Top Five Fridays: November 8, 2024
The slow rollout of ski season continues in the western United States this week, as resorts in several states will open for the season this weekend. Image: Breckenridge Ski Resort on Facebook
#1: Thanks to Snow Farming, Levi Receives Positive Snow Control & Next Weekend’s FIS Slalom Races Are a Go!:
The scene at Levi, where the FIS has just given a positive snow control, guaranteeing that next weekend’s slalom races will be held as planned. Image: Levi Ski Resort on Facebook
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the November 8, 2024 edition! We’ve got an interesting one this week, as those of you out west find yourselves on the cusp of winter as resorts in Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Idaho are set to operate this weekend. Back here on the east, we continue to wait patiently for our first round of opening day announcements. Still excitement is in the air, and to keep our thirst for ski season quenched, we have yet another round of weekly ski news to talk about. Let’s jump in!
First things first, we’re excited to share the news that the FIS has just given Levi Ski Resort the greenlight to host the first slalom races of the season after receiving a positive snow control test. Interestingly enough, along with the announcement is the anecdote that nearly 70% of the available snow was “recycled” from last winter, meaning snowfarming techniques were implemented at Levi over the summer, which enabled the resort to retain 70% of the snow required to pull off this early season event.
For fans of World Cup action, this is pretty exciting news as it indicates a much stronger start to the season than we’ve seen in recent years. As you’ll recall, the past two seasons have been riddled with cancellations due to a lack of snow. That’s resulted in growing calls for the FIS to consider shifting its schedule, starting later in the season. Now, with Levi’s positive snow control for events scheduled on November 16th and 17th, we’re seeing that snow farming could be a potential solution for the scheduling issue. While that’s a story we’ll have to keep following in coming years, for now we’re simply happy to know that this year’s schedule of events is going to plan, at least for now. To check out the schedule for next weekend’s races, click here.
#2: New York’s Big Tupper Ski Center & Surrounding Properties Sold in Foreclosure Auction. Winners Hope to Reopen:
A view of New York’s Big Tupper Ski Center, where a pair of investors have just bought the foreclosed property in an auction, with hopes to reopen it. Image: Ski Big Tupper on Facebook, photo by Rick Godin.
Next up this week is an update to a story we shared back in August regarding the auctioning off of New York’s Big Tupper ski area. In our prior coverage of the story, we shared the news that the Supreme Court had ruled that rather than allowing the town of Big Tupper to acquire the property by simply paying off its back taxes, the resort would have to be sold at auction to allow the deed holder to recover as much money as possible from the property. That news, as you might guess, led to a bit of apprehension in the local community as it was suddenly very uncertain as to who would step up and buy the property.
To get the full context of this story, it’s worth giving our August update a read, as we dove deeper into the recent history of the ski area. For this week’s purposes though, we’ll simply say this: prior to foreclosing, there were intentions to transform Ski Big Tupper and its surrounding property into the “Adirondack Club and Resort” - a 4 seasons destination of sorts. Then, when that project failed, the property was split into four parcels, each was foreclosed on, and the community found themselves simply hoping their ski hill would reopen. In the wake of the auction announcement, there was plenty of concern that a buyer would emerge with plans to privatize the resort, as has been seen several times in recent years.
This week, things came to a head when the resort went up for auction. Fortunately, when all was said and done, locals were able to breathe a sigh of relief. In the end, it was a pair of investors who call both New Jersey and Big Tupper home who ultimately won the auction with a bid of $650,000. Their plans for the ski area? Re-open it as a community ski hill, working alongside the town and county to make it happen. In their words, “A real motivation was to be assured that a developer didn’t come in there and start developing high density housing and closing access to the community.” In our words, it sounds like although the town itself didn’t come to own the resort, the next best option has come to fruition.
There is, as it happens far more to this story when you start looking into the adjacent properties that were auctioned off alongside Big Tupper, particularly in regards to a man named Stanley Hutton Rumbough III. To be honest, it’s quite a saga, and we simply don’t have the space to explore here in full on Top Five Fridays. It is a very interesting and complex story though, which we’d recommend reading if you’re interested. Otherwise, if you simply want to learn more about this week’s auction, we recommend checking out this article from the Adirondack Explorer.
#3: Think it Takes a Big Time Mountain to Produce Big Time Skiers? Minnesota’s Buck Hill Begs to Differ:
Located quite literally on the side of a highway in Minnesota, Buck Hill is the unlikely home for World Cup caliber slalom skiers like Lindsey Vonn and Paula Moltzan. Screengrab from Google Maps
Sticking with the theme of important local ski hills, we thought we’d share an article about Minnesota’s Buck Hill coming to us by way of SkiRacing.com this week. As it turns out, we’ve actually been wanting to share Buck Hill’s story for a while now but simply haven’t had the right opportunity. This week, we’ve been given that chance though as SkiRacing.com’s highlight of the ski hill dives into all of the factors that make it such a special place.
