The ‘Lindsey Vonn Express’ rolls to Super G World Cup win in Bulgaria

Lindsey Vonn skiing to a Super G victory in Bulgaria.

So much for increasing competition between Lindsey Vonn and her closest longtime rival. On Sunday (Feb. 26) the American superstar overcame a mid-course mistake to win a Super G in Bansko, Bulgaria. Vonn now has four World Cup wins in Super G for the season and is close to adding the season title in that discipline to those she already has won in Downhill and Super Combined.

Fellow American Julia Mancuso ran a strong eighth, but Vonn rival Maria Hoefl-Riesch only managed to place sixth after winning last weekend’s downhill and showing well in training for the downhill that was canceled on Saturday owing to high wind. Vonn also set a career record for Super G wins with the victory. See whose record she broke and learn about the other top finishers by reading this story.

SATURDAY (Feb. 25): High winds wiped out the scheduled World Cup downhill on Saturday in Bansko, Bulgari, depriving us of what figured to be an epic matchup between Maria Hoefl-Riesch and Lindsey Vonn.

The two previous days of training suggested it would be a dogfight. The German star, who won her first downhill of the season last weekend in Sochi, topped training both days with Vonn running second both days (the second by a closer margin). Officials attempted to get the race in, but ultimately had to concede winds were too strong. With one downhill race left in the season, the results look great for the American team in this discipline. Read why.

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Bode Miller remains sidelined by knee injury as Ted Ligety battles for World Cup GS title

Maybe it was the poor conditions on the course Sunday (Feb. 26) at Crans Montana or maybe Bode Miller knee still hasn’t recovered from arthroscopic surgery last week. In any event, Miller left it to teammate Ted Ligety to lead the American team in a World Cup GS race.

Ligety could only manage a ninth-place finish, leaving him with an uphill battle to defend his  GS title. Read more.

FEB. 24: This  might explain Bode Miller’s dim view of the downhill course at Sochi: The skier injured a knee while racing at the 2014 Winter Olympics site two weeks ago. After skipping a race last weekend, he had “minor” surgery in Vail on Monday and could be back on the circuit as soon as this weekend. Read more.

No such problem for Didier Cuche, who just might be reconsidering his recent announcement to retire at season’s end. The Swiss star gave his home country fans a final victory in a World Cup super-G race Friday at Crans-Montagna. Read more.

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Ever wonder how much it might cost to climb Mt. Everest? We have the answer right here

Let’s face it, we’ve all wondered what it might be like to climb Mt. Everest.

But this might be an even more interesting thing to ponder:  How much would it cost?

The short answer to that question, according to Alan Arnette of Outside magazine, is “the price of a car.” Then again, looking at Arnette’s breakdown, if you are climbing solo, that’s going to be a VERY expensive car.

Climbing in a group has a number of financial advantages, Arnette points out, but you still have to do a lot of research. Read the story to learn more. You never know, the urge to scale the world’s tallest peak could come from nowhere.

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Video Contest winner rides the rails and jumps like a champ at Winter Park

Congratulations to Nate Smilanic,  our latest winner in the Swany Outdoor Adventures Video Contest. Nate shows us how its done on his snowboard, tearing it up at Winter Park.

Nate gets a great pair of Swany Gloves for winning.

In his own words: ”I’m from Elizabeth, Colo., and I’ve been snowboarding for about 10 years now. I started skiing when I was about 2 years old between my dads leg’s. I transferred to snowboarding when I was about 8 when my dad was building our cabin. He would put me in snowboarding lessons for the day. I ride at Winter Park for the most part and that is where most of this video is shot.  On a nice day I went out and got some footage (my brother Justin helped shoot the video) and put it all together.”

Have a video that you’d like to enter? Just upload it to the likes of YouTube or Vimeo, then send us the URL at swanygloves@gmail.com. That’s all there is to it! Complete rules here.

• The season’s first winner, Cameron Little, captured a powder day at Apex Mountain Resort. Watch
• Dan Malone tore it up at Vail. Watch
• A. J. Scolaro and friends rode the rails at Mount Snow, Vt. Watch
• Benton Inscoe had a blast skiing Wolf Creek in Colorado after a powder dump. Watch.

Take a look at last season’s winners in the  Swany Outdoor Adventure Video Contest, ranging from the aerial acrobatics of Bobby Brown to daring mountain rescues.

Swany Gloves is dedicated to bringing you the best of outdoor adventure. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter.

Washington avalanche highlights danger of backcountry sking, but also its growing popularity

The avalanche that took the lives of three skiers near Stevens Pass ski area in Washington represented two trends. The first, clear to all, is that this season has been one of the most dangerous for avalanches in some years, with some 17 killed nationwide.

The other trend, as this story in the Seattle Times notes,  is perhaps less obvious but no less significant: “So-called ‘sidecountry skiing’ or ‘lift-assisted backcountry skiing’ — because participants buy resort passes and ride chairlifts and then hike or cross-country ski to slopes outside area boundaries — is the fastest-growing segment of skiing.”

The story lays out many reasons for the uptick in backcountry skiing, from better skiers to better equipment, but also how that could lead to similar tragedies. Read more in the Seattle Times.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Watch video of professional skier Elyse Saugstad describing the moments after the avalanche happened and she deployed an airbag that may well have saved her life. See it here. Also: read what Saugstad has to say about the accident on her website. The avalanche near Stevens Pass ski area hit just after a group of 13 local and visiting skiers, including ESPN Freeskiing editor Megan Michelson, had begun to ski. Read more about the avalanche.

