Top Five Fridays: July 26, 2024
With Marcel Hirscher's return to racing imminent, he took to the mic to clear the air regarding his goals for the season. More on that in highlight number 2! Image shot by Joerg Mitter for Red Bull Content Pool
#1: It’s Official! The 2034 Winter Olympics Are Coming to Salt Lake City!
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the July 26, 2024 edition! We’ve got a fun summer roundup on our hands this week, as we start off with some big news, followed by three highlights featuring uniquely talented skiers. First up, the headline of the week: Salt Lake City has officially won the bid to host the 2034 Winter Olympics.
To be fair, we’ve seen this headline coming for months, if not years now, as Salt Lake City slowly became the only viable option for the games. Still, it’s tremendously exciting news, and something that’ll captivate headlines for the next decade. Now that the announcement has been made official, there are instantly a number of new topics to discuss. Take for instance this report from KSL, which ends with a section discussing how hosting the games will likely lead to a slew of infrastructure upgrades for the city. For example, winning the right to host the 2002 games led to the development of the city’s TRAX public transportation system. Now, ahead of the 2034 games, there’s talk of expanding that system, as well as the possible development of a 5.5 mile green loop encompassing the city’s downtown and turning main street into a promenade. While these concepts have already been in city planning discussions, locking down the 2034 bid now gives them added emphasis and a potential timeline.
In addition to the city itself, there’s also plenty of excitement swirling around hosting venues. While there will be several venues in and around the city, the areas we’re most interested in as skiers and snowboarders are the mountains that have been selected to play host. According to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team’s report, Deer Valley, Park City, Snowbasin, and Utah Olympic Park have been selected to host all of the ski and snowboarding events. Additionally, Soldier Hollow Nordic Center will host XC events, while a special structure will be constructed in downtown Salt Lake City to host the ski and snowboard big air events. There is, of course, one significant lingering venue question: should freeride skiing and snowboarding be approved ahead of the 2034 Olympics, where will those events be held? None of the aforementioned venues have hosted a significant freeride event, making them unlikely candidates. There is, however, one resort in the area that has hosted Freeride World Tour events before: Snowbird. The challenge there of course, are the travel logistics. Looking at the approved venues, none of them are found in Big or Little Cottonwood Canyons, which is likely intentional. As such, should freeride become an approved Olympic sport, there will likely be some challenges to overcome. When and if that happens, we’ll be sure to bring you updates. For now, check out this link from KSL to learn more about the announcement and the city’s plans, or this announcement from the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team. For additional reading, check out this article from the Salt Lake Tribune that discusses special ticket availability for Utah residents, or this writeup from Yahoo.com that discusses some early anti-doping controversies.
#2: As Marcel Hirscher’s Return Draws Nearer, We Learn More About His Goals for the Season Ahead:
In an appearance this week, Marcel Hirscher talked at length about his plans for the upcoming season, he's reasons for joining the Dutch team, and the opportunity to race on skis from his own company, Van Deer Skis. Image shot by Joerg Mitter for Red Bull Content Pool.
