Winter X Games 17 will take place in Aspen, Colorado at Buttermilk, Jan 24-27, 2013. But don’t tune in to see the exciting skier and snowboarder cross events - those have been cut from the racy program.
ESPN, the creator of the popular X Games, decided to eliminate skier cross and snowboard cross, plus the mono skier X events, citing the expense for the venue among other reasons. As you might imagine, snow athletes, like snowboard gold medalist Seth Wescott and skier x champ and former US Ski Team racer Daron Rahlves, are not too pleased about this decision. There is even a facebook to page begging to Bring Back The X Course.
It is ironic that the edgy X Games are stepping away from these roller derby elimination on snow events, while the conservative Olympic Authority has recently loosened up and decided to include SBX and skier X and will add skier slopestyle to the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi Russia in 2014. The Winter X Games helped put snowboarding on the competition map, and helped athletes like Shaun White get their due. In 2012, Shaun White won snowboard superpipe for the 5th consecutive year, with a first ever perfect score of 100.
The first Winter X Games took place at Mountain Resort in Big Bear Lake, California, in 1997, to provide “a competition compiled of the greatest winter action sport athletes from around the world competing on an annual basis in skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiling."
Aspen has been the exclusive host of Winter X Games since 2002, even though Whistler made a bid to host - Aspen won the X Games bid for two more years through 2014. Winter X Games are traditionally timed by ESPN to air the weekend between the NFL's conference championship games and the Super Bowl.
Further irony is that the two X Game events that were dropped last year, Snowmobile SnoCross and Speed and Style, are returning to the 2013 Aspen schedule. So go figure. Winter X Games have seen plenty of zaniest events come and go – like super modified snow shovel racing, snow mountain bike racing, and the latest urban street style snowboarding.
The New England Patriots season opener has me very excited. My big buddy Wilfork was amazing as he put all his weight into the game and made Flat Stanleys out of some of the Titans. Gronk and
Tommy were impressive too, as were our Rookies! Brady took a pretty big hit and bloodied his otherwise-pretty face (btw: thank you for the clean cute hair cut Tom, or Gisele if that was your doing)! But Brady in his always-poised, powerful fashion played on, pushed through the pain and put 34 points on the scoreboard with his team. Titans' #10 JakeLocker (sounds like one word to me) was sacked and sidelined with a left shoulder bang- wonder how he is feeling today?
It was a great start to the fall football season for The Pats – hope springs eternal among New England sports fans - a welcome distraction since the Red Sox are out of the action with their usual fall folleys. Are they drinking in the Red Sox dug out again? I did say when they hired Valentine that I liked his spirit and his smile, ok - I liked that Bobby V was a skier and talked about heli skiing trips and how he loved New England snow. Now, I am rethinking that - perhaps downhill is a distraction, downhill is certainly the direction of the current club management.
Fall sports talk, and the emerging fall weather pattern, certainly leads me to one thing - skiing. Cool crisp mornings and an email box full of ski resort media releases means one thing: ski season is just two months away.
The Boston Ski Show, November 8-11, will be here before we know it, and I predict Sunday River and Killington will race to open for skiing by Halloween! Last season you may recall Killington opened minutes prior to The River on October 29. So enjoy your fall football, and get ready for ski season. The Farmers' Alamanc and every ski resort east of the Mississippi, and west for that matter, are all calling for an epic snow year. Keep riding the bike, looking for ski swaps, sales and ski news...the snow will be here soon. Remember Snowtober, the pre Hallloween storm of 2011?
Think Snow, Go Pats!
Vail's Epic pass has always been one of the best deals in skiing. Even vacationers were well off to buy the season pass for about $600, often less than buying day tickets on holiday, since the pass is valid at Vail, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Keystone, and Arapahoe Basin in Colorado. Then Vail Resorts added on Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood in California's Lake Tahoe ski region.
Well Epic just became more Epic as Vail Resorts announced that Epic Pass holders can now use their season passes at four premier resorts includng Les 4 Vallees of Verbier. Epic Passholders can fly across the pond and enjoy three free days at Verbier, Nendaz, Veysonnaz and Thyon in Switzerland.
So say yes to the pass people! One pass, 12 amazing ski resorts! For as litle as $649 you can have unlimited unrestricted pass privileges at these big boys of skiing. Get your Epic Pass at www.snow.com
We at Family Ski Trips are big fans of Vail, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Keystone, and Arapahoe Basin in Colorado, Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood in California and we are eager to ski Verbier and Les 4 Vallees in Switzerland! Just wanted to keep you in the ski loop! You're welcome!
