VAIL — A hero’s welcome was set up to celebrate U.S. Alpine Ski Team athlete and hometown GOAT Mikaela Shiffrin on Sunday to mark her record-breaking World Cup season. As of March 11, Shiffrin became the greatest skier of all time after she broke the record for number of World Cup wins held by Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark. Stenmark held the record of 86 wins for 34 years, and Shiffrin won her 87th World Cup race (and 88th World Cup race) in Are, Sweden.

Hundreds of people gathered at Solaris Plaza in Vail Village as Shiffrin strolled down a walkway lined with 88 stars, marking her current World Cup victories, as fans waved and cheered as she approached the stage.

Shiffrin was greeted by Doug Lewis, a former U.S. Alpine Ski Team member and two-time Olympian who has been an NBC sports ski analyst and has called many of the races Shiffrin has participated in. He asked her what it feels like, from her first World Cup win to the record-breaking win.

“It always feels like a dream, and I feel like I’m going to wake up at some point. And, I wouldn’t have it any other way, so that hasn’t changed from the first win that I had until now,” Shiffrin said.

“Well, welcome to reality, you are fully awake right now,” Lewis said. Then Lewis turned everyone’s attention to the big screen for a special message from Sen. John Hickenlooper on becoming the winningest Alpine ski racer in the world.

“You are an inspiration and we applaud your talent, your hard work and your dedication. Thank you for making Colorado proud. Enjoy this victory, Mikaela, we can’t wait to see what you do next,” Hickenlooper said.  

Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera was present to congratulate Shiffrin and also read a proclamation from Gov. Jared Polis that declared Mar. 11, 2023 “Mikaela Shiffrin Day” in the state of Colorado.

Shiffrin was also greeted by several town mayors and municipality dignitaries who each brought Shiffrin unique gifts that were indicative of each town. The town of Eagle gave Shiffrin a western belt buckle, nodding to the region’s western heritage, the town of Vail gave Shiffrin one of its decorative manhole covers. Minturn gave her a lifetime membership to the Minturn Fitness Center and a skier statue made out of railroad ties, harkening back to Minturn’s railroad history.

Next, U.S. Ski Team alumni came up one by one and presented Shiffrin with a single ski from Atomic that listed one of the many records that Shiffrin currently holds. Fellow athletes Reni Gorsuch, Cindy Nelson, Brenda Buglione Kirwood, Mike Brown, Karen Lancaster Ghent, Sarah Will, Alice McKennis Duran, Thomas Walsh, Jonny Moseley and Oksana Masters did the honors.

Lewis then told Shiffrin that she is a GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) and invited Shiffrin to check out the video messages from other GOATs and notables on the big screen. Peyton Manning, Roger Federer, Russell and Ciara Wilson, Derek Jeter, Simone Biles, Chloe Kim and Ingemar Stenmark all wished her well. So did actors Patrick Dempsey and Kate Winslet and talk show hosts Samantha Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Chelsea Handler.

“On behalf of all these GOATs you just saw, we wanted to make sure that this last presenter really knows what you’ve been through today and in fact, they’ve been with you every step of the way. Please welcome Eileen, Taylor and Kristi along with a special gift … Mikaela’s own goat!” Lewis said in front of a cheering crowd as Shiffrin’s family members, and a goat, came up on stage.

“Do we have a name for it yet?” Lewis said.

“I have to name it?” replied Shiffrin.

The crowd yelled out possible names for Shiffrin to choose from, including “Jeff” (after Shiffrin’s father who passed away in February 2020), “Billy,” and “Atomic.”

Shiffrin closed out the celebration admitting that she never thought breaking Stenmark’s record was ever going to happen during her career and gave thanks to the community that has supported her from the beginning.

“The support that I get from Colorado, this valley, from home, that is something that drives me throughout the season. It has for my entire career. It has been such a privilege to grow up in this community. After all the traveling that I’ve done, this is one of the few places that you get the best of everything here,” Shiffrin said.

“You get the best skiing, you get the best summer outdoor activities, you get the best people, you get the best health care. It’s a very rare thing, it’s very unique and, especially for all the kids here, I hope you know how privileged you are, how privileged we are to grow up in such a special, strong community.”

This story is from VailDaily.com.

The five-year, nine-figure Interstate 70 West Vail Pass Auxiliary Lanes project got off to a good start in 2021 as the first fall season of construction was completed with relatively low impact to motorists and trail users.

Now, however, begins the hard part on the section of I-70 through Vail Pass. The area between mile markers 180 and 190 has the highest crash rate in Colorado.

Beginning in April, the second of the project’s five scheduled construction seasons will get underway which, over the course of the summer and fall, will involve lane closures and rock blasting, stopping the interstate in both directions for up to 30 minutes.

