Archive for August, 2011
Being stranded at a Vermont ski resort in the middle of summer probably sucks
Aug 30th
Killington Ski Resort has it’s fair share of summer activities, including mountain biking and golf, but white water rafting was never one of them. Until Sunday.
The Vermont ski resort was thrashed by Tropical Storm Irene and it’s heavy rains and winds that inundated the streams that run through the property. The base lodge suffered a partial collapse when it was dislodged from it’s foundation as Roaring Brook (Seriously its name) overflowed from the excessive rains. Roads were also washed out, stranding 300 guest in various hotels and condominiums throughout the resort.
Officials at Killington have been assessing all of the damage and are gradually getting guests evacuated. Luckily initial reports have said that all of the lifts sustained minimal damage and that the golf course could reopen by this coming weekend.
I’m sure the guests are having one hell of a time hanging out inside and playing board games. Hopefully all the beer was saved from the collapse, because that would make things easier (UPDATE: ZACHISGOD iReporter Eric Benson found this quote from one of the guests, “We have plenty of beer, but we’re running out of bread and water on the mountain”.).
Wonder if the lodge will be ready for ski season?
Articles HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Rutland Herald
Hurricane Irene is going to Blow!
Aug 26th
Oh boy, here we go.
Only a few days after surviving the biggest Earthquake to hit the East Coast in over 50 years, now we have to brace ourselves for the biggest hurricane in 50 years!! (2012 is definitely going to happen.)
Hurricane Irene is getting ready to slam into North Carolina’s Outer Banks tonight and then head up to the Tri-State area to give us another punch in the balls. Forecasters are saying we could see up to a foot of rain in a 48 hour period and winds gusting up to 85mph.
That is going to suck.
I have a friend who lives in Hoboken, NJ coming to stay at my place for the weekend because officials are telling residents that the whole town will be under water come Monday morning.
I’m just hoping the one old tree in front of our house doesn’t decide that Irene is the storm that will claim it’s life.
I love how dramatic the Weather Channel is, just check out this one sentence, “Hurricane Irene poses an extraordinary threat and is one that no one has yet experienced from North Carolina to the Mid-Atlantic to the Northeast to New England.” I mean that is just fantastically scary writing right there.
We’ll see what really happens. I’ll try to take some pictures of my area. And don’t worry I have plenty of beer and potato chips.
Some good articles. HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Get out of the way!!!
X-TREME!!!!!
Lost Sports of XGames – Street Luge
Aug 4th
XGames kind of sucked this year. So it got me thinking.
What ever happened to the fantastic XGames sport of Street Luge?
It had speed, passes, and crashes. Isn’t that what every American loves? So why did it disappear, and where is it now?
The last time the XGames hosted street luge was in 2001 and it has since been almost forgotten in the world of action sports.
I used to love watching those crazy guys in motorcycle leathers race down the hills of San Francisco at 60 mph, bumping each other out of the way for position, wheels screeching in every turn. It was my second favorite event, right after BMX Dirt, which is sadly also gone.
ESPN has somehow figured out how to destroy the XGames. The ratings have continued to drop year after year, and the only time you ever hear about the events is when someone gets seriously hurt (cough, cough, Pastrana, cough).
So why don’t the big wigs in Bristol start thinking about bringing back some of the old sports, like Street Luge and Skateboard Vert Doubles (That shit was crazy)? It’s not like it could hurt the ratings. I guess it’s just too expensive to have a lot of events in different locations. Boooo to that sir.
Well if you are still interested in watching Street Luge it is alive and kicking on YouTube. Highlights from the most recent events can be found there and according to the always correct Wikipedia, Street Luge has over 1200 participants world wide and is still growing.
It’s a shame that Street Luge and the other now defunct events from XGames will never return, but they still live in our memories and on YouTube. And at least we can still hold out hope that ESPN will bring the XGames back to the East Coast before they just shut the whole thing down. Fingers crossed.
Check out these great videos of Street Luge, past and present.