Simon Dumont Returns to Sunday River Resort for 4th Annual Dumont Cup
-Association of Freeskiing Professionals elevates Dumont’s slopestyle event to platinum status
-Event to be featured on NBC on April 10, 2012 as part of the Red Bull Signature Series
Newry, Maine (February 8, 2012)— Sunday River Resort and 8-time X Games Medalist and World Record Holder Simon Dumont will once again team up for the 4th Annual Dumont Cup scheduled for March 23-24, 2012 in the resort’s Rocking Chair Terrain Park on a slopestyle course designed by Dumont himself.

The Dumont Cup has quickly gained a reputation for being one of the World’s most prestigious slopestyle contests. It will be featured in the nationally televised Red Bull Signature Series on the NBC Sports Network on April 10, 2012 from 12:30-1:30AM EST as well as internationally through Dumont Cup event sponsor, Red Bull. http://www.redbullsignatureseries.com

This year, the Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP) officially recognized the Dumont Cup’s importance by elevating it from a gold status event to a platinum status event. This is the AFP’s first strictly slopestyle contest to receive such a promotion and will allow amateur and professional freeskiers the ability to compete at the highest level possible.
Created to highlight New England’s best skiers, the Dumont Cup has drawn competitors from as far away as Europe and all throughout Canada. In the last two years alone, former amateurs Alex Schlopy and Nick Goepper took home the coveted Dumont Cup using it as a launching pad for their current high profile professional careers.

Past professional freeskiers who have competed in the Dumont Cup alongside Simon Dumont include: Tom Wallisch, Gus Kenworthy, Peter Olenick, and Jossi Wells.
“The Dumont Cup has exceeded all of my expectations,” says Dumont. “It’s incredible that in the last four years this went from a contest we started to help skiers from New England get noticed to becoming the first slopestyle contest to get elevated to platinum by the AFP. I’m honored that the ski community would embrace this event so much.”

$20,000 in cash and prizes are up for grabs for first, second, and third place finishers. Amateur skiers will also have the opportunity to score some great prizes from Dumont Cup sponsors.
Qualifiers will be held in two sessions on Friday, March 23 from 10A.M. until 4:30P.M. The top 40 amateurs will advance to the semi-finals on Saturday, March 24.

During the semi-finals and finals, professional and amateur skiers compete side-by-side. Judges determine the top three overall winners as well as a stand-out amateur from the two-day competition.

Registration is now open to competitors. The price is $125 and includes a lift ticket. Space is limited.

For additional information on the 4th Annual Dumont Cup, please see www.dumontcup.com or www.sundayriver.com. Please note that the event schedule is subject to change.
Official sponsors of Simon Dumont and the Dumont Cup are: Red Bull, Target, Oakley, Nike 6.0, Sunday River, HEAD, Toyota, Giro, Rockwell, Seshn, Empire Attire, and Kicker.

About Sunday River – A true four-season destination, Sunday River offers eight interconnected peaks of world-class skiing and snowboarding, two Grand Resort Hotels and golf at the highly acclaimed Sunday River Golf Club. Sunday River is a member of the Boyne USA Resorts family of resorts and attractions and is located in Newry, Maine amidst the scenic Mahoosuc Range.

About Aura360 – Aura360 specializes in animating client brands through innovative event and media properties and related marketing ventures. Aura360’s services are structured into three operating units; Ownership & Ventures, Client Property Development & Management, and Productions. Allied business 360 Productions provides global video production services. Properties of Aura360 include NBC World of Adventure Sports®, The Men’s Health Urbanathlon, The Baja Unlimited®, SCORE Baja 1000, Freestyle Grappling Open®, and The Dumont Cup. For more information please visit www.aura360.com

In our backyard of Colorado, there have already been 6 deaths in the backcountry this season. Washington suffered another tragedy on Snoqualmie Pass when an avalanche pushed a snowboarder off a cliff.  We also lost ski icon, Jaime Pierre, to an early season avalanche in Utah.  Empire Attire cannot stress the importance of safety in the backcountry enough. We remind you to never go out-of-bounds without a beacon, probe and shovel, always ski with a buddy, and please try and take an avalanche safety course.

