Skippress - Index

Skippress - US Vol. 7 No. 2 - Index

Excellence? They , re Building It
The US Ski and Snowboard Association’s $22.5-million Center of Excellence
is “the most signifi cant event in our 102-year history,” according to USSA
President and CEO Bill Marolt.
Due for completion in 2009, the Center of Excellence is being built east of Park
City on a fi ve-acre parcel near the junction of US Highway 40 and State Route
248. The three-story structure will feature physical training facilities — aerials
and snowboard ramps and tramps, strength work, a gymnasium and recovery
room — as well as a cardio center, nutrition center, equipment and research
areas and sports medicine facilities. There’s also space-age communications
facilities that let members of the USSA’s 400-plus nationwide network of
grassroots clubs have real-time online video access.
“We expect it to be the cornerstone for greater US skiing and snowboarding
success at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and the 2014 Olympics in
Sochi, Russia… and beyond,” said Marolt.
Utah , s Can , t-Miss Events
Don’t come to Utah with an attitude that’s all soft snow and champagnefi
lled slopes. Some events go off here, and you’ve got to bolt on the
boards just to survive. Here are Utah’s top fi ve throwdowns:
U.S. Freestyle Selections, Utah Olympic Park & Park City Mountain
Resort, Dec. 15-22: Young guns and old hands in an onsnow shootout
for a spot on the team where hometown hopefuls abound.
The Nature Valley Freestyle Challenge, Deer Valley, Feb. 1-2: Freestyle skiing’s marquee event, this World Cup stop
includes aerials, moguls and skier-cross under blue skies and bright lights.
Black Diamond Powder Keg, Alta, March 15: Lungs, legs and a healthy dose of memory loss help you stop asking,
“What am I doing here?” The best of the backcountry grunts race each other to climb and ski in the fastest time.
US Ski Jumping & Nordic Combined Championships, Utah Olympic Park and Soldier Hollow, March 15-16: Utah’s Norwegian
Nordic roots get proper tribute in two gorgeous settings with the best of the US freeheelers.
US Freeskiing Nationals, Snowbird, March 18-23: See the top big-mountain skiers in the world speed down the kinds
of steeps most of us wouldn’t attempt while tied to a rope.
Photo: US Ski & Snowboard Association
Photo: Steve Lloyd/Ski Utah
Photo: Mike Ridewood
Near the slopes of Snowbasin, in the former railroad town of Ogden, one man
has been building his vision of what could become North America’s center of
all mountain sports.
“I think Ogden can be to outdoor recreation what Paris is to fashion and
Silicon Valley is to hi-tech,” said Matthew Godfrey, Ogden’s mayor. “I compare
us to places like Boulder, Colorado, and Bend, Oregon, and think we’ve got
better access to recreation and certainly better skiing, and lots more of it.”
Home to the Downhill, Super-G and Combined races during the Olympics,
Snowbasin’s 3,300 skiable acres are still largely untouched. And nearby
Powder Mountain, with a whopping 5,500 skiable acres and new
inves tment money, is that ultimate rarity in Rocky Mountain ripping, an
undiscovered giant.
But down in Ogden, the outdoor industry has been busy getting ready to make
good use of all that. Amer Sports, parent company of Atomic and Salomon
skis, as well as Suunto and Arc’teryx, opened their winter and outdoor headquarters
there in September, bestowing immediate big-league status on a city
that has convinced Descente, DNA, Nidecker, Goode Skis and Scott to move
to Ogden since Godfrey took offi ce.
“Snowbasin was ‘discovered’ as part of the Olympics, and now when you see
the same thing happening at Powder Mountain, it’s certainly been a factor in
our being able to attract the ski industry here,” said Godfrey. “The Games
opened up doors that otherwise might not have opened, and that’s for the
whole state.”
“Instead of trends coming out
of Europe, they , re coming out
of the US, and especially the West.”
Amer’s new digs are downtown, just a short walk from the upcoming Salomon
Center, a public action hub that will include indoor surfi ng and climbing as
well as skydiving, bowling and a pizza parlor. But it’s the outdoors around
Ogden that refl ects what Atomic general manager Mike Adams said “we want
this business to look like.”
Adams adds his name to the chorus checking off the same mix of natural
wonders and man-made amenities that CEOs to ski bums have begun to equate
with Utah since the Olympics — a wealth of uncrowded skiing on more than
400 to 500 inches of annual snowfall at most of the resorts, wide rivers,
world-class mountain biking, Olympic-level snow facilities and the convenience
of an international airport.
“We think we have a unique opportunity to establish ourselves as the capital
of mountain culture in North America,” Mayor Godfrey said. “And we’re just
at the start.”