In other competitive news this week, our second highlight comes to us by way of Marcel Hirscher, who held a press conference of sorts in the Netherlands earlier this week. As you’ll recall, the GOAT status ski racer announced his unretirement back at the end of April in a move that shocked the ski world. Along with the unexpected news, Hirscher also announced that rather than competing for Austria, whom he represented for his entire career, he would instead be competing for the Netherlands as part of the Dutch Ski Association (NSkiV). This week, in part due to rampant excitement surrounding his arrival, the NSkiV organized a meet and greet, as well as a press conference for Hirscher ahead of his return to racing. Over the course of those two events, we learned a bit more about his current perspectives and expectations heading into the season.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from these public appearances is the fact that Hirscher is adamant about avoiding the term “comeback.” In his mind, that implies that his goal is to return to his pre-retirement form, and be a consistent first place finisher. As he made very clear in the appearances, that is not his goal. Instead, Hirscher states that he wants to, “ to enjoy and participate from time to time,” calling ski racing a “passion project.” In other words, Hirscher’s decision to unretire really comes down to just one thing: he misses ski racing and wants to compete again. Adding emphasis to his new perspective, Hirscher also said, “Ski racing now has to fit into my life — and not the other way around.” Taken in totality, the message we’re getting is that Hirscher isn’t putting any pressure on himself in his return. This move is entirely about having fun, and enjoying competition. That said, you don’t earn GOAT status unless you’re a competitive person, so it’ll be interesting to see how Hirscher fares in his return. While his currently stated goal is to enjoy himself, the combination of his athletic prowess and competitive nature mean he very well could find himself consistently in the mix for podiums, even if that’s not his underlying goal. Of course in order to do that, he’ll have to start by earning enough FIS points to rejoin the World Cup circuit. That mission kicks off on August 15, when he’ll travel with his team to New Zealand to compete in the national slalom championships. To learn more about Hirscher’s plans for the upcoming season, check out the report from SkiRacing.com.
#3: Stowe Local Noah Dines is on Pace to Skin over 3 Million Feet of Vertical in 2024, Shattering Previous Records:
An unlikely record breaker, Noah Dines's personal challenge is proving to be a backdoor to success. Image from Noah Dines's Substack.
Next up this week is a story that’s both as local and global as it gets for us here in Stowe, VT. That’s because one of our own, a man named Noah Dines who calls Stowe home, is currently making headlines for chasing an incomprehensible world record: skinning 3 million vertical feet in one year. To put that in perspective, the legendary Greg Hill initially set the record of 2 million vertical feet back in 2010, which was then broken by another Vermont local, Aaron Rice, in 2016 when he climbed 2.5 million feet in a season. For additional context, consider this: Noah Dines has already skinned over 2 million feet, having crossed that threshold back on July 8th. Furthermore, Dines is approximately 430,000 vertical feet ahead of schedule, as of July 23rd.
While Dines’s quest has been making headlines since he broke the 2 million vertical foot threshold, Ski Magazine published an interview with him this week that gives us some interesting insights into both the man and his methods. First, in regards to the man himself, Ski Magazine doesn’t hold back in their proclamation that Dines is a “dark horse” in the sense that the greater ski world isn’t familiar with his name, despite being on the cusp of shattering one of the craziest records in skiing. Though unintentional, Dines leans into this perception throughout the interview as his take on the feat comes off as almost casual. Rather than delving into talk of nutritional strategy, or calculated recoveries, Dines plays off the feat as wanting, “to know what it feels like to try really, really hard at something, to push myself to my limits, to be the best that I can be at one singular thing, which I’ve never done before.” In our mind, that comes off as Dines treating this as more of a personal challenge than a desire to become famous for breaking a world record. Sure, he’s calculated the amount of vert per day, and knows how much he’s averaging. He’s absolutely taking the mission seriously. But, he’s also not specifically striving to break an athlete’s record for the fame and opportunity that comes with it. Instead, it’s almost as if Dines woke up one day in 2023 and thought to himself, “I wonder what would happen if I tried to skin 3 million vertical feet next year,” and then committed to the bit.
As for the method, perhaps the biggest distinguishing difference between Dines’s attempt and both Hill and Rice’s records, is that Dines isn’t achieving the feat by conquering massive summits. Instead, he’s chipping away at the goal, looking to average about 10,000 vertical feet per day, often by making multiple ascents and descents per day. As such, he’s logged hundreds of thousands of vertical feet here at Stowe, making the same Mansfield pilgrimage that countless local skiers in our area make. This summer, Dines has spent time at Mt. Hood, and will look to travel Chile next, where he’ll continue logging vert until he can return home to Vermont in November. Finally, as the year comes to a close, Dines plans on putting the final cap on his achievement right here at Stowe, VT, on December 31st. While his goal is to hit the 3 million mark, we suspect that by the time that date rolls around, he’ll already be well past it. For now, we recommend giving the interview with Ski Magazine a read, checking him out on Instagram, or if you’re particularly interested in his story, you can also subscribe to his updates on Substack.com.