The North Face has done an excellent job in teaching avalanche safety in their
“Know Boundaries” webisodes. The top big mountain skiers explain what to you need to know when facing the backcountry. Check these videos out and spread this knowledge to others.

Jackson, WY – Feb 15 – 17, 2012 – Professional snow sport athletes and climate change educators are visiting high schools in the Jackson area to educate students about the science behind climate change and its impact on winters sports.

The Hot Planet/Cool Athletes program pairs professional skiers and snowboarders from Protect Our Winters (POW), the environmental hub of the winter sports community, with educators from Alliance for Climate Education (ACE), the national leader in high school climate education, to deliver an award-winning multimedia assembly on climate science and solutions. The assembly features specific local consequences of climate change related to lower snow levels and impacts on mountain communities, and provides inspiration from professional athletes who deliver a message to take action to stop climate change.

InterConnections 21 (IC 21), a Wilson based non-profit, has partnered with POW and ACE to connect the organizations with the Teton County School District and create on-the-ground partnerships that will facilitate student action after the Hot Planet/Cool Athletes program. Lower Valley Energy, the JH Energy Sustainability Project, and Yellowstone-Teton Clean Energy Coalition are working with the Alliance Against Climate Change (a student run group at JHHS) and InterConnections 21 to create programs that will actively engage interested students and their parents in energy conservation programs.

The Jackson Hole Hot Planet/Cool Athletes school assemblies will feature professional skiers and snowboarders Kit Deslauriers, Matt Philippi and Seth Hill discussing the impacts of climate change on snow sports and mountain communities. Through their work, these athletes bring the unique perspective of experiencing the effects of climate change in mountain communities around the world.

Hot Planet/Cool Athletes assemblies have taken place at high schools nationwide, reaching thousands of students in states with snow-driven economies such as Colorado, Utah, California, Vermont, Massachusetts and Nevada. With help from influential snow sport athletes, and partners such as The North Face and Teton Gravity Research, the assemblies have inspired students to lead environmental action teams that implement climate-related projects in their schools and communities.

Bountiful snowfall and mountainous terrain draw millions of skiers and snowboarders to Wyoming each year. But Wyoming stands to lose if global greenhouse gasses continue at the current rate. With snow sports contributing almost $1 billion in annual revenue, a shortened ski season could greatly affect the state’s economy.

Hot Planet/Cool Athlete Event Details:
• Jackson Hole High School on Wednesday, Feb. 15 from 11:35 to 1:05 pm Seth Hill
• Jackson Hole Middle School on Thursday, Feb. 16 from 1:30 to 2:30 Kit Deslauriers
• Jackson Hole Community School on Friday, Feb. 17 from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm Matt Philippi
• Teton High School on Friday, Feb. 17 from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm Matt Philippi

Uns Hallo!!!! Was machen sie? Haben sie eine wunsch?
Wilst du auch ein bier?

Excellent! Cause I’ll have one too. And I maybe ought to after a weekend such as this.

The Winter X Games once again has invaded Aspen and packed it with action sports enthusiasts of all kinds. T’was a righteous time lemme tell you what. My positions was (surprise surprise) live announcer for men and women’s freeski events. And from my position on high, I spat commentary on several events and here’s what I found:

Justin Dorey might have won pipe had he landed that last double, but what would that have led David Wise to do? Word has it that if pressure had been applied, David may have brought additional explosives to his run.

I don’t know about you, but I was mega touched by Sarah’s tribute. For me it’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that she’s gone, but everything that X did this weekend for her memory and family helped a grieving community.

Schmedium air was pretty good, the boys rocked it even though the jump was nowhere near what it was last year.

Men’s slope… Oh nice to have Mr. Wallnuts back in the house.

Women’s slope… The girls really stepped it up this year, it was by far the best I’ve seen them all ski… ever. Outstanding performances go to Ashley, Anna, Devon, and of course Kaya.

Women’s pipe was also a solid event. Big ups to Megan Gunning for going for back-to-back 9s, Brita for the 1080, and Roz G for the W.