Visiting the project in December, Gov. Jared Polis said he was pleased with the work so far and expressed the importance of the I-70 corridor in the Vail area, saying I-70 carries 21 percent of all U.S. commodities across the country.

“This I-70 corridor is a critical route for east-west movement of freight, for people and for the tourism economy,” Polis said. “We know how important it is to keep this highway open in the winter. Whenever Vail Pass is closed for an incident, it costs a lot of money with the detours that have to be taken. For the last 10 years, there were 210 full closures and 430 partial closures. That added up to 1,500 hours of closures and cost the economy $1.5 billion dollars.”

CDOT director Shoshona Lew said the addition of additional shoulder space and 5 miles of an eastbound auxiliary lane on I-70 through Vail Pass, one of the project’s main features, will reduce closure times.

“This will make it possible for vehicles that need to be taken out of service to have somewhere to go,” Lew said. “Having both the additional shoulder space and the auxiliary lane are ways for when a vehicle either gets into a collision or loses functionality due to the harsh conditions, it means that there’s somewhere to shift either the traffic, or the people who are not in traffic, to optimize the amount of time we can keep the pass open safely.”

While the actual building of the auxiliary lane is not scheduled to begin until 2023, the work taking place this summer will ready the project for that construction, including the paving of temporary asphalt for traffic shifts needed during the 2023 construction season.

Recpath moving

Vail Pass boasts the country’s highest-elevation section of interstate with an adjacent hard-surface recreation path, making it a destination for hikers and bikers each summer.

The recreation path, however, can get a little uncomfortable for users at times for its close proximity to the interstate, an issue which won’t be made easier by this summer’s construction since the recpath will need to be temporarily moved closer to the interstate.

The end project, though, will see a welcome change for pedestrians as the section of the trail between mile markers 185 and 187 will be moved farther from I-70 to facilitate the addition of an eastbound I-70 auxiliary lane.

The relocation will occur between mile markers 185 and 187, where the eastbound highway and recpath turn from a south to a south-east orientation.

The new trail will also contain two new bridges crossing Black Gore Creek, which are scheduled to be constructed this summer.

A detour of the trail will occur in the months to come, and concrete barriers will be installed to separate the temporary trail from eastbound I-70 traffic.

Cost up to $170 million

The I-70 West Vail Pass Auxiliary Lanes project was originally projected to cost about $140 million, a figure which has went up in recent months.

Lew, in December, said the cost will be $164 million, but the project website currently lists the cost at $170 million.

The project got underway after CDOT was awarded a $60.7 million Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grant in 2020. CDOT will fund $101.4 million of the project, and an additional $8.4 million will come from other federal sources.

CDOT engineer Peter Lombardi said the top bridges in Eagle County which will be recommended for federal funds under the 2021 Federal Infrastructure and Jobs Act are all bridges which are already part of the I-70 West Vail Pass Auxiliary Lanes project.

Westbound bridge reconstruction will begin in 2022 and will continue to 2023, and eastbound bridge reconstruction is slated to take place in 2024 and 2025.

Kiewit construction is the contractor on the project.

This story is from VailDaily.com.

 

The screens, they are unavoidable right now. Our kids were probably already getting plenty of screen time before the pandemic swept the world, but now, they’re not just using screens for entertainment. They’re using them to connect with their teachers, to complete their schoolwork and to talk to family and friends.

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Cinefix takes a look at what makes ending credit sequences effective, the different techniques used to end movies, and picks a number of films with the best end credits.

The shape of the narratives movies tend to tell lend themselves to an emotional climax that hits right as the screen fades to black for the last time. Be it triumphant, tragic, bittersweet, or thoughtful, the most important feeling is often the last. So, wisely, one of the most common functions of the creative end title sequence is what we’re going to call the coda credits. They grab on to the final emotional note and let it ride out in a long sustain, letting the audience hold onto the final feeling and carry the echoes out with them as the credits roll.

Tags: best of   lists   movies   video

Popular ski touring blog posts of 2016, news, gear and trip reports defined the backcountry season, especially avalanche safety.

Here at FREESKIER.com, we typically post multiple ski videos per day—carefully selected by our team of editors. The locations of these videos range from resorts to the backcountry to the streets of the world, featuring various types of skiers throwing down in their own unique ways. But what these videos all have in common is a “wow” factor; when you press play, you become inspired to get out there and ski the best you can ski.

As 2016 comes to a close, we give you this: the top 10 ski videos of the year. Determined strictly off of pageviews from our website, these are the videos that you, the readers, deemed the most worthy of your precious time. And, we think you picked quite well if we don’t say so ourselves. Relive each video’s greatness and get stoked for 2017 because there’s a lot more where this came from.

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1.

