Before you shuffle of this mortal coil, you need to live a little. Allow us to present 13 additions for your bucket list
1. Bask in the midnight sun
Above the Arctic Circle, you can enjoy the piste and off piste alike, and even heliski, under the midnight sun. The out-of-hours rays last the longest around the summer solstice in June, so once dinner’s over in the pre-twilight gloaming, neglect your bed and hit the lifts for the night. Top spot to get value from every 24 hours is the ski area of Riksgränsen that straddles the Swedish-Norwegian and boasts six lifts, 15 runs and a lot of off piste. Midnight sun heliskiing is available here from mid May to mid June. There are two hotels, both built in … More
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“Rice is going to get smashed.” Those were the fighting words of pro surfer Jamie O’Brien when asked to predict the outcome of Red Bull Battle in the Bay, a best-out-of-3 sailing race series and skipper duel against pro snowboarder Travis Rice. Each was provided a $1 million ORACLE TEAM USA (OTUSA) 45-foot catamaran, complete with names affixed onto the sails.
To ensure teams were evenly matched, each athlete drafted sailors from ORACLE TEAM USA to round out their squads. O’Brien selected OTUSA skipper Jimmy Spithill with the #1 pick of the draft, and grinder Shannon Falcone went to Rice with the 2nd pick. In advance of racing, they both spent two days training with OTUSA to learn about the bay’s wind and current conditions, and went through a day-in-the-life workout session with the defending America’s Cup champions.
In this waterman vs. mountain man showdown, O’Brien upset Rice in the first race, leveraging a favorable current in the bay to push him to victory. In Race 2, Rice stepped up his game and made a course correction on strategy to take his first win. It all came down to Race 3 where Rice continued to get into a groove with his teammates, making strong tactical decisions to seal the win.
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As the chairlifts at Kirkwood Mountain Resort came to a halt this past spring, the Snow Park Technologies (SPT) snowcats were powering up. For twenty days, an SPT crew of seven professional designers, shapers and builders logged over 1,200 hours constructing the slopestyle course of Bobby Brown’s dreams. Three years ago the Denver, Colorado-based professional athlete was asking his fellow pro skier friends, “What’s next for slopestyle skiing?” His answer is Red Bull Megaslope, a 2,750-foot long course that flawlessly incorporates six epic features winding across the natural terrain of the mountain.
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