TOP FIVE FRIDAYS: DECEMBER 13, 2019
#1: FIS World Cup Ski Racing Recap: the U.S. Men Make a Statement
When it comes to disciplines, Shiffrin is a wearer of many hats. Image: Mikaela Shiffrin on Facebook
Would it be a Friday in December if we didn’t find ourselves talking about Mikaela Shiffrin’s latest round of accomplishments? The answer is yes, Shiffrin doesn’t dictate the laws of space and time (yet), but it would certainly feel weird. Thankfully, today’s just another normal Friday as last weekend Shiffrin put on yet another noteworthy performance across two Downhill and one Super G event in Lake Louise, Canada. Keeping in mind that these are the two events that Shiffrin would consider her weakest, it’s pretty impressive that she walked away from the weekend with a 10th place finish in Super G, a 10th place finish in Downhill, and a 2nd place finish in the second Downhill. That second place finish is her 4th career Downhill podium and her 88th World Cup podium. Between the three finishes, Shiffrin also continued to increase her lead in the overall standings, a race in which she has 472 points and is leading second place by 237 points. In addition to her on-hill accomplishments, Shiffrin also found herself featured in Sports Illustrated, as well as nominated for the Team USA “Best of November” award. All in all, not a bad week for Mikaela! Looking ahead, she’ll look to make her way back to the top of the podium this week in St. Moritz as the Women’s circuit competes in Super G and Parallel Slalom races. For more results from last week’s events, click here.
Now, let’s check in on the men’s side of things. As you might recall, we saw signs of life last week as the U.S. Men’s team took home a pair of 10th place finishes as well as a 12th. This week, the men’s team authored an explosive performance as a number of athletes notched significant results. First, Travis Ganong, a 10th and 12th place finisher last week, finished 6th in last Friday’s Super G race. A day later, Ryan Cochran-Siegle matched that feat and finished with a career-best 6th place in a Downhill event. Finally, on day 3, Tommy Ford took home his first ever FIS World Cup Gold medal in a Giant Slalom race in front of his home crowd. Not far behind Ford in that race was Ted Ligety who earned an honorable 11th place finish. For a team that has seemingly offered more questions than answers in recent years, the results from these last two weekends have been extremely encouraging, particularly due to the number of athletes earning notable results. With that we say congratulations to the Men’s team and we’ll be eagerly following results from this weekend’s Slalom and Giant Slalom races in Val d'Isere! To see a recap of all of last weekend’s results, click here.
#2: Uphill Ski Policy Awareness: A Top Five Friday PSA:
A pair of uphill skiers work towards their goal as they ascend Aspen Snowmass. Image: Aspen Snowmass Website - Official Uphill Policy
Next up is something a little bit different for us here on Top Five Fridays. Typically we stick strictly to the latest news from the world of skiing, but this time around we caught an article from Vail Daily that inspired us to put out a quick PSA for all uphill skiers. In this particular article, writer John Stroud does a solid job of covering the various uphill ski policies in effect at many Colorado ski areas. Across the 22 ski areas, each resort has adapted one of the following three general policies: no uphill access is allowed, uphill access is allowed outside of business hours, or paid uphill access is allowed on specified routes. As the sport of uphill skiing continues to grow, so does attention to these policies, so it’s worth checking in with your resort before slapping on the skins and heading up, sans-knowledge. If you’re someone who’s interested in skinning at a resort in Colorado this winter, we highly recommend checking out the article from Vail Daily as it includes a list of policies and links for 22 CO resorts.
For those of you outside of Colorado, now’s also a good time to check in on your local ski resort to make sure you’re aware of any updates. Here in Vermont for example, popular uphill ski destination Bolton Valley has introduced a new policy which requires the purchase of a pass to skin the mountain. In prior years, skinning has been allowed without charging, creating a potential problem for uphill skiers in the area who aren’t up to date on the policy change. Uphill policies for most ski resorts can now be easily found on their websites. If you’re having trouble finding it, typing “uphill” into the website’s search bar typically does the trick.*
For the most part, mountains are relatively generous with uphill access and have done a great job of balancing the recreational interest of mountain communities with their need to keep both mountain operations and uphill skiers safe. Keeping that in mind, we encourage you to be well informed on local uphill policies so as to keep the harmony in check. This has been a Top Five Friday PSA. Now, back to our regularly scheduled news recaps!
