TOP FIVE FRIDAYS: NOVEMBER 11, 2022
Lead Image: After receiving over 36” of snow this past week, Alta is officially already over 100” on the year. With opening day one week out, conditions are set to be all time when the lifts start turning. More on that below! Image: Alta Ski Area on Facebook
#1: Cause for Concern: The FIS Alpine Season Struggles to Get Underway as More Races Canceled:
With 7 out of 8 events canceled to start the year, Killington started blasting snow ahead of a rainstorm this weekend, in hopes that when all is said and done, they’ll be able to host the second weekend of women’s racing for the year. Check highlight #2 for further details. Image: Killington Resort on Facebook
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the November 11, 2022 edition! This week, we unfortunately have the task of starting things off with some bad news: yet another World Cup race has been canceled due to snow conditions. This weekend, Lech/Zuers, Austria, was supposed to host men’s and women’s parallel slalom races, but unfortunately those have been called off due to inadequate snow. As a result, the women’s circuit has yet to begin the season, while the men have had just one giant slalom race so far. That brings the tally for this year to 1 successful event, and 7 canceled events. Last week, we shared an article from SkiRacing.com in which U.S. speed team coach Jeff Lackie wondered whether or not it was time to shift the schedule to start and end later in the season. This week, writer Peggy Shinn published a piece via Outside Online covering the same topic, this time with quotes from FIS Race Director Markus Waldner, who echoed Lackie’s comments and agrees that the FIS needs to discuss the idea of moving the schedule. With that in mind, we wouldn’t be surprised if the change came as early as next year. As you might expect, we’ll keep you posted on these discussions as they develop.
There is, however, relief on the horizon. Just yesterday, the FIS shared the news that next weekend’s races in Levi have been greenlit, meaning that barring any unforeseen circumstances, the women’s circuit will finally get underway on November 19th and 20th, with a pair of slalom races. As luck would have it, Levi is a venue where Mikaela Shiffrin has had incredible success, so all eyes will be on her to see if she’s able to start the season with a win. Then, a week later, from November 25-27th, the men’s circuit is scheduled to compete in a downhill race and two super g races in Lake Louise, where the resort is already open and operating on over 30” of natural snow. While snow control hasn’t approved the resort for the upcoming races yet, it appears likely that Lake Louise will be ready. That leaves Killington as the next big question mark on the calendar, as unseasonably warm weather has the resort pushing the deadline. That said, the resort has begun making snow and is hopeful that they’re team will be able to pile up enough snow to make the event possible. We’ll tell you more about that in our next highlight. For now, check out this article from Outside Online regarding the growing calls to adjust the FIS schedule.
#2: Snow Report: West Coast Gets Blasted While the East Coast Starts Blasting:
A sight for sore eyes: Snowbird’s groomer pushing around a considerable amount of snow during a storm that hit Utah’s Wasatch Range earlier this week. Image: Snowbird on Facebook
Now that that ho-hum update is out of the way, we have some contradictory good news to share this week: Winter is back in a big way here in North America! Just to get ahead of any confusion, we admittedly did declare winter’s return a few weeks back on October 21st when a few ski areas in the midwest were the first to open for the year. That said, this week is the week when we finally started seeing significant snowfall across a wide breadth of the west, prompting ski areas to open for the year, many ahead of schedule. From California to Idaho, Oregon to Utah, and all the states in between, countless ski areas received considerable snowfall this past week. In California, Mammoth Mountain, who opened a little over a week ago, received 47” of snow between Tuesday and Wednesday. In Utah, the Wasatch Range also got hit with snow, with Alta, Brighton, Deer Valley, Park City, Snowbird, and Solitude all reporting between 22”-32”. While these regions are the standouts from this week’s snow, several other areas received a foot or more of snow as well, making this the first widespread snow event of the year. To get a better idea of what fell where, check out this report from Unofficial Networks which shares snow totals from two dozen ski areas across seven states.
Here on the East Coast, while we weren’t blessed with literal feet of natural snow, there’s still reason to celebrate as numerous resorts began blowing it, even if only to test their machines. Here in town, Stowe fired up their guns for the first time, as did our neighboring mountains Smugglers Notch and Bolton Valley. Further to our east and north, several resorts in New Hampshire and Maine joined the fun, including Loon, Sugarloaf, Bretton Woods, and more.
Perhaps most importantly, and significantly though, Killington Resort has begun blowing snow in preparation for the upcoming World Cup races, scheduled to be held November 26-27. This week, the resort began blowing snow on the venue, despite forecasts calling for significant rainfall tonight into tomorrow. Fortunately, from there the weather turns cooler again, allowing for snowmaking to resume this Sunday, November 13th. Now, here’s where the fun (or perhaps anxiety inducing) part begins. In the Outside Online article we linked to earlier, we learn quite a bit about how the Killington team is able to optimize their snow making efforts, and how much time is needed for them to produce enough snow to host the race. Specifically, the article shares the insight that if Killington positions 120 of their snow guns 18 feet apart rather than the standard 50, they only need 100 hours to adequately cover Superstar with enough snow to hold the race. In American units, that’s the equivalent of 4.168 days. With the FIS looking to perform their snow control for the upcoming race on November 16th, that means about 1.168 days worth of snow will have to survive tonight’s rainstorm in order for Killington to get the green light. In other words, while the team at Killington remains confident that they can pull the feat off, it’ll be a race to the finish. For more on this, we’ll refer you once again to the article from Outside Online.
