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In new ads, ski company says global warming could dry up snow during the next century... The Aspen Skiing Co. hopes potential customers are ready for a snow job. On Wednesday, the company unveiled a new advertising campaign for the 2006-07 season that centers around the message that snow — and skiing — will disappear around 2100 if humans don’t take drastic action to slow global warming. Three full-page ads, which show a melting snowflake imposed over Highland Bowl, will run in SKI and Outside magazines in the next few months. One ad portrays a “certificate of death” for snow....

DULUTH, MN (AP) -- It's been a month since Travis Kladivo last rode a kite tube. And doctors say the 20-year-old's body has almost healed. On June 25, Kladivo, whose family owns a resort on Lake Vermilion, joined a growing number of thrill-seekers seriously injured while riding a kite tube, a huge, inflatable toy designed to float in the air with a rider aboard. The day after Kladivo's accident, a 42-year-old man was killed in a kite tube accident on Little St. Germain Lake in Wisconsin. Since then, the bestselling version of the device, the Sportsstuff Inc.-brand Wego kite tube,...

TULSA, Okla. -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Tulsa today announced a restriction on kite tubing on all Corps lakes in the Tulsa District. Col. Miroslav Kurka, commander of the Tulsa District, imposed the ban because of the potential for serious injuries caused by uncontrolled flight of these devices. Kite tubes are a relatively new derivative of large inner tubes towed behind speedboats that become airborne. One person died as the result of a kite tube accident this past week in Texas. Many kite tubing injuries are the direct result of the tubes reaching heights of 20...

LES CROSETS, Switzerland - Former Swiss skiing star Corinne Rey-Bellet and her brother, Alain, were shot and killed in their parents' home, and police were trying to find Rey-Bellet's husband. The attack late Sunday night, which also left Rey-Bellet's mother hospitalized with serious injuries, occurred in the Swiss mountain resort of Les Crosets, according to the Valais state police. Rey-Bellet's mother was able to call police despite her injuries. Police said the attacker, who fired five shots, fled and eluded a search. Police spokesman Renato Kalbermatten said authorities were trying to find Rey-Bellet's husband, who lived with her and their...

Before Scandinavia: These could be the first skiers By Robert Marquand | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor BEIJING – Move over Bode. You may have competition you don't know about - among a sturdy skiing clan in northwest China. They are central Asians, Mongols, and Kazaks, living in the remote Altay mountains of Xinjiang province, where some claim skiing was first conceived. Using curved planks whose design dates back 2,000 years, the Altaic peoples are formidable skiers. They might not win a medal on perfectly groomed Olympic trails. But they can break their own paths, track elk for...

SESTRIERE, Italy – Unbent, unbowed and ultimately unsuccessful, Bode Miller said in an interview yesterday he is skiing away from these Olympics on his own terms — content without any medals and impressed by the local nightlife. “I just did it my way. I’m not a martyr, and I’m not a do-gooder. I just want to go out and rock. And man, I rocked here,” Miller said in an exclusive interview with the Associated Press soon after he skidded off the slalom course in his fifth and final race, completing an 0-for-the-Olympics.

Feb. 23, 2006 - Four months ago, Bode Miller sat across from me in the bar of a New York City hotel and shared his idea of what a perfect two weeks in Torino would look like. “For me,” he said, “the ideal Olympics would be to go in with all that pressure, all that attention and have performances that are literally tear-jerking, that make people put their heads down because they’re embarrassed at how emotional they’re getting, that make people want to try sports, talk to their kids, call their f---ing ex-wives—and come away with no medals. I think...

Brother and sister skiers Anders and Alissa Johnson have trained together in the ski jump for their entire careers, and both are considered among the best jumpers in the country. But at the Olympics today, Alissa will be on the sidelines while her brother goes for the gold. "I'm here [only] to support unfortunately," Alissa, 19, said. "I wish I was here to train and jump, but I'm here to support Anders." The International Ski Federation has ruled that ski jumping is too dangerous for women, making it the only winter Olympic sport that has male competitors and no female...

American skiing ace Bode Miller says he can understand while some athletes turn to drugs in their quest for fame. Miller, who on Tuesday was disqualified from the Winter Olympics' alpine skiing combined event after a slalom slip-up, believes the pressure to succeed forces some competitors to cheat. "Sport was born clean and would remain so if it was about just competing for the fun of it, but the media and the public corrupt it because of the pressure they create," the outspoken Miller told the Gazzetta dello Sport. "Any athlete who isn't doing well is left in the corner,...

Winter sports without fear BY DAVE BARRY (This classic Dave Barry column was originally published on Feb. 4, 1996.) Skiing is an exciting winter sport, but it is not for everybody. For example, it is not for sane people. Sane people look at skiing, and they say: ``Wait a minute. I'm supposed to attach slippery objects to my feet and get on a frozen chair dangling from a scary-looking wire, then get dumped off on a snow-covered slope so steep that the mountain goats are wearing seat belts, and then, if by some miracle I am able to get back...