*Editor’s Note: Still can’t find your resort’s policy? One last trick you can try is doing a google search for “uphill” followed by “site: www.yourmountain.com”. So, to find Stowe’s uphill policy, you would search for “uphill site:https://www.stowe.com/“
#3: Uber Ski Expands Availability to 23 Locations:
Image: The Official Uber Blog
In other ski news, it was announced this week that Uber is extending its “Uber Ski” program to a number of new locations after having successfully piloted the project in select U.S. cities in previous years. Now, the program is being introduced in a total of 23 locations across the U.S., with both mountain locations and big name cities located hours away getting the green light. But what exactly is “Uber Ski”? Well, it’s simple. Uber users looking for a ride will open the app as per usual, and select the Uber Ski option. In doing so, the rider will be guaranteed transportation by a spacious vehicle equipped with 4-wheel drive, and most importantly, either a roof rack or a truck bed for ski equipment. The fee for the service is reasonable as well, as it’ll cost riders just $8.00 in addition to their standard trip fare.
Zooming out a bit, it’s an interesting concept to consider from a parking and congestion standpoint. As you may have heard, the increased use of multi passes has led to traffic and parking issues at many resorts in recent years, leading some to institute paid parking policies this season. To help curb that issue, some resorts have partnered with public transportation to encourage the use of ski busses, such as the Snowstang which runs from Denver to Arapahoe Basin, Loveland, and Steamboat (and is also set to launch this weekend). With the introduction of Uber Ski, there’s now another option for those without snow-ready vehicles to make it to the mountain, potentially easing both parking and traffic issues as Uber Ski vehicles are unlikely to slide off tricky mountain roads and will simply be dropping passengers off at the resort. Of course only time will tell if that concept turns to reality, or if we’re just practicing some good old fashion “wishful thinking”. Regardless, you can learn more about Uber Ski option via the official announcement on their blog.
#4: Vail CEO Rob Katz and Author/Entrepreneur Elana Amsterdam Make Another Massive Contribution to Mental Health in Mountain Towns:
Image from Vail Resorts, discoverd via The Ski Guru
Finally, let’s end the week on a high note. Ever since consolidation culture first began, we’ve made a concerted effort here at SkiEssentials to steer clear of knee-jerk reactions that suggest the heart of skiing is being sucked up by massive corporations. Why? For the simple fact that there’s almost always more gray area within an issue than there is black or white. We mention all of this because this week Vail CEO Rob Katz, along with his wife Elana Amsterdam (a New York Times Best Seller and successful entrepreneur), have pledged $2.8 million to mental health centers in 10 different mountain towns in which Vail operates. In other words, while some skiers may still lament the days of tickets on wickets and plentiful parking, ski resort consolidation is also proving capable of bringing plenty of positive change to mountain towns.
This isn’t the first time Katz and Amsterdam have made this kind of charitable contribution either. In addition to financial contributions to local land trusts, the two also donated a similar $2 million to mental health programs in mountain towns last December as well. Those who have lived in mountain towns before likely realize how significant of a contribution this is. While many who live the ski-bum lifestyle love their access to the mountains, mental health can also be an issue as low seasonal wages mixed with higher costs of living can eventually take a toll. In making sizable donations to increase mental health resources in back to back years, Rob Katz and Elana Amsterdam continue to prove that they truly understand the ski community, and have their best interest in mind. To learn more about this year’s gift, we encourage you to check out the official press release from Vail Resorts.
#4.5: Bonus Highlight: December is Nordica Months in SkiEssentials.com's 2020 Ski Happy Contest!
