Narvik - the world's ugliest ski town
Hardly the average catalogue dream mountain holiday town, Narvik is railway, iron ore and architecture that still suffers from quick and cheap post-war rebuilding. Yet this was one of the highlights of my trips last winter and watching the footage now is fueling a crave for snow that has started to become stronger and stronger lately.
The terrain at Narvik's ski resort (or maybe we should call it hill, depends what time of year and what day you are there) is good, the slackcountry awesome and the surrounding mauntain areas unlimited. It's been haunted by some thin snow years lately, but late winter - even in May when the hill is closed (ironic?) - is the time to be there and it will always be good as the snow has accumulated thorugh winter, weather is better and new dumps can still occur.
Check more shots and read about Narvik in Norrøna Magazine
and this clip:
-Torky
A nice pre-winter surprise in the mailbox
It's always great to see hard work pay off! Looks like I made it on the cover of the Winter 2010 Patagonia catalog. The photograph was taken by Grant Gunderson in Revelstoke, B.C. last December. Our home base of Mt. Baker had been an ice rink so we had to hit the road in search of the goods and Revy definitely delivered. A full report from that trip is posted here.
2010 K2 Big Mountain CHILL Series
The 2010 K2 Big Mountain CHILL Series attracted a top line up of skiers and snowboarders, all competing over 5 days of competition at 2 venues. Craigieburn Valley hosted the first two days with 60 competitors skiing and riding through middle basin chutes on the first day.
‘The quality of the athletes is the strongest we have hosted in the 12 years of running the CHILL Series. We have a growing number of talented young kiwi male skiers coming through the ranks. Combine this great interest from European and North American athletes, and this year’s Series was set to be tightly fought. In the female ski division overseas entries have been strong with all the skiers skiing completely new and unknown terrain’, says event director Stu Waddel.
Athletes are judged on the choice of line they ski through steep and challenging terrain; combined with control, fluidity and aggressiveness throughout their run, the judges are looking for an overall impression.
Local kiwi skier Cam McDermid qualified top on day one and set the standard high for day two. Austrian National, Sophie Mitteregger in her first big mountain event qualified top in the female ski division. While in the snowboard division talented kiwi rider Scott Heale qualified top male and Finnish rider Malin Lindroos qualified top female.
On the second day, the field was culled to 35 athletes, all completing two runs and the best one counting toward the final results.
‘We had fresh snow after a weather day, blue skies and a moderate wind on the ridge tops, all combining for a fantastic day in the mountains.
The chutes were opened for one inspection run, and by the end of the day, with three runs through the same terrain over two days of competitions, the standard of skiing and riding had lifted markedly.’ commented Stu Waddel
As anticipated there was a tight field of 10 male ski athletes who were fighting for the top spots. Romain Bellon came first with a solid last run, redemption from returning after competing in 2008 with a broken ski which had taken him out of the competition. Local kiwi skier Alex Lynden, fresh off winning the NZ Free Ski Open was the highest kiwi, placing 4th.
2nd Ferdinard Winter AUT
3rd Fabian Lentsch AUT
4th Alex Lynden NZL
5th Orry Grant CAN
6th Sam Lee NZL
In the female ski divsion, French National Sarah Martinais took top honours with a solid last run.
2nd Birgit Ertl AUT
3rd Sophia Mitteregger AUT
4th Julie Scott-Hansen NOR
In the male snowboard division kiwi rider Scott Heale held onto first place after a confident first run.
2nd Ruari Mcfarlane NZL
3rd Seb Zink AUT
4th Johannes Scharl AUT
In the female snowboard division kiwi rider Hayley Flintoff took the honours with an impressive first run.
2nd Malin Lindroos FIN
Moving onto Mt Olympus for the final two days, organisers had hoped for clear weather, but with southerly’s forecast and snow falling, the results from the Craigieburn stood as the final results and further qualification toward competing in the World Freeride Tour.
TV 3 news footage from the event is available here <http://www.3news.co.nz/Ski-X-takes-centre-stage-at-Junior-Champs/tabid/317/articleID/173072/Default.aspx>
Photos from the event are available from our Facebook page <http://en-gb.facebook.com/pages/Licence-to-CHILL/113283642039488> :
More photos and a full list of results are available on our website here <http://chillout.co.nz/news.php#a_121_K2%20Big%20Mountain%20CHILL%20Series>
Hello -freeski shortfilm teaser
Flatlight films shows the freeski shortfilm teaser - Hello!
