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Articles from Homeboy's Skiing Blog

Where Would You Go Skiing In Europe? - 5 Resorts That Rock! 2007-11-16 05:31:58 Ski seasons are starting in US and Europe. Although Dave started it few weeks ago, some resorts are still not sure if there is snow enough. Here in Finland it has been rainy, but today get received the first snow. Anyhow, the fact is that the winter is almost here and the ski season is starting. Ladies and gentleman, it is time to go skiing! Hold on! Where should I go this year? To Europe? Yes, skiing in Europe rocks! Which resort would be good? Let me help you. I have been skiing in numerous European ski resorts and I have listed five ski resorts that are pure diamonds. Now, this list is not about the best backcountry skiing resorts or the best telemark skiing resorts. This is a list of European ski resorts for families and those who are interested skiing on pistes, stay in a good hotel, eat very good food and enjoy something special. Let’s start. Resort #5: Andorra Andorra provides different skiing that the resorts in the Alps. Andorra is located in southern Europe and it prov ...

Skibum’s World - To Work or Not To Work in a Ski Resort 2007-11-15 17:57:05 Yesterday I wrote about becoming a skibum and dedicating months for skiing, year after year. I would like to continue with this same topic, but this time the focus is in financing your skiing project. A while ago I read few skibum related threads in a skiing discussion forum. The topic was about working in a ski resort in order to pay a skibum/seasonnaire project. This article is exactly about the same topic. Why to work in a ski resort? Why not skiing every single day and hanging around the rest of the time? Well, some people don’t have that luxury and they must work to get some money. Otherwise they just cannot continue as a seasonnaire. They need to get continuous flow of money so that they can pay the rent, ski pass, food, insurances, travel tickets, etc. There is another choice. Personally I prefer working before the project and saving money enough, and then focusing 100% in skiing. I have never worked in a ski resort (except as a teenager) and I have never wanted to. I work ...

Life of a Skibum - a Real-Life Story of Becoming a Skibum 2007-11-14 14:45:49 Glorious life, awesome powder skiing, living like a rock star. Great friendships, easy living, money and exposure. Travelling around the globe, dangerous moments, unexpected situations. Is that the life of a skibum? Well, some things might be true, some not. Let’s find out. This article talks about the life of skibums, those free radicals of skiing surrounded by glory and fame. Hah! What an introduction to an article.. I am sitting at my tiny student appartment in Hel(l)sinki, reading Skimbaaja (Finnish skiing magazine) and listening to Sting. I am surrounded by skis, boots, snowboards, mountain equipment, ropes and various camping equipment. I am reading an article of Jarkko Henttonen, a Finnish extreme snowboarder. He had discovered Chamonix in 1995 and was speding his season in there again. The year is 1997 and I am preparing my first trip to Chamonix, straight to headquarter of European backcountry skiing. I am becoming a full-day skibum. It has been my dream for years and no ...

Vail Mountains Going To Open Soon But Still Waiting For Heavy Snow 2007-11-13 08:15:14 According to Vaildaily, the Vail Mountains will be opened on Friday, but they are still waiting for the big snow. We also opened the season here in Finland a couple of weeks ago by getting together in a expo, but as you probably have heard, we don’t have snow enough for one alpine skiing race. Jim Cooper in Vail is trying out all possible “summer-like” tricks to tease the snow god. Jim hopes the snow god will punish human beings by letting it snow lots of new fresh powder. Jim is devilish, he has a strategy. Well, looks like Jim is running out of time. He should do something wild now. Vail will open on Friday and there is still just a little bit of snow. What makes it even worse is that the weather forecast does not provide anything better.. People in Vail are getting nervous. They are trying out some weird snow dances and even woodoo things.. I am glad I am not wittnessing Jim Cooper has a problem, a dificult one. There should be snow before Friday. I hope the snow ...

Awesome Heli-Skiing in Sweden with Arctic Elements 2007-11-12 03:00:53 I started skiing as s little kid, some 27 years ago. Since those days I have been skiing alot. I thought I knew pretty well what kind of skiing there is in France, Switzerland, Italy and Austria. May be yes, but there is one thing I never had a clue and it is pretty close to my home country. That is heli-skiing in Sweden. A week ago I went to see the new powder guns of K2 in Ski-Expo in Finland. While rambling around the exhibition hall, I came across with Mattias Cöster from Sweden. In fact, my four-year old son saw a red helicopter in a widescreen TV and wanted stopped to watch. My son was very interested in it, and yeah, me too. It is a pleasure to watch good heli-skiing in TV. I remember thinking, that must be from Lyngen in Norway.. Soon I found myself chatting with the owner of the widescreen TV, Mattias Cöster, a Swedish backcountry skier. I asked Mattias, where was this film recorded, and he replied “in Sweden”. I thought “no way, you gotta be kidding. There ...