First things first, let’s establish a basic fact: the Twin Cities’ 310’ tall Buck Hill is a World Cup slalom skier producing factory. The story of how that came to be starts back in 1969, when Austrian ski coach Erich Sailer arrived at the ski area. Seeing the potential talent pool in Minneapolis and St. Paul region, he started a racing program at the ski hill. In the decades since, his coaching program has produced three extremely notable World Cup athletes: Kristina Koznick, Lindsey Vonn, and Paula Moltzan. Koznick is credited as the putting of Sailer’s Buck Hill race program on the map, earning her first FIS World Cup gold medal in 1998. That same year, she finished second in the overall slalom standings before going on to compile a career in which she accumulated 6 gold medals and 20 slalom podiums. Then, it became Lindsey Vonn’s turn to carry the torch, and we all know how that went. In a World Cup career spanning 18 seasons, Vonn racked up 82 wins, 137 podiums, and 20 season titles - including 4 overall. It’s safe to say that Vonn is truly one of the greatest American ski racers of all time. Now, in 2024, Paula Moltzan is continuing the Buck Hill tradition as she enters her 11th season of World CUp racing. All of this success from a 310’ vertical hill located literally on the side of a highway in Minnesota.
While it certainly comes across as unlikely, the article from SkiRacing.com does a great job of zooming in on some of the factors that have turned Buck Hill into such a prolific talent producer. Topping that list, of course, is the sheer good fortune of having Erich Sailer starting the program back in 1969. While he’s currently 99 years old and no longer coaching, Koznick credits her years under his tutelage with giving her the confidence to pursue and achieve a successful career. Sailer built the foundation for the program.
In addition to having such a legendary figure’s involvement, Buck Hill also has three traits that are hard to find at larger resorts: a rope tow, lights, and community. While each of these factors seem simple enough, they combine to create a special recipe for success. For kids growing up in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, having access to a ski hill where they can train after school, lapping the slalom course under the lights for hours, results in one absolutely critical ingredient for success: repetition. As kids, athletes like Koznack, Vonn, and Moltzan would ski run, after run, after run under the lights at Buck Hill until slalom skiing almost became an act of muscle memory. And then, to top it all off, Buck Hill also reportedly has an incredible sense of community, which created an environment in which every kid truly wanted to be there. In other words, Buck Hill somehow created a race program that was both repetitious and fun. A rare combination for kids.
Ultimately what we love most about this story is that it’s not just a story about Buck Hill. It’s actually a story about how incredibly valuable these tiny ski hills are when it comes to producing high end talent. Here in Vermont, we have Cochran’s Ski Area right up the road from us. Cochran’s is more or less a carbon copy of Buck Hill: a 230’ tall ski hill with a surface lift, night skiing, race program, and an excellent sense of community. It too has produced World Cup caliber athletes, including current U.S. Ski Team member and Olympic silver medalist Ryan Cochran-Siegle. About an hour to our south, you’ll find Storrs Hill Ski Area. Again, the recipe is the same: night skiing, surface lift, community. The result? Mikaela Shiffrin. To us, that’s the story here: how these tiny ski areas are some of the most prolific talent producers in the United States. It’s also why we’ve been so eager to share the story of Buck Hill, which we can finally appropriately do thanks to the article from SkiRacing.com. To read it in full, click here.
#4: Powder Magazine Shares Their List of the Most Iconic Skis of All Time. Do You Agree?
Shane McConkey breaking down the inspiration behind the inarguably iconic Spatula in Matchstick Production's 2003 film "Focused".
Finally, we’re rounding this week’s highlight reel out in a way that’s not dissimilar to last week: by sharing another publication’s listicle. Last week, we shared Ski Mag’s list of the top 30 ski resorts in the west, and top 20 ski resorts in the east. This week, we’re sharing Powder Magazine’s list of the Most Iconic Skis of All Time. While these articles may not be “news” per se, we find them to be worth sharing for their sheer entertainment value. Afterall, what better way to kill the time before ski season by debating the most iconic skis ever? On that note, let’s dive in.
In the article from Powder, we’re treated to a list of 17 iconic skis, as well as an additional 18 honorable mentions. On the list of 17, there are some indisputable classics. The Salomon 1080, which was arguably the first popular twin tip ski. The ridiculous for its time Volant Spatula, which introduced the world to rocker. The K2 extreme, whose iconic neon colors were a hallmark of big mountain skiing in the early 1990’s. And then, there are some highly debatable entries. The Armada ARG, for instance, which is a reverse sidecut ski first introduced in the early 2010’s. A notable ski whose lineage lasts to this day, but amongst the most iconic? There’s room for debate here. Or how about the Faction Candide 3.0? Another great ski, no debate there, but amongst the most iconic of all time? Again, room for debate.
Ultimately, that’s what we think is fun about this piece, and why it’s worth sharing. Between the list of 17 official choices, as well as the 18 honorable mentions, there are sure to be some skis on the list worth debating with your buddies. Or, on the flipside, what about skis that didn’t make the list? Notably absent are multiple K2 skis like the classic K2 Comp or the Public Enemies which were among the first “mid-season” release skis, and hit the market with incredible hype. Keeping with the “newschool skiing” era, where are early Line classics like the Mike Nick Pro which were notable for being only available in a 142 length. Or the Head Mad Trix, where you could spin the binding to choose between a “big air” or “big mountain” ski? Again, plenty of room for debate with this list, and a great way to pass the time. To give it a review of your own and to put a conversation starter in your back pocket for later, check out Powder Magazine’s list of the Most Iconic Skis of All Time.