Featuring Antti Ollila:
check:
http://www.flatlightfilms.com/
NOT JUST A SKI: A Tribute to Shane McConkey and his K2 Pontoons
If you haven't seen the Rocky Mountain region's Mountain Gazette publication, be sure to check out an issue. The September issue focused on our relationships with gear, and we were psyched to see this piece on Shane and the Pontoon from writer Robert Cocuzzo. Thanks Robert!
Not Just A Ski: A Tribute to Shane McConkey and his K2 Pontoons
(As published in the September 2010 issue of Mountain Gazette magazine, by Robert Cocuzzo)
Mom used to say, “It’s not what you have, it’s what you do with what you have.” The philosophy stemmed from her childhood as one of eight, and was made legendary by my uncles who dominated an inner-city hockey league wearing a pair of grandma’s old figure skates- toe picks and all!
So it was for me growing up, skiing New Hampshire’s White Mountains in archaic, orthopedic gray boots, and wax-less, secondhand rentals. Though I must have been a pitiful sight, gear never equated for much in my adolescent love for skiing.
Only when moving to Jackson Hole did equipment become a matter of research, debate, and utter importance. The resort transforms into a ski showcase on snow days. With the howitzer blasts echoing off the Tetons like an epic heart beat, Jackson’s devoted scuttle around the base with long, fat powder skis in tow.
A deep sense of inadequacy festered within me during my first delayed opening, powder mornings. Totting around my dainty 167 K2 relics produced the same self-loathing as a freshman hitting the showers with the varsity squad. I kept my eyes downcast, and my loins guarded.
See a ski is not just a ski in Jackson. It is a portal to your innermost intentions with the sport; a sort of standard you wave that defines you as either a “gaper” or a “powderhound.”
Much is assumed from the centimeters of a ski. Someone with two fat powder skis slung over a shoulder projects a serious mystique even before clipping in. Throw an Avalung across their chest, and a shovel on their back and you’ve got a hard-charging Jacksonite.
The mentality reeks of local machismo bullshit, but it’s nearly impossible not to subscribe to in time.
Retiring my outdated east skis, I purchased Shane McConkey’s signature powder skis, The K2 Pontoons. Few have influenced skiing more profoundly than Shane McConkey. At a time when many face-shot-seeking skiers scoffed at the idea of fat skis, McConkey was floating on Alaskan spines on a pair of water skis.
The Pontoons were the catalyst to today’s ski technology. Their head-turning girth, and extreme rockered tip, smacks of McConkey’s style. With a tapered, tear drop design, the Pontoon’s rear tips sink, and enable their 160 mm shovel to conquer any depth of snow. More importantly, The Pontoons became an indelible footprint of skiing’s beloved fallen son.
I just hoped I could do them justice.
As fate would have it, Jackson entered into one of the worst snow draughts just after the acquisition. For weeks, the two powder planks stood before my bed, taunting me. It took every shred of patience I could muster not to rip groomers on them. It’s gutta be right, I pleaded with myself.
In the meantime, the skis became props in the more intimate moments of my life. Once while romancing one of Jackson’s fairer sex, I pulled the McConkey fatties into the sultry mix. Clenching them like Poseidon does his trident, I channeled the spirit of “Saucer Boy”, and achieved a menage a trois only possible in a ski town.
The day finally came mid-January. “24 inches over night, and still dumping,” the morning report read. I sped to the Village in an over-caffeinated trance, constantly shooting glances at the Pontoons sprawled across the trunk as I imagine a father does driving his newborn home for the first time.
The hours of delayed opening crawled by painfully. Consumed by the stoke of a powder day, I fidgeted through the morning like an addict through detox. Finally amidst a hail of snowballs, and punctuated by a ferocious roar of cheers, the gondola began to spin. I shoved my fatties into separate slots at the gondola door, grabbed a window seat, and waited with Christmas-morning anticipation.
A lot of skiers talk about floating. Yet no matter how much you hear about it, no matter how many ski movies you watch, nothing can provide even the slightest inkling of the sensation. It is like trying to describe purple to the blind.
Descending from the gondola, I veered skier’s left into a deep trough where the snow lay untouched. Those first weightless turns instantaneously reconfigured my life’s priorities. It was like the moment when the Wizard of Oz turns to color. The sensation was so enthralling, so utterly enjoyable, that it beckoned a sense of guilt. I knew that moment that I would give up anything for this. Nothing before (or thereafter) delivered the equivalent ecstasy of floating on snow.