#3: Placer County Rescinds All Previous Approvals for Alterra’s Massive Development Plans in Olympic Valley:
A model of Alterra’s proposed development in Olympic Valley. This scale model is an excellent way to conceptualize the scale of development that Alterra was hoping to build in the area. Image: Sierra Watch
In other news this week, we caught a headline that we suspect most of our audience in Placer County will be quite pleased with: the Placer County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to rescind all approvals previously given to Alterra regarding development plans in Olympic Valley. Now, there’s a few interesting aspects to this story, so let’s start by going back in time a bit to lay the groundwork. Way back in 2010, KSL Partners (an investment group that has since morphed into Alterra) purchased Squaw Valley (which is now known as Palisades Tahoe). A year after purchasing the resort, KSL (Alterra) submitted initial development plans for the region. Those plans laid out a vision for the development of Olympic Valley, including everything you assume would come with the creation of a ski village, and then some. Along with numerous high rise hotels, the plans also called for the construction of a rollercoaster and a massive, 90,000 square foot indoor waterpark. As you might guess, locals didn’t love the idea, and immediately formed a group called Sierra Watch to represent their opposition. Fast forward to 2016 when, despite significant disapproval from locals, the Placer County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 in favor of approving the development plans.
Ever since that decision, the development has been tied up in court, with members of the Sierra Watch delaying the process at every step. Finally, in August of 2021, the group landed their most significant win yet, as the Third District of Appeals sided with Sierra Watch and agreed that the Placer County Board had ignored potential impacts of the development on, “Lake Tahoe, fire danger, noise, and traffic.” As a result, the court ordered Placer County to rescind its approvals for the development. In other words, this week’s news is not the result of the Placer County Board of Supervisors having a change of heart, but rather their decision to rescind all approvals is the result of being obligated to by way of a higher court’s ruling. Despite these developments, Alterra has already made it clear that they intend to apply again with a new round of development plans, meaning the battle for Olympic Valley is far from over. Time will tell what happens next, but for now, locals can breathe a sigh of relief as the valley is currently immune from further development. For more on this, check out the latest article from Sierra Watch, or the Reno Gazette Journal.
#4: Legendary Extreme Skier Dean Cummings Acquitted of Murder Charges in New Mexico:
A bit of a necessary warning here: the above video is Cumming’s full testimony in which he recounts the events of that fateful night back in February 2020. As such, there are descriptions of violent events. Viewer discretion is advised.
Finally, we end this week with a bit of a wild story involving an iconic skier. Now, the subject matter in this highlight is a bit emotional and admittedly violent, so if the true crime genre isn’t your cup of tea, we’d suggest skipping ahead to this week’s edits. For those of you who are interested in a wild story involving one of skiing’s legends, continue reading. Noting that we don’t know with certainty what happened on the night in question, we’ll do our best to stick to the facts of the matter without sharing any opinions on the events being discussed. With that in mind, let’s start with what we know.
Fact number one: Dean Cummings is a hall of fame caliber skier, being one of the original big mountain skiing icons. Fact two: Dean Cummings is the former owner of Valdez H20 Heli Adventures. Fact three: in February 2020, Dean Cummings killed a man. Fact four: Cummings called the police and turned himself in immediately afterwards. Fact five: this week, Cummings was acquitted of all charges related to the incident as a jury found that he acted in self defense.
Now, with these facts established, let’s dive into this story a bit more, keeping in mind that what we know of this comes by way of Cummings’ own testimony. Back in March of 2020, Cummings was living in New Mexico and attempting to purchase property from an associate of his, Guillermo Arriola. According to Cummings’ testimony, one night Arriola stopped by his trailer in a non-sober, agitated state. At that time, Cummings attempted to discuss the business deal at hand, and displeased with Arriola’s responses, Cummings eventually called the man a “scam artist”. Upon hearing that, Arriola became furious and began attacking Cummings. During the scuffle, Cummings was able to grab his rifle and attempted to use it to discourage Arriola as Cummings retreated into his bedroom. Unable to stop him and convinced that his life was in danger, Cummings eventually shot Arriola multiple times, killing him.
This week, a panel of jurors acquitted Cummings of both second degree murder and voluntary manslaughter. According to reports, the outcome was based on several factors, one of which was Cummings’ testimony which laid out his side of the story, which fit seamlessly with the evidence. Another significant factor in the outcome of this case were issues with the police’s handling of the case as well as the prosecution. While there are a handful of examples of this, one of the most blatant examples is the fact that officers on the scene said their body cameras were recording, but the footage could not be found, suggesting that they either deleted it or lied about recording in the first place. Another example would be an officer who testified that Cummings refused to give his name, only for an audio recording to be presented in which the officer never asks Cummings for his name. In other words, what this case ultimately came down to, is the fact that Cummings was able to present his side of the story in an airtight manner, while the police and prosecution’s version of events were full of holes and inconsistencies. While only Cummings will ever know exactly what happened in his trailer on that fateful night, we do know for a fact that he’s been acquitted of all charges stemming from the event. While this most certainly isn’t our typical ski news here on Top Five Fridays, we thought it was a story that would intrigue at least a segment of our audience. To learn more, check out Outside Online’s original reporting of the murder charges at the time of the event, as well as LawandCrime.com’s coverage of the event’s outcome.