World Extreme Skiing Championship

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The World Extreme Skiing Championships (WESC) was an extreme skiing competition held from 1991 to 2000 in Valdez, Alaska. It was brought back for one year in 2011 but was discontinued for lack of athlete interest. [1] Co-founder Karen Davey Stewart died in September 2015. [2]

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Extreme sport Class of sport

Action sports, adventure sports or extreme sports are activities perceived as involving a high degree of risk. These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly specialized gear.

Dry ski slope Sport discipline

A dry ski slope or artificial ski slope is a ski slope that mimics the attributes of snow using materials that are stable at room temperature, to enable people to ski, snowboard or snow tube in places where natural, snow-covered slopes are inconvenient or unavailable.

Ski lift Transport device that carries skiers up a hill

A ski lift is a mechanism for transporting skiers up a hill. Ski lifts are typically a paid service at ski resorts. The first ski lift was built in 1908 by German Robert Winterhalder in Schollach/Eisenbach, Hochschwarzwald.

Extreme skiing

Extreme skiing is performed on long, steep slopes in mountainous terrain. The French coined the term 'Le Ski Extreme' in the 1970s. The first practitioners include Swiss skier Sylvain Saudan, who invented the "windshield wiper" turn in the mid-1960s, and in 1967 made the first descents of slopes in the Swiss, French and Italian Alps that were previously considered impossible. Saudan's 'first descent' in America was at Mt. Hood March 3, 1971. Early American practitioners include Bill Briggs, who descended Grand Teton on June 15, 1971. The Frenchmen Patrick Vallençant, Jean-Marc Boivin and Anselme Baud and the Italians Stefano De Benedetti and Toni Valeruz were among those who further developed the art and brought notoriety to the sport in the 1970s and 1980s.

Courchevel Ski resort in France

Courchevel is a French Alps ski resort. It is a part of Les Trois Vallées, the largest linked ski areas in the world. Courchevel also refers to the towns of Courchevel 1300, Courchevel 1550, Courchevel 1650 (Moriond), and Courchevel 1850, which are named for their altitudes in metres. On 1 January 2017, Saint-Bon-Tarentaise (1100) merged into the new commune Courchevel. The resort centre of Courchevel is at 1,747 metres. The name Courchevel 1850 was chosen for marketing reasons to compete with rival ski resort Val d'Isère. It is the Jardin Alpin area of Courchevel 1850 rather than the centre which is located at 1,850 metres.

Râșnov Town in Brașov, Romania

Râșnov is a town in Brașov County, Transylvania, Romania with a population of 15,022.

Mount Olympus (Cyprus) Highest mountain in Cyprus

Olympus, or Chionistra, at 1,952 metres (6,404 ft), is the highest point in Cyprus. It is located in the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus. Mount Olympus peak and the "Troodos Square" fall under the territory of Platres in Limassol District. A British long range radar currently operates at Mount Olympus' peak.

Superpipe

A superpipe is a large halfpipe structure used in extreme sports such as snowboarding, freestyle skiing, skateboarding, scooters, freestyle BMX and vert skating.

Andreas Goldberger Austrian ski jumper

Andreas "Andi" Goldberger is an Austrian former ski jumper. He became the first man in history to jump over 200 metres in 1994, although he didn't manage to stand.

Nordica is an Italian manufacturing company of winter sports products, focusing on skiing. Based in Giavera del Montello, Nordica is currently a division of Tecnica Group, after this corporation acquired it from Benetton in 2003.

Scot Schmidt is a professional extreme skier. His on-snow talent has helped shape today’s ski industry, and has inspired many skiers. Scot started skiing professionally in 1983 in Squaw Valley. As of 2021, Scot currently resides in Big Sky, Montana.

Patrick Vallençant was a French alpinist/skier and pioneer in ski mountaineering.

The Bec des Rosses is a mountain of the Pennine Alps, overlooking Verbier in the Swiss canton of Valais. It is connected to Verbier and the 4 Vallees ski area.

Courchevel Altiport

Courchevel Altiport is an altiport serving Courchevel, a ski resort in the French Alps. The airfield has a very short runway of only 537 metres (1,762 ft) with a gradient of 18.6%. There is no go-around procedure for landings at Courchevel due to the surrounding mountainous terrain. The airfield primarily sees use by smaller fixed-wing aircraft such as the Cessna 208 Caravan, as well as helicopters. The runway has no instrument approach procedure or lighting aids, making landing in fog or low clouds unsafe and almost impossible.

Rosa Khutor Extreme Park

The Rosa Khutor Extreme Park under license from The Extreme Sports Company and part of the Extreme Hotel, Sochi development, is a skiing venue located west of the Rosa Khutor plateau in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. During the 2014 Winter Olympics in neighboring Sochi, it hosted the freestyle skiing events and the snowboarding events.

Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort

The Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort is an alpine ski resort in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located at the Aibga Ridge of the Western Caucasus along the Roza Khutor plateau near Krasnaya Polyana. Constructed from 2003 to 2011, it hosted the alpine skiing events for the 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, based in nearby Sochi. The resort is 50 kilometers (30 mi) east of the Black Sea at Sochi; the majority of the slopes at Rosa Khutor face northeast, with the backside slopes facing southwest.

Kevin Rolland French freestyle skier

Kevin Rolland is a French freestyle skier. He won the gold medal at the 2009 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships in the halfpipe. He lost his title in 2011 to the Canadian Mike Riddle but still finished on the podium at the second place.

Big air

Big air is a high-injury-risk sports discipline where the competitor rides a vehicle, such as a motocross motorcycle, a skateboard, a snowboard, or a pair of skis, down a hill or ramp and performs aerial tricks after launching off very large jumps. In most versions, there is one large jump and therefore only one opportunity to perform a trick. It is an extreme version of slopestyle. Competitors perform complex tricks in the air, aiming to attain sizable height and distance as well, all while making every effort to secure a clean landing. Many competitions also require the rider to do a specific trick to win the major prize.

Tove Alexandersson

Tove Alexandersson is a Swedish orienteer, ski orienteer, skyrunner and ski mountaineer. She has won a total of 15 gold medals at the World Orienteering Championships and 10 gold medals at the World Ski Orienteering Championships. In 2018, she won the Sky Marathon event at the Skyrunning World Championships, in her second skyrunning race ever. In 2021, she won the combined discipline at the World Championships of Ski Mountaineering. She competes for Stora Tuna OK in orienteering and Alfta-Ösa OK in ski orienteering.

Half-pipe skiing Sport of riding snow skis on a half-pipe

Half-pipe skiing is the sport of riding snow skis on a half-pipe. Competitors perform a series of tricks while going down the pipe. The current world record for highest jump in a half-pipe is held by Joffrey Pollet-Villard, with 26 feet 3 inches. The sport is considered to be dangerous compared to other sports, and helmets are required to be worn during competitions. Half-pipe skiing has been part of the Winter X Games since 2002, and made its Olympic debut at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. David Wise of the United States of America became the first Olympic champion in this discipline with a total of 92.00 points.

References

  1. World Extreme Skiing Champs returns, ESPN.com
  2. "Associated Press News".