The Pontoons led me into the trees where virgin powder awaited. In the quiet seclusion of Moran Forest, turns were effortless and sublime. Not wanting to eat up the powder too quickly, I forced myself to stop mid-run. Big falling flakes intensified the scene’s silence, and I passed into a fantasy world where I expected a fawn to creep out from behind the line of conifers. Allowing my imagination to further ferment, I decided that the day deserved an apparition more epic than a fawn. Perhaps a majestic centaur trotting out with a gorgeous nude blond riding him bareback would be more appropriate. Yes, far more appropriate.
Stumbling back to my car at the end of the day, absolutely delirious, I cradled the Pontoons lovingly. For a person not easily seduced by materialism, it is striking to admit that the Pontoons changed my life. Over the season they turned the dials of my perspective, and refined the scope of my daily objectives in the mountains. Though the experience can likely be had on a myriad of powder skis, the Pontoons were my vehicle to enlightenment, and thus ascended as the skiing’s preeminent tool in my mind.
Today, the Pontoons stand in my bedroom waiting for the snow to fall again. I often gaze at them, appreciating them on the same level as I do fine art. They remind me that just as a writer lives on in his words, and a painter in his portraits, McConkey lives on in these skis. I vow to summon that truth, and pay rightful tribute to him each time I clip in.
NZ Trip
Hey Everybody
This Summer I got the opportunity to go to New Zealand with the Swiss Team to compete at Junior World champs and shred a lot. It was an awesome month of skiing, with lots of good weather in august, good parks and a good crew to shred with. Almost all of the Swiss team did well at the world champs, my buddy Jonas was 3rd in slopestyle and I got the 6th place in half-pipe. We also managed to get 2nd in the Team ranking.
Now its time to catch up at school and hit up the swiss glaciers!
Cheers
David Ortlieb
Chaoz Productions "ALL IN" Trailer with Maria Bagge
Chaoz Productions "ALL IN" Official Trailer with swedish teamrider Maria Bagge:
The K2 Chopper attends the Northwest Ride of Dreams
August 28th, 2010, K2 “Chopper” sighting over Snoqualmie Pass to support Special Olympics Washington fund raiser, the “Northwest Ride of Dreams”.
Chair Elect of the Special Olympics Washington Robert Kunold and son Stewart
Seattle to Ellensburg Washington and back in one day, 250 miles, over a mountain pass, on a hard tail chopper with a “baloney skin” for a seat. “It’s all good and for a wonder cause that K2 Sports is a major supporter of, Special Olympics Washington ” said Rich Greene, Vice President of K2 Sports Corporate Identity and avid motorcycle enthusiast. He rode the now infamous 10’ long K2 Chopper to the event.
The one and only Rich Greene
“It was a beautiful day to ride the K2 Chopper, I meet some truly wonderful and inspiring people”. This was the 1st time the “Chopper” has been on ridden on the road for more than a mile or two. Jeff Mechura got it plated, Al Meader and the K2 Machine shop boys got it running and off I went for the days event” said Greene now back from his second spinal adjustment. When asked was it worth it? Greene responded “Hell’ya”. I got to ride the “K2 Chopper”.
Rich heads out on the highway, looking for adventure or whatever comes his way
In Ellensburg, hundreds of bikers decked out in leathers, bandanas and boots made their way to West Ellensburg Park Saturday, their shiny motorcycles proudly parked after a morning ride to Ellensburg from five major locations across the state. They, along with hundreds of law enforcement officers from throughout the state and Oregon and California were gathered for one cause - to raise money for Special Olympics Washington through the “Northwest Ride of Dreams”.
Bikes everywhere you can see...for a great casue
The event raised just over $35,000 according to Special Olympics officials, with 592 registered participants.
Rich with Special Olympics Washington CEO and avid skier Beth Wojick.
The idea behind the Northwest Ride of Dreams, was a vision of Seattle Police Captain Dick Belshay. Belshay wanted a statewide motorcycle ride and classic car show organized by law enforcement to raise funds for Special Olympics. So he and a committee made up of law enforcement officers and a team of volunteers organized the first-ever Northwest Ride of Dreams in Washington. K2 Sports is very proud to be part of this wonderful organization and the first time “Northwest Ride of Dreams” fund raiser event...
Photo Credits: Beth Wojick, David McLean, Norm Smith