Our most-viewed video of 2016 doesn’t even involve a single patch of snow. Instead, it’s a sand-skiing video from Peru, featuring Jesper Tjäder and Emma Dahlstrom. Click here for the full post.

2.

Coming in at number two for 2016 is this buck-wild, high-quality video from Frenchman Sam Favret in the Mont-Blanc mountains. Watch him swerve around ice tunnels and send natural wallrides like a champ. Click here for the full post.

3.

Any time Candide Thovex puts out a video, it’s bound to take over the Internet, big time. One of Those Days 3 was no exception, featuring insanely cool stunts from POV perspective. Click here for the full post.

4.

Highlighted by super-deep powder, big tricks and beatiful, vimeo Staff Pick-winning cinematography, The Big Picture Crew’s Move 2 had skiers going nuts when it dropped back in October. Click here for the full post.

5.

Sean Pettit really came out swinging with this full part back in early 2016. In usual Pettit fashion, he launches off everything in sight and it’s all captured with excellence by the Superproof crew. Click here for the full post.

6.

The Sildarus are becoming more and more talked about in the ski sphere and this season edit shows exactly why. They’re still just kids, but their skiing prowess is seemingly limitless—landing them both on the Faction team this past summer. Click here for the full post.

7.

Viral video specialist Léo Taillefer blew everyone away with this night-skiing POV offering. It shows the Frenchman slithering through Val-d’Isère at night—skiing harder than most people do with the aid of daylight. Click here for the full post.

8.

When you set the world record for the highest air on a hip—a whopping 14.2 meters—you’re bound to make it into this top 10. David Wise did just that with his terrifyingly-big stunt in South Tyrol, Italy. Click here for the full post.

9.

Making his second appearance in this top 10, Léo Taillefer went ham yet again with another POV video from Val-d’Isère, France. This one takes place during the day and shows Taillefer going stupid-big off natural features. Click here for the full post.

10.

Rounding out the top 10 is big-mountain shredder Todd Ligare. The man earned his way into this round up, for sure, with a monster line (and a ridiculously scary approach) that’ll likely give you goosebumps. Click here for the full post.

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That’s it for 2016, folks—thanks for watching. Now, get off the internet and go light up the new year already.

The post The top 10 ski videos of 2016 appeared first on Freeskier Magazine.

Five years ago this week, I started this blog, hoping a few people might read it and get something out…

The post Celebrating 5 Years Of Semi-Rad: 25 Favorite Quotes appeared first on semi-rad.com.

Glassdoor took the wraps off their new Job Explorer today, a webapp that lets you search for jobs that your skills qualify you for that you may be overlooking. The tool also features a map that shows where you can find work with your skills, anywhere in the country, based on specific openings available right now.

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Even by Chicago standards the weather here in the midwestern U.S. has been bizarre and extreme lately. We’ve seen giant walls of fog caused in part by a bitterly cold winter that chilled Lake Michigan, and numerous lightning storms that last for hours. Local videographer Craig Shimala was filming a timelapse of a derecho from his home this week when he managed to capture a triple lightning strike on three of Chicago’s tallest buildings: Willis Tower, Trump Tower and the John Hancock Building. Even more incredibly, he filmed the same occurence almost four years ago to the day back in 2010.

To see more examples of our wild weather, check out recent photos by Nick Uliveri and Pete Tsai.

My family and I have been playing more games lately, and one of our favories is Zombie Dice, a "press your luck" game in which you play a zombie who wants to eat as many human brains as possible without getting shot in the head. We also have the expansion pack, called Zombie Dice 2 Double Feature, which adds good complexity to the game.

You can add any one, any two, or all three dice to the game. The hunk dice adds greater risk and reward possibilities with the addition of a double-brain face and a double-shotgun blast face. The hottie evades capture more easily. Santa has three gifts: a double brain, an energy drink, and a football helmet that allows you to survive an extra shotgun blast to the head. These dice are a great addition to the game - we always include them whenever we play.

If you want to feel transported to a truly alien world, take some time out your day to watch OMEGA. It follows the sole predator on a devastated world populated entirely by mechanical creatures.

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Hitchcock’s “The Peeps”

You need to invest your money wisely in order to really grow it, but unfortunately not many people know about the basics of investing, much less the stock market. Wall Street Survivor wants to turn that around, with free courses and games to demystify personal finance—especially investing—for everyone.

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After watching this video of Johan Jonsson shredding the bejeezus out of crap snow in Engelberg, Switzerland, in December, you will never ever complain about conditions again. Jonsson brings the heat to super sketchy snow, rails through, over, and around reefs, and absolutely hangs it out in terrain where you do not want to fall. It's one of the most impressive displays of skiing you'll ever see, guaranteed.

