Lindsey Vonn does it again for USA and wins the Super G race in Lake Louise in a time of 1:20.21.  Julia Mancuso took the 3rd spot on the podium with a time of 1:20.92.  In Beaver Creek, the U.S. men were led by Ted Ligety who finished 2nd in the Giant Slalom with a total time of 2:38.61.  World Cup alpine ski racing continues this week with the races that were moved from Val D’Isere to Beaver Creek as follows. If you’re headed there, enjoy the new snow. Beaver Creek reported 6″ in the last 24hrs. Snow is finally starting to fall over the Rockies – Taos got 18″ in the last 24 – yippee!

-Tuesday Dec 6 – MEN’S GIANT SLALOM

-Wednesday Dec 7 – LADIES SUPER G

-Thursday Dec 8 – MEN’S SLALOM

3 cheers for Lindsey Vonn who wowed the crowd with yet another downhill win at Lake Louise with a time of 1:51.35.  Stacey Cook finished 9^th in 1:53.53 today.  Meanwhile, at Beaver Creek, Andrew Weibrecht’s 1:19.77 time in the Super G earned him the 10^th place spot.  World Cup alpine ski racing continues tomorrow with the Men’s Giant Slalom at 9:45 and 12:45 for the 1^st and 2^nd runs in Beaver Creek and the Women’s Super G at 11am in Lake Louise. Go USA!

Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn both seized the top spot for the U.S. in today’s World Cup races. Bode won the Birds of Prey downhill race finishing in 1:43:82, just 0.04sec ahead of Beat Feuz of Switzerland.  Austrian Klaus Kroell came in 3rd. In Lake Louise, Lindsey won the downhill in 1:53:19, 1:95 seconds faster than 2nd place Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein and ahead of 3rd place Dominique Gisin of Switzerland. The women race again tomorrow at 12:30pm in the downhill at Lake Louise. The men’s Super G starts at 11am at Beaver Creek.  Congrats to both Bode and Lindsey!  Go USA!

While at the SIA Snow Show 2011 in Denver, the Snow Troopers caught up with WA’s own Dave Watson who’s summited Mt. Everest twice and, on Aug. 4, 2009, became the only person to have ever skied down K2’s Bottleneck couloir – something too scary for words so take a look at the Bottleneck yourself, from Dave’s POV, in the short video below. There isn’t video of his ski descent so you’ll have to use your imagination for that part bearing in mind that K2 is the world’s 2nd tallest peak and the “Bottleneck” is a 60 or so degree narrow couloir that’s at 27,400ft (just about 1200ft below the summit) and has claimed about 11 lives. We asked Dave about his trip, how a nice guy New Englander went from skiing the groomers as a kid to climbing and skiing the world’s highest and most badass, dangerous peaks and lastly, the local areas he likes to ski and tour at. Suffice it to say, when you’re out ski touring or climbing Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams or Mt. Hood, you’re on terrain frequented by ultra, awe inspiring athletes like Dave. Pardon the background noise in the vid, it was end of day at SIA when they serve up free beer and pump up the volume.

Men’s downhill training runs begin today at Beaver Creek. Word just in that due to lack of snow in Val D’Isere, next week’s World Cup Races will be moved to Beaver Creek as well.

So if you couldn’t make it this week, there’s still time to get there for next week’s races. Here’s the schedule as of today:
-Downhill training today and tomorrow
-Friday, December 2, 11am – MEN’S DOWNHILL
-Saturday, December 3, 11am – MEN’S SUPER G
-Sunday, December 4 – MEN’S GIANT SLALOM – Run 1 @ 9:45am / Run 2 @ 12:45pm
*Races moved from Val D’Isere:
-Tuesday Dec 6 – MEN’S GIANT SLALOM
-Wednesday Dec 7 – LADIES SUPER G
-Thursday Dec 8 – MEN’S SLALOM

Check out what it’s like to go down Beaver Creek’s Birds of Prey downhill course from the pov of our friend (former Olympics and World Cup skiing champ from Austria), Hans Knauss. It’s a 2,484ft (757m) vertical drop along 1.63miles (2,623m) in around 2minutes. Enjoy.