Well this is just what I saw. For weekly wraps on all major events checkout “Inside Alli Sports” and I’ll let you know verbally.

Empire or die.

Play on players.

Sarah Burke Tribute.

The three big events for Empire Attire athletes are slopestyle, big air and halfpipe. Slopestyle kicked it all off on Thursday night. The competition was nuts with Tom Wallisch in 1^st, Nick Goepper in 2^nd and Andreas Håtveit in 3^rd.  Wallisch managed to save it all to his last run where he scored a 96.00, the highest score in Men’s Ski Slopestyle history. Although none of our contracted athletes were in the finals, Andreas Håtveit skied in the Team Pipe Glove and PK Hunder wore the Winter Glove.

Tom Wallisch 1st, Nick Goepper 2nd, Andreas Håtveit 3rd

Men’s superpipe was also a site to be seen.  We saw a number of switch doubles that have been feared in the pipe in the past.  The local, Torin Yater-Wallace, took home the bronze with great amplitude and a solid run.  Noah Bowman grabbed the silver throwing the incredibly unique switch double 9. Bowman was originally on the alternate list and got into X Games only hours before the semi-finals. David Wise was able to take home the gold with a combination of big airs and technical tricks, including a switch dub 10 to kick things off.  Dumont skied quite well and finished in a respectable 6^th place.

David Wise 1st, Noah Bowman 2nd, Torin Yater-Wallace 3rd

The most anticipated event of the weekend was X Games Big Air.  Everyone wanted to see a triple flip out of one of the top trick skiers in the world.  However, the jump did not seem to have enough pop so the athletes decided to play it safe.  This did not stop the young talents from pleasing the crowd with breathtaking tricks.  Henrik Harlaut was throwing insane double flatspin 12’s and bio 12’s, but was unable to land them the way he wanted. Bobby Brown was hungry for 1^st after his 7^th place finish in slopestyle. He threw a switch double D-spin 1260 and a switch double D-spin 1440 for the win. The young Kai Mahler got 2^nd, and our own, Jossi Wells, received 3^rd with a switch dub 10 and a switch dub 1440.

Big Air

Next week the crew heads to Snowbasin for final stop of the Winter Dew Tour. Be sure to wish them luck.

Words by Brian Schroy

Sarah Burke was the most positive, outgoing, strong and intelligent woman I ever had the pleasure of knowing.  I first met Sarah in an elevator in Aspen, CO, and was completely starstruck.  The girl that I had grown up watching in the videos was right in front of me.  I immediately named dropped as many mutual friends as I could in order to look cool, and not like some crazy fan.  She looked at me, laughed, and accepted me as a new friend.

I was thrilled when I found out that I would be working with Sarah as her Team Manager at Empire Attire.  I would call and email back and forth with her every week or two to seek help with glove designs, get an interview for a blog article or just check in with her.  She would always respond as soon as possible and blow my mind with the amount of time and thought she would put into her work. Occasionally she would take awhile to write back, and I would find out that she was traveling the world to the most spectacular places.  She was a doer and truly lived life to the fullest.

I remember the first time I contacted Sarah, I got her voicemail and ended my message with “have the best Wednesday ever”.  She really enjoyed my sign off. From that day on every time I spoke to her she would end our conversation with “have the best day ever,” and I would.  Sarah had that ability.  Just the shortest conversations had the power to make you feel better, stronger and more confident than before.

I will forever cherish the times I spent with Sarah and she will always motivate me to do my best.  The impact that she had on the sport will forever be remembered.  I believe that Sarah is off in a better place, looking down on us, having “the best day ever”.

For Immediate Release

January 13, 2012

Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke remains at the University of Utah Hospital in critical condition. She is under close monitoring by a multidisciplinary team coordinated by neurointensivist Safdar Ansari, M.D.

“Sarah remains in critical condition in the Neuro Critical Care Unit”, said Ansari. “With traumatic brain injury, our care is focused on addressing the primary injury and preventing secondary brain damage, as well as managing other injuries sustained at the time of the accident; all of which requires close monitoring and intensive care. At this moment, Sarah needs more time before any prognosis can be determined.”