NEW YORK - Bode Miller knows he puts his life at risk when he skis drunk, but the outspoken Olympic favorite admits he may try the dangerous activity again. "Talk about a hard challenge right there. ... If you ever tried to ski when you're wasted, it's not easy," Miller told "60 Minutes" for a segment that will air Sunday. "Try and ski a slalom when ... you hit a gate less than every one second, so it's risky. You're putting your life at risk. ... It's like driving drunk, only there are no rules about it in ski racing."...

Novice skiers will be able to avoid experienced counterparts who treat the pistes like a race track thanks to a speed limit imposed at the Swiss Alpine resport of Grindelwald.The new, 30-kilometers per hour (19-miles per hour) restriction, a Swiss first, has been put in place by authorities in the Bernese Oberland winter sports hub. It covers a two-kilometer (1.2-mile) blue or intermediate run. Officials will check that the rules are being respected, although there are no plans to punish anyone who breaks them, authorities said. The piste will be reserved for children, elderly skiers and anyone else who wants...

REDMOND, Wash. - A professional skiing photographer attempting to document the harsh Argentine terrain where plane crash survivors once resorted to cannibalism died in a 4,500-foot fall, his family said. Carl Warren Skoog, 46, fell from the remote southern face of 22,210-foot Mount Mercedario in the Andes on Oct. 17 while working with a longtime ski partner, Rene Crawshaw. "It wasn't extremely dangerous. He just fell somehow, and he just couldn't get his ice pick in to stop him," said Crawshaw, who needed more than a day to trek out of the remote area to get aid. The pair had...

MAMMOTH LAKES – The Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, a longtime winter playground for Southern California residents, says it will sell a controlling interest to a private investment firm. The $365 million acquisition will be made by Starwood Capital Groups, led by luxury hotel mogul Barry S. Sternlicht. The move is expected to give the resort an upscale character, unlike the raw, unpolished style developed by founder and co-owner Dave McCoy. The deal will give Starwood 70 percent control and the right to operate 4,000 acres of ski terrain at Mammoth and June mountains and allow for some development. The land...

The American magazine Time has recommended the little-known sport of yak skiing in India as one of the 10 best ways in Asia to relax the mind. The magazine's Asian edition says this "implausible extreme sport" involves going at rocket speed uphill attached by rope to a yak charging downhill. The skier attracts the yak from up high by shaking a bucket of nuts, which must be put down fast before the fun begins. "The sport may be a barmy injunction to even barmier tourists," Time says. Nervous wait According to the article, yak skiing is carried out in the...

Okay, so I am probably not doing the fine folks of Moraker, Norway, in revealing one of the best-kept secrets of Norway; a paradise, apparently, for hunters and fishermen and skiiers.Meraker is a "commune"--one assumes that is similar with our "township" or "county" here in the United States--of 2,500 people, or about 3 people per square mile. An ancient (circa 1905) photograph of Norwegian loggers near Meraker. Some mountain that dominates Meraker. If Norway joins the European Union, which forbides the Finns to defend themselves against wolves, probably these women will have to learn marksmanship somewhere else. Apparently even faraway...

Record exodus to the mountains at Easter,Monday (2nd Day Easter) ends the Easter vacation in Norway, and it is already clear that a record number has visited mountain chalets, cabins and ski centers this year.The major alpine centers report an increase of 20-50 per cent, according to public broadcaster NRK.One reason for the record number taking to the mountains is the fact that Easter comes early this year. The other reason is the beautiful weather with perfect skiing conditions (particularly in the Southern part of the country), says Einar Oyo, manager of the Geilo Skilifts.The Norwegian Tourist Association (DNT) reports...

WATERVILLE VALLEY — Nine disabled soldiers who recently lost limbs or became blind fighting for freedom in Iraq got a new sense of their own freedom this weekend at Waterville Valley. They were brought here from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. with their families and as part of their rehabilitation, they got to ski. Their smiles, their laughs and their words reveal the experience was uplifting and liberating to them. Jeremy Feldbusch, 25, of Blairsville, Pa, skis down the mountain with the assistance of Waterville Valley Adaptive Skiing Program instructor BJ Pessia Saturday afternoon. Feldbusch was...

VAIL, Colo., Feb. 24, 2005 – Vail Resorts has joined the Defense Department's "America Supports You" campaign, an ongoing nationwide program designed to showcase America's support to the men and women of the Armed Forces. Vail Mountain and the Vail community will host 19 soldiers over the weekend of February 24-27. These soldiers are all recuperating from the loss of a limb, having been treated at the Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital in Washington, D.C. This is the second annual Vail Veterans' Ski Weekend, and provides the opportunity for soldiers who were wounded in action in Iraq to learn to...

Always dreamed of skiing in the Alps? Better do it quick. Rising global temperatures are bringing shorter winters to Europe and increasing difficulties for its famous ski resorts. Many resorts are already suffering and some winter-sport regions are already beginning to plan for a life, aprés ski. ... Oddly, many scientists believe that global warming may, in fact, eventually lead to a radical cooling of Europe. Continuing melting of the polar ice caps -- already well under way -- could severely disrupt the Gulf Stream which brings warm water from the South Atlantic to the coasts of Europe thus ensuring...