#4: The First Extreme Skier, Sylvain Saudan, Has Passed Away:
Sylvain Saudan: skiing dirt decades before Candide.
Finally, we’re rounding out this week in a way in which we never have here on SkiEssentials: by sharing the obituary of a skier that we’re not particularly familiar with. Typically on Top 5 Fridays, we shy away from sharing news regarding deaths as we absolutely do not want to use it as a “content” opportunity for marketing. For that reason, we rarely share the news of people passing away, and when we do it’s because a legend of the sport has died.
This week though, we’re at an awkward crossroads, as a legend has died, albeit one that we’re not particularly familiar with. That legend was Sylvain Saudan, the “”Skier of the Impossible,” who died at age 87 this week. While our initial instinct was to find other news to share, we quickly changed our minds after reading more about this legendary figure, realizing that this is the perfect opportunity to honor his life rather than shy away from the subject.
To say that learning about Sylvain Saudan’s life was eye opening would be an understatement. Born in 1937 and coming of age in the 1960’s, Sylvain Saudan was one of the world’s first “extreme” skiers. In fact, according to this list from Powder Magazine of the 48 most influential extreme skiers, Saudan was the first extreme skier. Operating on some of the earliest releasable bindings, as well as skis that would be considered too straight, too long, too narrow, and lacking any kind of camber or rocker profile - Saudan pioneered descents down countless “impossible” faces. Topping that list was his 1967 descent down Chamonix’s Spencer Couloir, which features ridiculously steep 55 degree pitches. At the time, skiing such a face was so unimaginable that no one believed him when he began sharing the news of his accomplishment. In order to get to the truth of the matter, a small plane was sent to inspect the slope, where a set of tracks were ultimately discovered, confirming Saudan’s claims. This feat, along with countless others, is how he earned the moniker, “Skier of the Impossible.”
Along with his bold accomplishments and awe-inspiring nickname, Saudan also carried a larger than life personality. Fully recognizing the danger of the activities he was involved with, as well as his ability to tip-toe the line between life and death, Saudan was known for dropping legendary quotes like, ““Fear has no place. If you are afraid, it’s over,” or “If you can ski on stones, you can ski on anything.” Perhaps most appropriately for our news today, Saudan also once said, “I am one of the rare people who already knows what will be written about me after my death.”
To be sure, we’re only just starting to scratch the surface of educating ourselves in regards to the life of one of the most influential men in ski history. If you’re like us and want to know all you can about this extraordinary figure, we recommend giving the report from the Washington Post a read as it does an excellent job of describing a man who rightfully deserves the title of legend. Also, if anyone has an English translation of his book, “Skieur de L'impossible,” we’d love to borrow it.
#4.5: Clarifications and Updates to Last Week’s Story Regarding Schweitzer and Selkirk Powder:
Finally, before we wrap things up this week, we wanted to quickly share a clarification from Powder Magazine regarding a story we brought you last week. As you’ll remember, Schweitzer mountain announced last week that it had “acquired” Selkirk Powder’s backcountry operation. In that highlight, we excitedly referred to it as a win-win, as it seemed as though both parties gained something from the story. As we learned this week though, the Schweitzer announcement was a bit misleading as the “acquisition” didn’t mean exactly what we thought it did. Typically when an acquisition is announced, it means one business was purchased by another. In this case though, what happened was that Schweitzer simply didn’t renew Selkirk’s land lease, and thereby “acquired” the terrain they previously rented to Selkirk. In other words, Selkirk Powder’s backcountry operation wasn’t purchased and their relocation wasn’t a voluntary choice. Their lease simply wasn’t renewed, forcing them to relocate to new terrain. Still, despite the unfortunate end to their operation at Schweitzer, it sounds as though their business has a promising future. To learn more about this new information, check out the report from Powder.com.