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Every writer suspects that their prose would be that much better if they only had a studio retreat, where they could close off the world and let their great words of destiny flow unhindered by distraction or the prosaic surroundings of a hollow-core door or Ikea bookshelf. And perhaps canoeists imagine that their paddling and navigation and general canoery would be that much better if they only had the right boathouse. Well, on Westport Island, Maine, architects Cheng + Snyder spun these fantasies into a sturdy, simple, but flawless reality. The Writer's Block 1, located at the mouth of the Sheepscott River, is a clever 190 square feet, with a hidden canoe vault whose top serves as a workspace and bed. The interior ribs double as shelves for books and other writerly detritus. A corner swings out, clamshell-style, to reveal the hidden entrance. And it's mostly just two by eights and plywood. From such simple materials, great writing and canoeing can no doubt spring.

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Weekend Cabin isn’t necessarily about the weekend, or cabins. It’s about the longing for a sense of place, for shelter set in a landscape…for something that speaks to refuge and distance from the everyday. Nostalgic and wistful, it’s about how people create structure in ways to consider the earth and sky and their place in them. It’s not concerned with ownership or real estate, but what people build to fulfill their dreams of escape. The very time-shortened notion of “weekend” reminds that it’s a temporary respite. To see more weekend cabins, visit the Weekend Cabin channel page.

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Travel + Leisure named Lesotho’s Matekane Air Strip one of the world’s scariest runways. The tarmac is only 1,312 feet long, and it ends abruptly at the edge of a couloir at 7,550 feet.

If you run out of runway before getting airborne, explained bush pilot Tom Claytor, “you shoot off the end of the airstrip, then drop down the 2,000-foot cliff face until you start flying. … It’s a little bit hard to do the first time.”

So, as it turns out, the surf industry isn't completely insensitive to the gratuitous use of sex and women's bodies. There is in fact a line that can be crossed. It's surprising, really, given that this is a multi-billion dollar industry built on a foundation mostly comprised of wispy triangles of fabric, tan teenage skin, and sun-bleached blonde locks, that continues to patronize its female professionals by calling them girls, but hey, good for surfing. The controversy centers around a promotional video for the Roxy Pro 2013 kicking off this week in Biarritz, France, which features a young woman topless in bed. It follows her through her morning constitutionals — blatant sponsor placement as checking out her HTC One multiple times, putting on a gauzy white shirt, and showering before paddling out for her heat. You never see her face, and the vid is accompanied by the #WhoAmIJustGuess hashtag. Mostly, you just see the woman's bottom (the fact that the industry is debating whether it's five-time world champ Steph Gilmore or Roseanne Hodge suggests just how interchangeable the slender blonde pro archetype has become) in panties or bikini bottoms. You'd think that the industry might be cheering because there's a video starring a bum belonging to a professional female surfer other than Alana Blanchard, but no. Instead, the woman in question has been compared to a callgirl. Surfer lamented that video had nothing to do with surfing. A columnist at The Inertia ranted for nearly a thousand words: "Whatever this crap is, it aint about sport, and it definitely aint about women. It’s lazy, exploitative marketing, and it’s not the best step forward for women’s surfing." Yeah, well, I don't know about that. How this video is any more exploitive than the materials Nike 6.0 has produced with its sponsored female surfing athletes is debatable. It's very much about women — women and beauty. And a languid morning in a luxury hotel. And sexiness and attractiveness and aspiration. Personally, I'd love to have a nice weekend in that room with my wife, ordering room service coffee, having a leisurely morning, and then walking out onto the sand for a session before the wind comes up. What I think makes surfers so uncomfortable is that the contest organizers haven't made the slightest effort to connect this directly to the sport. They haven't thrown a single bone to the core. Yes, the repetitive closeups of her bottom are exploitive and lazy. But what sparked this outcry was not the loving caress of the camera over a nearly nude young woman — you'll find that in almost every video featuring professional female surfers. No, the real outrage was that there was no surfing in it. If the heroine in this Roxy promo had ended her time on screen by dropping into a head-high Biarritz peeler, nobody would have said boo. Surfers like to think that surfing is a higher calling, that as a sport or way of living it's superior to all other sports and ways of living, and as long as there's a modicum of wave riding involved they'll accept all manner of t and a. Strip away the actual surfing, though, and it suggests, god forbid, that it might just be another lifestyle element. It makes you wonder which is the gratuitous inclusion and which isn't. Surfing should be congratulated for at least beginning to address the issue — which, given the fact that its top female participants are young, fit, and wearing little, isn't going away. But it might also learn that red-cheeked tantrums don't change minds. As political and social satirists from SNL to The Daily Show have long known, the most effective way to skewer hypocrisy is often through humor and the pointy barbs of mockery, like this sendup of the Roxy video below. (Caution to those at work and with sensitive eyes, it's a bit crude.)

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