavouring to fill any gaps.
At Perisher Blue consistently low temperatures have allowed the snowmaking guns to churn out a torrent of snow across Front Valley almost nightly. According to John Palmer, Snowmaking Manager for the resort, the snowmaking is set to continue whenever conditions are optimal.
“We have been lucky to have such consistently good conditions for snowmaking since we started on 13 May 2008.”
Perisher Blue has an array of festivities planned for the season’s kick off on Saturday, 7th June. The fun will begin with the Blessing of the Snow at 10.15am at the bottom of Front Valley. Entertainment for all the family including life music, circus performances, bouncy castle and carnival rides will continue throughout the weekend. A highlight will be the fire show which kicks off at 10pm on Saturday night at Front Valley.
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