With the World Cup Ski Racing season in full swing and Euro racing/ski industry friends in North America these last few weeks, we kept hearing about the poor snow conditions in Europe and being reminded of how fortunate we, in the Northwest, are to have so much snow.  While the weather can turn on a dime and improve overnight, as of yesterday, it was still unseasonably warm in Europe –some races earlier this month were even cancelled due to lack of snow.  Resorts beyond the Northwest are doing much better than EU but many are still off to a slow, warm start compared to the NW.  Some of our favs: Mammoth- reported a high of 55F and sun today with a 30″ snow base at the summit which tops out at over 11,000ft; Alta: 47F high with 27″ at mid-mtn (?); Squaw: 40F high with 10-12″ at the summit; Aspen: 37F and 12″ at the summit; Jackson Hole: 30F and 27″ at the summit. AK, Western WA, OR, ID resorts have at least 3ft at their bases and much more at their summits. And, unlike the Sierras and Rockies, our base areas are low. Summit at Snoqualmie in the Central Cascades is a tad over 3000ft and as you’ll see in the video below, Summit West’s 40″ base skied great today! Plus Alpental OPENS FRIDAY!

And tomorrow’s expected to be a powder day: our NW states in the lower 48 are all forecasting another 3-5″ of snow overnight at 3000-4000′ with double that at higher elevations and at Mt. Baker (not surprising as they hold the world record for snowfall).  Oh, and did we say: Alpental OPENS FRIDAY! We keep telling our friends about how great our mountains are since our ski areas aren’t as known or developed as those in CA, UT and CO.  But maybe with all our snow, folks will start to notice – especially those chomping at the bit to ski or ride some deep snow without crossing the border.  The Northwest has some amazing (albeit very challenging) terrain, low prices and awesome views – behold the beauty of the Cascades in the pix below (taken May/June) as well as in Karter’s vid (previous post) and by all means, pay us a visit. The Snow Troopers would love to ski with you.  In the meantime, we’re praying for more snow – everywhere!  Come on La Nina!

Ah – Alaska? Nope, Mt. Baker – King of Snow. Looks like a piece of AK though, doesn’t it?

This is Alpental (the Snow Troopers’ backyard) – which OPENS FRIDAY – with a view of Mt. Rainier And our backcountry terrain in the Central Cascades.

And some shots from Crystal (next door to Mt. Rainier).  

Take an eight minute+ ride w/ Karter Riach through the 2010/2011 Northwest ski season.

Mt. Baker might be leading the nation in deep snow pack with 91″ of settled snow at the top of Pan Dome. But for those looking for World Cup racing action, Aspen’s got it going on this weekend. The world’s fastest women skiers descended Aspen Mountain today in the 2011 Aspen Winternational Giant Slalom Races.  We’re thrilled to see Julia Mancuso lead the U.S. Women in her 3rd place finish.

Victoria Rebensburg of Germany and Elisabeth Goergl of Austria finished 1st and 2nd, respectively. Congrats to all the winners! U.S.’ Lindsay Vonn finished 12th. The Slalom races begin tomorrow at 10:15am – watch the races live at the base of Aspen’s lift 1A.  In the meantime, don’t forget Bud Light Hi-Fi Concert Series’ kicks off today at 630pm with Cowboy Mouth playing at Aspen’s Upper Gondola Plaza, followed by the Public Awards Ceremony & Fireworks Extravaganza at 8pm.  It was a beautiful day in the Aspen Valley and the summit snow base for each mountain is currently reported to be as follows : Aspen 12″,  Snowmass 27″, Aspen Highlands 26″ and Buttermilk 12″.

The Snow Troopers joined old friends and new at EpiQuest and Chugach Powder Guides’ annual party in Seattle.  Seems like very year, they bring the snow – along with good food, skis and heli trip giveaways, etc. – and this year was no different.  Pictured below L to R front:  Britney Blomquist, Jake Moe (Powder Magazine co-founder and host of NW Cable Network’s “Ski Northwest”), JD Smith; L to R back: Rob Bolton, TNT, Sting, Chris Owens (Epiquest/Chugach Powder Guides’ co-founder), Brad Vancour (Warren Miller athlete), Tara and Carl Simpson.

Happy Thanksgiving Snow Troopers! Here is a short vid giving you a peek at what conditions were like at 2,600 feet in the Central Cascades 2 days ago. That day was followed by a little rain yesterday which should set us up nicely for a bomber base. Vid is backed to live music performed by the PopCanPipers. The snow’s currently coming down really hard at Snoqualmie Pass’ 3000ft elevation as well as Stevens Pass, Crystal Mtn. and Mt. Baker. With back to back storms like this, all resorts west of or on the crest of the cascades in WA and OR have some terrain OPEN for skiing and riding!!! Shouldn’t be much longer before Alpy and Hyak open too. Viva la nina!