• How to engineer the ultimate downhill mountain bike: find out here.
• Shanty Creek named best terrain in the Midwest: that has to count for something.
• Alltracks Academy expands to Revelstoke: we’ve covered Alltracks before.
• What happens when shredding and Google Earth get together? Check it out.

The net result is that tens of thousands of tourists are stranded, as it’s damn near impossible to get back and forth without the Sea to Sky Highway, where the slide took place. The ride is two hours on the Sea to Sky Highway, eight hours if you take the detour. Ouch.

While it’s not likely to happen during the 2010 Winter Olympics, imagine if it did? What a nightmare.

“Alberta is a big province, so whereas there is hardly any snow in the south in the winter, there is plenty of opportunity in the north for skiing, snowboarding and skating,” said Hector Goudrea, Alberta’s employment minister.

Alberta is of course home to some of our more famous ski resorts, including Sunshine Village, which is not too far from Calgary at all.

The downside to living in Alberta if you’re from, say, London? Well, the population of the entire province is much smaller than all of London. But the bars stay open longer and the scenery is to die for.

According to the study, detailed here, almost 26 percent of the nearly 213,000 people that visited emergency rooms due to outdoor recreational injuries between 2004 and 2005 were snowboarders. That’s about 54,000 visits by shredders alone.

The second and third-most dangerous activities? Sledding (10.8 percent) and hiking (6.3 percent).

Hiking?

Among the other statistics highlighted:

• Half the visits were by kids and young adults aged 10-24.
• Common injuries were fractures (27.4 percent) and sprains (23.9 percent).
• Of these, most injuries were to the arms or legs (52 percent) or to the head or neck (23.3 percent).
• 6.5 percent of  injuries treated were diagnosed as “traumatic brain injury”. Geeez.

Anyway, it’s no surprise the CDC recommends helmets. “By wearing the appropriate helmet for snowboarding, snowmobiling, sledding and rock climbing, you can reduce your risk of having a head injury, which could become a traumatic brain injury,” said Arlene Greenspan, Dr. PH and co-author of the study, in a press release. “Helmets are one piece of equipment that can have a critical, positive impact.”

Wise words indeed.

One project that hasn’t made too many headlines, though, is Whistler’s other planned gondola, which will connect Whistler Creekside with Kadenwood, an exclusive neighbourhood nestled slopeside. (Apparently it is the “highest buildable point on Whistler Mountain” according to Kadenwoodhomes.com). The reason you haven’t heard of it? The gondola isn’t meant for you - it’s for the super rich. (Apologies if you are super rich. And if you are: can I have some money?)

According to a Globe and Mail article published last year:

“Now, you’re no doubt wondering how much it costs to live in this neighbourhood. Well, lots go for between $1.5-million and $2.5-million, depending on their size. Then you have to build a house on it, which in most cases is another million or two or three or four, depending on how big you want it.”

Funnily enough the article is available as a PDF on Playground.com, a website operated by Intrawest (the parent company of Whistler Blackcomb resort). The site is geared toward folks with enough dough to buy ski resort real estate and subsequently build a custom home. Not exactly a site for the common man.

Kadenwood is currently serviced by a slopeside run on the way to Creekside.

Looks pretty cool. Unfortunately, like the Wii itself, chances are you won’t be able to find a copy of the game or a balance board any time soon. It looks like the Wii Fit is sold out pretty much everywhere.

5/30/08 Update: It looks like word is finally getting out on something we reported a while ago: Shaun White is releasing a video game. What I didn’t know, however, is that Shaun White Snowboarding will be available on the Wii Fit Balance Board. cool.

I’ve known about the article for quite some time, but had to keep it under wraps for obvious reasons. According to my sister, White was a super-cool, laid back dude. She even told him she had a brother who snowboarded. Woot!
Anyway, although I am an XBOX 360 guy myself, this new White game looks pretty rad. Instead of being forced in one linear direction in order to accomplish one specific goal, it looks like Shaun White Snowboarding will allow the player to explore all sorts of open terrain, just like shredding a real hill. To quote the article:

“Ubisoft and Olympic gold medal snowboarder Shaun White are collaborating on a fresh design intended to take you away from straight runs down plastic mountains, and immerse you in a world that captures the most important aspects of snowboarding - community, interactivity and adaptation.”

Sounds like a cool game. And for any of you who pick up the magazine: the article is on page 56!

 ”In general, the ideal of snowboarding style is to keep the upper body as quiet as possible while letting the lower body do the work in the turns. One thing I often see riders do is bend too much from the waist. This, too, looks bad, and it’s a difficult posture to use in riding. A more correct and comfortable posture, one that’s stable and looks good, is bending from the knees and the ankles.”

I found this interesting because, frankly, I have never given any thought to how my posture looks while I fly down the mountain, or this might affect my performance. Regardless, it’s actually this second tidbit from the article that really got me thinking:

“The disciplines of board sports help with finding creative new lines and ways of looking at the mountain. Many snowboarders, including pros I’ve ridden with, just bomb a run down the fall line. They fail to consider all the possibilities a run has to offer. Surfers and skaters, on the other hand, often look at the big picture.

<snip>

Similarly, surfers look for certain “lines” down a slope besides the easy-to-read fall lines.”

This article made me realize that I myself am a “speed” guy. When Blue Mountain was dead empty a couple of weeks ago, for example, I spent the entire night speeding down every run; I didn’t want to turn, or experience the whole slope. Rather, I wanted to just go fast. Fast as I could safely ride.  This article makes me wonder if I’m missing part of the snowboarding experience when I do that.

The result was Own the Podium, a program launched in 2003 to make sure we don’t suck in 2010. The program focuses on developing (and sometimes funding) athletes who appear to have a shot at winning an Olympic medal. So far, the results have been promising: Canada actually did pretty well in the 2006 Winter Olympics (24 medals, the country’s best), and we’re winning lots of World Cup tune-up events.

The controversy I’m referring to surrounds, of course, the snowboarders; specifically, the half-pipe riders. Many national half-pipers were reportedly unwilling to ditch their current schedules - which include video shoots, endorsement commitments and select half-pipe events - for the structured, more rigorous requirements of a program funded by Own the Podium. The Canadian Snowboard Federation (which gets financial and technical support from Own the Podium) wanted dedication to a structured program in exchange for funding; the riders wanted freedom, but funding too. What to do?

Well, with the riders performing well in World Cup events, it looks like a compromise has been reached. If the Canadian Snowboard Federation can get a bump in funding from Own the Podium, they’ll fund half-pipers requiring more schedule flexibility as well.

BTW, trivia question: First Canadian to win a medal in snowboarding? Ross Rebagliati, of course.