ADVENTURE SPORTS BY WINA STURGEON 11/06/07
WORLD CUP CANCELED---AGAINThe world's best ski racers are in Europe, ready to race. But for the second year in a row, events are being canceled due to lack of snow.
The second World Cup of the season, a slalom in Levi, Finland; was shut down after warm weather prevented snowmaking, and no cold spell was in the forecast. While the International Ski Federation (FIS) is trying to patch together a schedule in Austria, the season opener in that country's Solden resort was great for the U. S. Ted Ligety was second, so was Julia Mancuso, and Bode Miller was fifth.
PARALYZED RACER'S LAWSUIT TOSSED
James Berry, 32, is now a quadriplegic. He was 26 when he entered the 'King of the Wasatch' skiercross race at Park City Mountain Resort in Utah. In the first three heats of this "carnage on skis" event, Berry looked like the guy to beat. But in the fourth heat, he crashed and broke his neck.
Berry sued PCMR for "gross negligence," among other claims, and blaming the way the course was built for his crash. Most of Berry's lawsuit was tossed because he had signed a liability release and voluntarily chose to race. However, the judge ruled that he can still sue the resort over the layout of the course, though the skier-X course was built by expert and well known skiercross designers.
Still, had Berry's signed liability release been overturned, it could have given resorts all over the U. S., second thoughts about holding any kind of comp.
OUTDOOR RETAILER THE ONLY SHOW IN TOWN
One of the most famous ski/snowboard industry shows is the annual SnowSports Industries of America (SIA) in Las Vegas; which was around long before the winter Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake.
It finally occurred to the SIA organizers that the hot Las Vegas desert was maybe not such a great place to attract manufacturers and retailers of goods for snow sports. They decided to move to a more mountainous area---but it won't be Utah.
The Outdoor Retailer honchos were smart enough to make Salt Lake sign a contract preventing any similar trade show from appearing in the city within 30 days of its trade show. The winter OR and SIA shows are just days apart. They are fierce competitors.
Now the SIA event will duke it out with Salt Lake from its new home, which will be Denver, Co.
TRAILS SITE MAKES SUSPICIOUS DEMANDS
Adventure Sports Weekly is always looking for good web sites with good information to recommend to readers. One site, called "Trails.com," looked interesting. It claimed to have details on hundreds of thousands of mountain bike and hiking trails in every state in America. Though it's a pay subscription site, it offered a "14-day free trial---no risk of committment."
We wanted the free trial, so we tried to sign up. We didn't mind giving out personal info like our name, city, state and email. We got hesitant when the "free trial" asked for our address. But when the site also asked for a credit card number, we clicked off. The information being asked for by this unknown company would give them everything necessary for identity theft. The site did not respond to an email about their request for such personal information.
The Trails site may be operated by the most honest people in the world, but caution is still advised. Web scammers are making billions---yes, billions---from too-trusting consumers. Never give out ANY personally identifying information over the web; including your address or phone number, and certainly not your credit card number, no matter how plausible the request for such information may seem.