Swany Gloves is dedicated to bringing you the best of outdoor adventure. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter.

Mancuso earns second World Cup win of season by taking special Moscow slalom

The "course" built for the World Cup event in Moscow.

Talk about an odd location for a World Cup slalom:  in the middle of Moscow on a 170-foot-high ramp covered with snow.

Julia Mancuso won’t complain. In fact, she might be ready to race again after claiming her second win of the 2012 World Cup season on Tuesday (Feb. 21) over Michaela Kirchgasser.

Learn how Lindsey Vonn finished (it was strong) and who won the men’s event. Read more.

Swany Gloves is dedicated to bringing you the best of outdoor adventure. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter.

Three die in backcountry avalanche in Washington; pro skier Elyse Saugstad survives thanks to airbag

Elyse Saugstad

UPDATE: Watch video of Elyse Saugstad describing the moments after the avalanche happened. See it here. See what Saugstad has to say about the accident on her website.

ESPN is reporting that noted professional freeskier Elyse Saugstad deployed an airbag during an avalanche on Sunday that may well have saved her life in the incident that killed three other skiers in her party.

The avalanche near Stevens Pass ski area hit just after a group of 13 local and visiting skiers, including ESPN Freeskiing editor Megan Michelson, had begun to ski. Read more about the avalanche.

Saugstad’s survival while using the airbag will add to the discussion about how useful the device is in an avalanche. A recent story by Jason Blevins in the Denver Post discussed the rising use of the devices,  noting that by this fall “six different companies will be offering avalanche air-bag backpacks, up from one a few years ago.” While that appears to be a positive development, the story also notes that airbags are by no means a sure thing to ensure survival. Read more.

You can actually see how the airbag works in this remarkable video (see it below as well) of one being deployed in the Snake River Basin above Montezuma, Colo.  Or read about how this snowmobiler survived using one near Empire, Colo.

Want to learn what makes Saugstad tick? Here’s where to find a video of her skiing and an insightful interview with Outside Magazine.

American Hannah Kearney’s amazing streak in World Cup moguls finally ends at 16 wins

It had to end somewhere, we guess.

That was the case on Sunday in Japan, where American Hannah Kearney’s record for consecutive World Cup victories ended at 16 when she finally lost in the semis of a dual moguls event. The loss came after she’d won an event on Saturday. See what it took for  Canadian Audrey Robichaud to beat Kearney. Story.

Kearney had claimed the record with her 15th straight win in a World Cup moguls event win on Feb. 12  at Beida Lake, China. The Vermont-born skier broke the record held by alpine great Ingemar Stenmark, who won 14 straight World Cup giant slaloms (1978-80). Read more.

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Vonn adds World Cup Super Combined title to her Downhill season title in odd fashion

Turnabout is fair play, right?

Less than a year after Lindsey Vonn lost a shot at the World Cup overall points championship to Maria Hoefl-Riesch when the season’s final race was canceled owing to bad snow conditions, on Sunday (Feb. 19) Vonn won the season title in Super Combined after the season’s final race was canceled for the same reason.

Because World Cup organizers said there wasn’t time to reschedule the race, Vonn was awarded the season crown after winning one race and placing second in the other. Here’s what Lindsey had to say about the circumstances behind her third consecutive title in super combined.

SATURDAY (Feb. 18): When does third place mean victory? When you’re Lindsey Vonn.

Maria Hoefl-Riesch cruised to a convincing win on Saturday (Feb. 18) in the downhill during what amounted to a preview of  the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. But Vonn’s third-place finish helped her clinch the season title in downhill (her fifth straight) and means she still holds a 448-point lead in the overall standings. It was a great day overall for the Americans, as four of its six starters reached the top 10, including Julia Mancuso (sixth), Stacey Cook (ninth), and Alice McKennis (tenth). Read more.

A super-combined will be held on Sunday (Feb. 19).  Check back for results.

PREVIOUSLY FROM SOCHI: No “ladies first” this time.

Lindsey Vonn eyed the course during training.

The men’s World Cup tour got first crack, last weekend, at the course where the downhill will be held at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. What did they think? Didier Cuche called it “magnificent.” Bode Miller was critical. Find out why they disagreed. Then Beat Feuz just went out and won the race.

The women are getting their chance this weekend. Overall points leader Lindsey Vonn was the leader in Friday’s training run by a wide margin.

Earlier, Vonn and others pronounced the course Olympics-worthy after training on Wednesday, despite windy conditions. On Thursday, a snowstorm canceled the training session, at which some criticism arose about how few people were there to clean snow off the course.

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Hahnenkamm is a legend for its heroic winners, but also for its crashing losers

Hahnenkamm.

It’s one word, but it conjures many memories. Some are of its many victors, including the great Swiss ski racer Didier Cuche, who just won his fifth Hahnenkamm downhill to surpass Austrian legend Franz Klammer for the most downhill wins at Kitzbuehel.

But many more memories are of the skiers it spits out in crashes on the course called the “Streif” (“Stripe”), filled with wild turns, jumps and steeps.

And that’s what the folks at Deadspin.com focus on in this wonderful (if more than a bit ghoulish) examination of this famous World Cup destination. Read the story to learn about three dangerous areas of the courses, each illustrated with videos showing brutal falls. Do you have the stomach for it?

Want to see the course from a racer’s point of view? Watch the video above.

Swany Gloves is dedicated to bringing you the best of outdoor adventure. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter.