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The Ski Season Is Already Underway In Colorado

Many people are still putting the final touches on their jack-o-lanterns, but it’s already time to break out the skis from the storage unit. Winter has arrived extra early in some parts of Colorado this year. Last week a baseball playoff game was canceled due to a little snow and sleet, and the Loveland Ski Area fired up the lifts for the first time this season on October 7. It’s been cold enough and they've had the snow-making machines running at full force to get everything ready for the beginning of the season.

The resort is about 50 miles outside Denver and this is the first time they’ve opened this early in about 40 years—guess there’s no trouble with global warming up on the slopes. Unless some other ski resort sneakily opened their facility without any fanfare, Loveland is the first ski resort to open in North America this year.

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NYC Gets Down with Winter

It's widely known that New Yorkers do not deal particularly well with winter (hence the existence of Florida). So as the snow falls heavily this week, we're pretty impressed that New York is putting on not one, but two big events that embrace the cold. We're guessing last year's Union Square Session was a sort of success.

First up, this Thursday in East River Park is the Red Bull Snowscrapers event, a mini-X-Games competition that brings in 17 of the world's best snowboarders (read: Shaun White and 16 guys you've never heard of), along with live music from Anthrax and other Xtreme-approved bands.

Those who get inspired can head back to East River Park on Saturday for the Winterjam, a city-sponsored winter sports playground that includes a snowboard rail jam, an ice climbing wall and a 70-foot snow flume for sledding.

· Red Bull Snowscrapers [Official Site]
· Winterjam [Official Site]
· Winter Travel coverage [Jaunted]

Photo: [Red Bull]

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Skiing Is Just The Beginning At Big Sky

If you’re trying to fill up that US map on the back of the Winnebago with state stickers, you should head to Montana this winter. Besides getting to say you’ve been to Montana, there’s some pretty good skiing at the Big Sky Resort. The resort is only a 45-minute rental car disaster away from the Gallatin Airport in Bozeman. There’s daily service on most of the major airlines, and a couple of smaller ones as well, so you should be all set.

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Riding the Rails in Union Square

The Big Apple seems to live by the credo, "If we don't got it, we'll build it." Actually, we just made that up. But how else to explain the Union Square Street Sessions, the city's first ever major pro snowboarding competition? It's happening February 8 despite the fact that there's no snow in sight.

A giant rail has been built just for the competition, and 24 men and eight women will be grinding and sliding down it. The winner of the rail jam will take home a prize purse of $30,000.

The whole thing will go down at 5:30 pm in Union Square--complete with an "action sports block party" including live music and a sponsor village of action sport retailers.

And if this urban snow jam makes you antsy to ride some rails yourself, a pro-am jam and winter carnival will be held the next day, February 9, in Central Park.

Related Stories:
· Union Square Street Sessions [Snowboard Magazine]
· NYC's First-Ever Pro Snowboarding Competition [Gridskipper]
· Snowboarding coverage [Jaunted]

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Snowboarding Travel: "Power to the Poachers!"

Burton, the pseudo-subversive snowboarding company that makes a "420 kit", wants you to join its protest ride. See, there are four resorts in the US that don't allow snowboarding, and founder Jake Burton has had it with the "scourge of segregation". If you've got the guts and the ingenuity, you can win up to $20,000 if you crash the skiers-only mountains and film yourself and your buddies shredding the slopes.

So where to? We've mentioned Deer Valley before; the others are Mad River Glen, Alta and Taos Ski Valley. If the promo video Burton has up is any indication, you won't be too welcome after you strap on your board, so have an exit strategy prepared. (We'd embed it here, but Burton has segregated the video to its website.)

One more thing: You've got until March 1 to submit your footage, so if you're interested, act fast. And as a Gadling commenter notes, Taos Ski Valley will start letting snowboarders ride starting March 19. Maybe this little protest thing is working.

Related Stories:
· Poach, Snowboard, Video and Win [Gadling]
· Burton's Sabotage Stupidity "Campaign" [Official Site]
· Jaunted Skiing coverage [Jaunted]

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We Want Snow Now!

In most parts of Europe this year, snowfall's been dismally disappointing and many skiiers are swooshing down the slopes on artificial snow. But what can you do about it, really: that's just nature!

That's not the attitude being taken, however, by a bunch of disgruntled Romanian snowboarders. They held a sit-down protest in front of the National Weather Institute in Bucharest this week. Their complaint--quite simply, a lack of snow.

With nothing better to do (and their snowboards still in their cupboards) they stayed at the institute until officials told them their complaint "would be passed on to a higher authority." Al Roker?

[Photo: Thomas Hawk]

Related Stories:
· Snowboarders Stage Protest [Ananova]

Tags: Snowboarding / Skiing / Ski Resorts / → All Tags

Is Snow Racist?

Snow is the color white, and the trails beginners should stay away from are marked by a black diamond--sounds racist doesn't it? Much the same way the game eight ball is racist, um, at least this is the logic used in our favorite Boomerang scene.

In any event, only three out of every twenty skiers and snowboarders are minorities, according to CNN.  However, National Ski Areas Association, which reps 332 winter resorts is hoping to change all that:

Resort are advertising in Chinese newspapers, translating informational brochures to Spanish, stocking smaller boots Asians might need and introducing children from rural schools or urban centers to a sport they may only have seen on TV.

So where is the epicenter of all this progress taking place? Vail? Breckinridge? Alpine Meadows? Nope. Try Sierra Summit, according to the CNN story. Um, no, SS mountain is not in the Sierra, it is actually 65 miles northeast of Fresno in central California. Wonder if you can smell the cows on the 5 from the summit. This campaign is actually a good way for Sierra Summit to get on the map, first we have heard of it at least. Of course, the big name resorts are also focusing on attracting minorities to the slopes this year.

[Photo: asgoodas]

Related Stories:
· Ski resorts working to bring minorities to the slopes [CNN]

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Active Travel: Idaho? No, You Tahoe

Last week we turned you on to Mont Tremblant, where the sussing is Canadian but the apres scene is a la francais. But where to go if you're a good old American in need of some homeland slopes? Lake Tahoe is one of the country's foremost winter playgrounds, and even novices can get in on the fun December 9-10 with the 7th Annual Learn to Ski and Board Weekend.

It goes like this, if you're a Shaun White, yeah that redheaded Olympic dude aka The Flying Tomato, wannabes. You get an all-day beginner-slopes lift ticket for many of the Tahoe area ski resorts, a rental ski or board set up and a lesson to get you on your feet for just $25. It's a sweet deal: a rental alone normally costs $34 at Alpine Meadows. You'd be well-advised to show up to the ticket windows early. All the deets, of course, are online.

[Photo: x180]

Related Stories:
· Active Travel: Skiing in French [Jaunted]
· Travel Deals coverage [Jaunted]