Marc Gini Won the Men’s World Cup Slalom Race in Reiteralm 2007-11-11 21:24:45 Swiss Marc Gini has taken the first position in World Cup slalom race in Reiteralm in Austria. Unexpected winner took the gold medal in Sunday’s windy and snowy race. This young (23 years) alpine skier was leading after the first run and kept the position until the end. Gini was 0:0.28 seconds faster than the second skier, Finnish Kalle Palander. “Very good race, I must be happy with this”, said Palander in Finnish media. Kalle must be satisfied with the first two races in this season because he is now leading the world cup 20 ahead before Aksel Lund Svindal. Third one in today’s race was Italian Manfred Mölgg who was 8th after the first run. He lost Gini by 0:05 seconds. Gold medal in Reiteralm was a true suprise to many of us, inclusing Gini himself. His best position before this one has been ninth in Kranjska Goran slalom this year. “This is awesome, amazing result. I never expected this”, said Gini in Finnish media. Gini’s victory was supp ...

Sunday Video - Patagonia: JD Hare, Dave Gauley Ski Waddington BC 2007-11-11 03:00:34 Glooooorious morning! We have no snow yet, but winter is coming to Finland. It comes always, we just need to wait a little longer than in the Alps. Isn’t it strange? Winter comes later to arctic circle than to the Alps? I find it strange but that’s how it is. Anyhow, one more month and we go skiing. It is Sunday again and father’s day in Finland. Once again, I am surrounded by the presents and paintings from my kids and they keep on forcing me to read books. Reading two or three books is just fine, but after ten books it feels like job.. Anyhow, I got a chance to make some coffee. While waiting for the coffee, I decided to share this video with you (yeah, I have my laptop open 24 hours a day..). I saw it yesterday and I am eager to share it. Why? Because this one rocks! Look at 00:25. Now, that is sick! No, it is insane! How about 0:43? I wish I was there. Good skiing! Then 1:25. No words to describe. Oh, may be one. Jealousy. Heh.. gotta go back to read books. Check ...

Marlies Schild Won the Ladies Alpine World Cup Slalom in Reiterlam 2007-11-10 19:26:23 Austrian Marlies Schild, who dominated the cup in last year, took again the first position in Reiteralm. Even though she made a clear mistake in the second round, she was able to climb from third position to the first one. Second  position was taken by Austrian Nicole Hosp, 0.06 seconds behind Schild. Italian Chiara Costazza took the third position, 0.3 seconds behind Schild. Schild’s gold medal was 16th. for her in the world cup and 14th. in slalom. In the last season she won seven out of nine slalom races, and it looks like she might do it again. The situation in ladies world cup after Reiteralm race is as below. 1. Marlies Schild 112 points 2. Denise Karbon 106 points 3. Nicole Hosp 102 points 4. Tanja Poutiainen 82 points 5. Kathrin Zettel 74 points 6. Resi Stiegler 66 points ...

Skiing in Slovakia, part 3 - Jasna: accommodation, dining and resort skiing 2007-11-10 00:00:36 This is the third part of my Slovakia series. In this part I will tell you about some practical issues in Jasna ski Resort. The two previous parts were introduction to the issue and off-piste possibilities in Jasna and Low Tatra ridge. In the last part (part 4) I will discuss about Slovakia and the whole Tatra area in a bit more general level. Accommodation Jasna has no clear village/resort, just hotels located pretty randomly near the ski lifts and/or along the beautiful Demanovska Dolina valley. When I was guiding in Jasna we stayed at a relatively cheap Mikulaska Chata, near Otupne lift station. Very recommended, a coysy little hotel/hostel with all the basic services. (“Chata” means “hut”/”cottage” in Slovak but can basically be anything from a real mountain hut to a motel level accommodation. “Hotels” on the other hand are the ones with bars, lounges, restaurant, swimming pool – one could say anything with a status “Hotel&rd ...