More information about traumatic brain injury can be found from the following resources:
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health:http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/tbi/tbi.htm
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/

Friends and fans may continue to post their well wishes on Sarah’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarah-Burke/50553451173.

A press conference will be held on Monday, January 16, 2012 at the University of Utah Clinical Neurosciences Center. Details including time will be available on Sunday January 15. Further media requests regarding Sarah should be directed to me at 323-933-4646 or nicole@thedossierpr.com

Photo Credit: Shay Williams

OFFICIAL RELEASE
January 12, 2012

Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke remains in critical condition at the University of Utah Hospital after sustaining serious injuries during a training run at Park City Mountain Resort on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Burke underwent a successful operation to repair a tear to her vertebral artery which resulted in an intracranial hemorrhage at the time of her fall. William T. Couldwell, M.D. Ph.D., professor and chair of Neurosurgery at University of Utah performed the operation to repair the artery.

“With injuries of this type, we need to observe the course of her brain function before making definitive pronouncements about Sarah’s prognosis for recovery,” said Couldwell. “Our Neuro Critical Care team will be monitoring her condition and response continuously over the coming hours and days.”

Sarah’s family is grateful for the overwhelming outpouring of support from around the globe. Fans may continue to use Sarah’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarah-Burke to express their wishes and receive updates.

The family also requests media and the public respect their privacy in order to give them time with Sarah at this critical stage. Media requests regarding Sarah should be directed to her publicist Nicole Wool at 323-933-4646 or nicole@thedossierpr.com

PRESS RELEASE, SAINTE-ADÈLE, QUEBEC | JANUARY 11, 2011 – Canadian National Halfpipe Team member Sarah Burke was injured in a halfpipe training incident in Park City, UT yesterday.
Sarah is currently listed in critical condition in the hospital’s Neuro Critical Care Unit.
“Sarah sustained serious injuries and remains intubated and sedated in critical condition,” said Safdar Ansari, M.D., a neurointensivist with University of Utah Health Care.

Sarah’s husband Rory Bushfield and her family are by her bedside and wish to express their sincere thanks to everyone, all over the world, for their heartfelt thoughts, prayers, and well wishes. “Sarah is a very strong young woman and she will most certainly fight to recover,” said Bushfield.

Sarah’s family has asked that fans and media respect their privacy during this difficult time. Sarah’s friends and fans are encouraged to post their well wishes on Sarah’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarah-Burke.
The 28-year-old from Squamish, B.C. fell during a training session at a personal sponsor event. She was airlifted to a hospital in Salt Lake City.
“This is an extremely unfortunate situation and we are awaiting further word on Sarah’s condition,” said Canadian Freestyle CEO Peter Judge.
“Sarah is the top female halfpipe athlete in the world she was instrumental in launching the sport and has continued to be a leader moving towards the sport’s Olympic debut in 2014. She is an incredibly resilient and strong young woman and we are hoping she will draw on that strength at this time. Our thoughts are with her and her family at this time.”

The AFP is thrilled to announce that the Dumont Cup has changed from a Gold level event to Platinum status. This is the first Platinum level event to strictly feature slopestyle. The competition will be held at Simon Dumont’s home mountain, Sunday River, on March 22-25.  Granting the East such a significant event will provide athletes with an equal opportunity to compete at the highest level.

“Every year the Dumont Cup gets bigger and the course gets better,” said Simon Dumont. “Sunday River has helped to make all of this a reality and we are only going to grow from the contest’s platinum rating.  Hopefully, over time we can add new disciplines such as halfpipe and a nighttime big air.”

“The Dumont Cup has grown into something bigger than any of us could have imagined,” said Michael Spencer, AFP Vice President. “The fact that kids from the East are able to attend a contest of the highest level and compete against the best pros in the world, without needing an invitation, is an experience unlike any other.”

The Dumont Cup offers a unique Am/Pro jam format where amateurs split the roster of the finals with prequalified professionals.  Over the last two years, former amateurs Alex Schlopy and Nick Goepper took home the cup and launched their professional careers as a result. The Platinum level slopestyle will provide even greater exposure to East Coast up-and-comers.