From the contest that brought you names like Tom Wallisch, Corey Vanular, JD Zicat and Michael Clarke comes the latest round of budding skiing superstar edits. Level 1 Productions chose 14 finalists for this year's comp; at the time of this writing five of their edits (as of this writing) are posted on the Level 1 site. I would love to post some of them up here for you to enjoy, but Josh Berman has something against letting other people embed his Vimeo videos, so you'll have to click over to the Level 1 site and help bring in those advertising dollars I guess. Check out all the finalists here: http://www.level1productions.com/news.php?id=298

So yesterday I took kind of a cheap shot at the European X Games, which wasn't really fair. I am certain it will be a riveting contest, given that the ski rosters are essentailly what they were for the American X Games. Kevin Rolland and Xavier Bertoni, frenchmen extraordinaire have a training video out today from the European scene that will give you folks a good idea of what is going on over there. It was the first day of training in Tignes. For more on Euro X, click here.

FollowUs.tv Ep7 Xgames Europe training

FollowUs.tv Ep7 Xgames Europe training

So there is something called X Games Europe or something going on in, well, Europe or some place, but the real action is in Grizzly Gulch up the Little Cottonwood Canyon. Chad's Gap is absolutely enormous. Just massive... and finally photos have begun to surface of the kicker, posted by the good folks over at Saga Outerwear. I mean, look at the size of this fucking thing:

Just crazy. You won't be seeing any footage of this for awhile, and who could blame the guys who built this thing? If you essentially move two tons of snow to build a kicker of that size in the (quasi) backcountry, you deserve the right to charge everybody 29.95$ to buy your DVD to watch the fruits of your labors. Word has it Tim Durtschi, Mike Wilson, and some snowboarders have been hitting it... look at the damn in-run:

Speed Check Time:

It seems there comes a time, for those in the public eye, where one runs the risk of maxing out their public persona to the point where they become a caraceture of themselves. Am I saying Shaun White has done that with this Rolling Stone cover? No, I am just saying he is getting pretty damn close: American flag pants, pissing gasoline on a snowboard fire, shirtless with a gold medal. The guy is awesome, no doubt: women want to be with him and men want to be him. But really, I get it. Shaun White is the man, there is no sense beating me over the head with this.

I'll let this go, right after this quote: "I think about what people will think in the future when they see my face too... I don't know what I want them to think of, but I definitely wouldn't want it to be snowboarding, because there's so much more to me than that." Man, I love that last line. Check it out in all its glory: http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2010/03/03/shaun-whites-big-air-and-big-hair-the-new-issue-of-rolling-stone/

Seems like a fine day for a teaser to come along, and so why not showcase the newest offering from the lads at PYP Productions. I didn't recognize any of the names in the title, but who cares? This looks like a fun little flick that is not entirely park and urban, as so many of the lesser-known production companies' films tend to be. Some nice pillow lines in here, as well as some glorious looking powder. Dig it:

CR Johnson died after falling and hitting his head off rocks at Squaw Valley. According to a press release from the resort, he got an edge in an area known as Light Towers, spun around and hit his head. Efforts by the ski patrol to revive him were unsuccessful. Reports say he was wearing a helmet at the time. Johnson was 26.

There is not much more to add... Everyone forgets how dangerous professional skiers' chosen profession is. And that is expected in a lot of ways, but we easily forget how dangerous their chosen profession is. Nobody loves heart disease, or falling down a flight of stairs, or getting hit by a bus, or rotting away in some nursing home... but CR Johnson loved skiing and we should all be lucky to go out doing what we love. This quote about says it all:

"Only the things that you truly love will you pursue with that energy, and for me my family, my friends, and skiing, that's it for me, that's my life. The joy I get from skiing...that's worth dying for." - CR Johnson

Matt Walker, Corey Vanular (!), Tom Wallisch, Jon Brogan, and Andrew Hathaway take some tiome out from their glamorous jetsetting adventures to do some filming work in the parks of Colorado for Jiberish. It's pretty much non-stop follow-cam park pornography, but I'll be damned if I am not stricken with the burning urge to buy a Jiberish tall tee about midway through the segment.

Jiberish Winter 2010 - Do Werk [HD] from Junction 133 on Vimeo.

In case you missed any of the scintillating action at this year's Aspen Open, herewith, a video wrap. Gus Kenworthy swept up the show on the Men's Side, winning both pipe and slopestyle. Ashley Battersby won women's slope and someone with the charming name Anais Caradeux won in women's pipe. Rather than do any real reporting, let's sit back and enjoy the videos:

Aspen Open, 2010, Slopestyle Finals, men from snowflake on Vimeo.

Aspen Open, 2010, womens semis HP from snowflake on Vimeo.

Aspen OPen, 2010, Men's Semi Finals from snowflake on Vimeo.

Sure, I am the ski blogger, but the Olympics are on, and that means the entire freeski world is left sitting on the sidelines, hoping that the IOC will see the ways and get skiing halfpipe in time for the Mother Russia Games of 2014. But the 21st Winter Olympiad is here, and upon us now, so I get some license here, because Snowboarding is where the Action is.

The news is this:Torah Bright, who looked simply radiant leading Australia in the opening ceremonies, has seemingly taken a monster step for women's pipe: A double. The only question now is, will she throw it in her run with it all on the line? Stay tuned...

Well, I am not really sure what to say about these, but if you have ever wanted a 350-dollar pair of goggles, your time has arrived. Zeal Optics teemed up with some other company to produce the "Transcend Goggle" which features a heads-up display on which you can check things like your speed, altitude, and the temperature. Future models will also feature trail maps and cell phone integration, and video recording, we're told.

Charging occurs via a USB cord... and um... you can upgrade to a 450$ version which features an SPPX xtreme low light spherical photochromatic coating. Personally, I think an SPPX xtreme low light spherical photochromatic coating ought to come standard, but what do I know?

For more, check out: http://www.zealoptics.com/transcend/