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SPORTS MEDICINE i RETAIL JUNKIE SUPERSTAR i RACE RESULTS i CALENDAR OF EVENTSBY TITLE ® VERMONT vtsports.com SPORTS Vermont’s Authority on Outdoor Fitness and Adventure December, 2009 Volume XIX No. IV 19th Annual Holiday Gift Guide Vermont’s Best Backcountry Skis Lift Ticket Deals for 2010 The Mountains Hammerhead Sleds Majestique )''0:fcldY`XJgfikjn\Xi:fdgXep%8cci`^_kji\j\im\[% 8M8@C89C<8K1 VERMONT SPORTS Publisher Chris Blau CONTENTS [email protected] Managing Editor Kate Carter DEPARTMENTS [email protected] The Mountains 4 Editor’s Commentary Advertising Sales 8-9 Majestique Chris Blau All Terrain Shouldn’t [email protected] Include State Land Art Direction and Production Shawn Braley 4 Out & About [email protected] Vermont’s Best The Search for Early Snow To advertise call the main offi ce Phone: 603-643-1441 11 Lift Ticket Deals Fax: 603-643-4644 5 Retail Junkie Superstar or email [email protected] Eggnog Needs Eggs, This month’s contributing writers Sky Barsch; Peter Bronski; Kate Carter; Ryan Leclerc; Waxless Skis Need Wax Paul McMorris; Brian Mohr; John Morton; Phyl Newbeck; Backcountry Skis Jules Older; Tim Reynolds; Robert Rinaldi, DPM 6 Sports Medicine This month’s contributing photographers 12-13 for 2010 Peter Bronski; Kate Carter; Sandy Macys; Brian Mohr Posterior Tendon Injuries Editorial Offi ce Vermont Sports Magazine, LLC 35 South Main Street, Hanover, NH 03755 Phone: 603-643-1441 Vermont-made 7 Around the State Fax: 603-643-4644 [email protected] 19 Hammerhead Sleds We welcome unsolicited material 14 Green Racing Project but do not guarantee its safe return. 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Published by Vermont Sports Magazine, LLC Established 1990 Submissions: Contributions of news and articles are welcome. We ask that queries for articles be sent by mail to our editorial offi ces. Only material that includes a self-addressed, stamped envelope On the Cover: World Cup freestyle skier David Babic on the edge of the Rim Run Trail at Sugarbush Resort’s will be returned. If submitting an article for consideration, please understand that while we Mount Ellen in Fayston. Photo by Sandy Macys. will contact you, it may take some time. Vermont Sports welcomes letters to the editor. You may email yours to [email protected]. Photographs: Do you have a photograph that may be of interest to other Vermont Sports readers? We like action shots of outdoor aerobic activities that our readers enjoy. Photos should capture the outdoor fi tness experience, preferably with a Vermont theme. Vertical format preferred. Slides, color prints, or high resolution digital photographs are welcomed. Only material that includes a self- addressed, stamped envelope will be returned. Unless otherwise requested, all submitted material becomes the property of Vermont Sports Magazine, LLC and its affi liates. Copyright 2009 Vermont Sports M agazine, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. A Member of December 2009 Vermont Sports 3 EDITOR COMMENTARY BY KATE CARTER ALL TERRAIN SHOULDN’T INCLUDE STATE LAND ll-terrain vehicles (ATVs) are ATV use. On June 15, 2009, the ANR by which VASA can apply for corridor VAST snowmobile trail which crosses loud, fast, unexpected, and held a public meeting in Montpelier to trails on a case-by-case basis. Accord- GMC-conserved land in northern Ver- A dangerous, and they pollute take comments on the proposed rule ing to the rule change, “The Secretary mont.” No one has been charged for the air and cause soil erosion. If peo- change. More than 250 people attend- shall only consider the designation of these incidents, because there were ple want to play with ATVs on their ed. Other public input meetings were trails for ATVs for the purpose of con- no witnesses, only the destructive evi- private property, I surely hope they held in subsequent months. At this necting existing trails that occur on dence of their presence. Law enforce- do so with respect for nature and time, the fi nal proposed rule change is private lands and can only be connected ment offi cers do not have the means or their surroundings. However, public before the Legislative Committee on through discrete areas of state land.” resources to police these remote areas, lands—national, state, designated Administrative Rules (LCAR), and it At fi rst blush, this rule change and the number of offenses continues wilderness—are havens that should will most likely be passed. seems reasonable and innocuous. But I to rise, not decline. be protected from activities, such as The title of the proposed rule is question whether VASA is prepared to Besides trail erosion and destruc- ATV riding, that threaten the envi- “Rule Governing the Establishment of self-police violations of the rule, should tion, there are also wildlife habitats, ronment and are incompatible with All-Terrain Vehicle Use Trails on State it pass, since they already fall short greenhouse gas emissions, and trail other forms of non-motorized rec- Land.” Here is the statement for why of managing the bad apples of their user confl icts to consider. And what, reation. Presently, ATVs are not al- VASA believes this rule is necessary: bunch. exactly, is a “discrete area of state lowed on Vermont’s state lands. The “This rule is the exercise of the Secre- In the Green Mountain Club’s win- land?” I fear that should the proposed Vermont All-Terrain Vehicles Sports- tary's authority to designate trails for ter 2009 newsletter, GMC director of rule change pass, it will be the fi rst men’s Association (VASA) wants to use by ATVs. State lands can provide stewardship Pete Antos-Ketcham cites step in ATVs and other motorized change that. the necessary interconnection for a eight specifi c incidences where ATVs vehicles gaining access to more than VASA requested that the Agency state-wide ATV trail system.” In a nut- and OHVs (off-highway vehicles) did “discrete” corridors. It could very well of Natural Resources (ANR) consider shell, VASA is asking for designated extensive damage to public and pro- bring an end to low-impact, peaceful, a rule change that would allow the corridor trails on state land that will tected land. Antos-Ketcham writes: “In noninvasive, nondestructive recre- Secretary of the ANR the ability to connect existing ATV trail networks one instance, OHV use caused an esti- ation on public land in Vermont. designate trails on state lands for on private land. The rule sets a process mated $10,000 worth of damage to a --Kate Carter OUT & ABOUT BY JOHN MORTON THE SEARCH FOR EARLY SNOW characteristic shared by most necessarily translate into more snow. the Pacifi c Northwest, or even Alaska. to vehicles in winter and share a rela- Nordic skiers is the anticipation New England sits at the junction of West Yellowstone, MT, has been a mec- tively high elevation, they are a good A of getting on snow. For dedicated two major weather patterns. Most of ca for Nordic skiers during Thanksgiv- bet for early snow. competitors this becomes an obsession. our weather blows in from the west. We ing week for the past couple of decades, Even closer to home are the op- Swimmers, runners, and tennis players can assume with some confi dence that while racers in Fairbanks and Anchor- tions of closely cropped pastures and can enjoy their sports year round, but a winter storm battering Minnesota, age, AK, typically are on snow some- golf courses. Since both of these options Nordic skiers in this part of the coun- Michigan, and then New York’s Fin- time in October. provide very smooth surfaces, a mini- try are typically limited to four or fi ve ger Lakes is headed for Vermont and Closer to home, Mt. St. Anne, less mal snow cover can produce satisfac- months of reliable snow cover. Mother New Hampshire. But occasionally, low than an hour northeast of Quebec City, tory skiing, if only for a few days. Early Nature can be fi ckle, some years re- pressure systems follow the east coast has provided college ski teams reliable in the season, it’s not unusual to fi nd a warding skiers with cold temperatures up from the Carolinas and Virginia, snow in early December for a genera- strip of snow blown by the wind along and skiable snow soon after Thanks- loaded with the moisture from the tion. A couple of hours east of St. Anne, the edge of a fi eld or in the shadow of giving, while other winters we are still Gulf Stream. If these systems collide Aroostook County, ME, has recently de- a stone wall. If it turns out to be one of looking at depressingly bare ground with cold air from Canada before they veloped a couple of world-class Nordic those winters when we have cold tem- well into January.