“October”-HDV Skiing/Climbing Video From Trackhead 2007-11-09 06:35:20 There is a very nice skiing/climbing video in TGR discussion forum, posted by a user called “Trackhead”. I encourage you to check it out because it really is a well done movie. Good camera work, good skiing, beautiful mountains, good light and good music. Check out also The Tangerine Dream teaser if you have not seen yet! ...

Mpora.Com Provides Extreme Sports Videos, News And A Community 2007-11-08 07:27:42 Recently I came across with Mpora which is a website providing extreme sports videos, news and a community. I just wanted to share this link with you because you might be interested in this type of videos and news. Personally I got interested because in addition to skiing, snowboarding and telemark skiing I also do mountain biking. For those interested in skateboarding, Mpora provides some interesting videos and articles. For me the content under mountain biking seems interesting. Well, just check it out yourself. There is a lot of stuff in there, even motocorss is covered. I also encourage you to  check out the community which seems to be pretty active under BMX category. ...

Ski Season 07/08 Opening Expo In Finland 2007-11-07 18:01:03 Last weekend “Ski Expo” exhibition traditionally opened the ski season. I packed my kids to my old and rusty station wagon and headed to Helsinki exhibition hall. We met my friend Janne in front doors and had a quick chat. I borrowed Janne’s camera to shoot few pictures inside. The exhibition hall was literally full of people. Probably every single skier and snowboarder of this country were there at the same time. We started walking around the hall to see all the new skis and boards of next year. The first interesting exposure was K2 skis (see the picture on left side). Few days ago I posted a video of K2 skis and now I had a change to see them live. Those Hellbent skis are definately one of the best powder guns this year. Anyhow, because I a was interested to find skis for my four years old son, we continued walking. Pretty soon my son discovered Leki ski sticks which were made for downhill skiin. Unfortunatelly they were all for grown-ups. No little ski sticks for m ...

The Swan Lake Of Skiing - Freestyle Ballet Skiing 2007-11-07 03:00:04 Jump into Homeboy’s time machine. We will now take a ride back into 1990’s, to the glorious days of freestyle ballet skiing. Do you remember ballet skiing? Man, I was one of those, practising ballet tricks on slopes.. No, I don’t feel ashamed at all. It was great, even though right now it looks pretty funny. Check out the video below. It is from 1990’s. Look at the clothing we used to wear on those days? Do you remember climbing sunglasses and the white “lipstick kind of stuff” you put on your lips to protect from sun? This is even worse.. do you remember the neon-coloured overalls? If you were a freestyle skier, you must have weared them. Heh.. mine was neon-green.. Those were just great times, although now some things seem a bit funny. I remember myself practising ballet moves on slopes a couple of nights on weekdays and moguls skiing on weekends. I quit training super-G and slalom and moved to freestyle for few years just because it was so damn ...

Alpine Skiing Racing for Children - What Should You Know About It 2007-11-06 03:00:03 Skiing with children is a fantastic way to spend time together. Being out there together on weekends is healthy and it can give lots of joy. Even though most of the people go skiing with children occacionally, there are people who take it more seriously and start training their children for alpine skiing races. Those people usually have a lot of passion and own experience in skiing and racing. To which group you belong to? Are you interested in training your children for the races and is your child interested in it? Keep on reading. I will tell you few things you should know before starting training your kids. So you are one of those who would like to see their kids racing, right? Don’t worry; I won’t say it is bad or selfish behaviour. Some folks tend to think that many fathers try to live their dreams through children. I don’t always agree with that. I find racing good for children as long as they enjoy it. My wife thinks that I try to live my dreams while my son go ... Children

Audi FIS Alpine Worldcup in Levi,Finland- race moved to Austria 2007-11-05 08:19:29   Bad news for Finnish alpine skiing and especially for Lapland’s tourism business:  The scheduled FIS alpine slalom race in Levi, Finland is canceled. Despite the furious effort to prepare the slope for next weekend, the organizers couldn’t fight the mother nature. They should have had freezing temperatures of about -10~15 degrees C for the upcoming week but now the forecast is showing warming temperatures for couple of next days. FIS officials  said that they couldn’t be sure of the slope base holding up through the whole race. Especially the steep parts of the slope didn’t have enough snow to impress the FIS controllers. Most likely at least the last racers would have suffered too much from the softened and/or very rough course (those world cup courses are usually pretty close to concrete hard snow - this making the conditions more even for every racer) All in all, the estimate is that the snowmaking was only late for about one day. Talk about bad l ...