Killington Base Lodge Destroyed By Irene, Other Tourists Stranded at Sugarloaf

Hurricane Tropical Storm Irene surprised many people in Vermont with the sheer volume of water laid down over the weekend.  As a landlocked state that's well removed from the Tornado Belt, many Vermonters didn't think they'd get hit too hard.  That, combined with an infrastructure that's ill-equipped for huge amounts of unfrozen water, and, well, you get what you see here.  The Killington base lodge, collapsed and fallen over, with a brook running through it.

Some more Killington area flood damage from Facebook:

And this photo from the Stratton area:

Highly recommend checking out this Facebook album if you want to see some incredible pictures of the flooding from around the state. If you've done an East Coast swing, you'll recognize the names of many Vermont ski towns that were heavily impacted by this event.

Meanwhile, the access road up to Sugarloaf (the only way in or out) was washed out, stranding about 100 tourists on the mountain.  Luckily the weather there is now excellent, so hopefully the golfing is good because it doesn't look like anyone's driving up the road any time soon:

Thanks to Stever Bartlett for the tip.


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Julien Lizeroux's Leg is Healing

For some reason, we apparently have a fixation with Julien Lizeroux's injured leg.  His scars are/were epic.  Slowly but surely, Lizeroux's leg is healing up.  Compare the photo above, which he recently Tweeted, to the photo he posted right after surgery:

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Run Of The Day: New Zealand Jumping

NZ CAR JUMPING from Jon Olsson Video Blog on Vimeo.

Jon Olsson has released his edit of the NZ car jumping shenanigans that went on the other day.  The debauchery was promoted on Twitter by everyone involved, and also by the US Ski Team.  Seems a little odd that they would want to let everyone know that this kind of ridiculous awesome destruction goes on once a year, but you really can't deny that it's hilarious.  Our favorite part is that they all share one helmet.  No neck stabilization at all, but at least there's a helmet to go around.

You should read Ted's blog for a little historical perspective.  He says they went bigger than ever this year.  Dave Chodounsky, riding shotgun here with Ted in 2008, probably begs to differ.  No helmets were worn in the taking of this picture:

Car Jumping in New Zealand Has Become a Tradition

This year, Team No Team continued the rally driving/car jumping tradition that was begun a few years ago, and they upped the ante this year by destroying having fun with multiple vehicles.  There's an excellent set of photos at Warner Nickerson's website, and we've selected a few of the best to display here.  The white wagon is a car that Warner gave to Jon Olsson as a gift.  A nice gesture from the technician to his athlete, and they surely both enjoyed the comfy ride.  Jimmy Cochran appears to have lost some teeth at this camp, which gives him the perfect look for this sort of activity.  Cue banjo music...now:

The parting shot, from Facebook.

Highly recommend you check out the coverage at Warner's blog, and also at Jon's blog. Video is forthcoming, hopefully soon, and the opening shot on Jon's blog is one of the most epic pictures of all time.  Full speed off the jump, and notice where the hood of the car is.

Remember kids, don't try this at home, or anywhere else for that matter.

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Last Man Standing: A Dangerous Game

Aksel Lund Svindal put this up on his blog a little bit ago. The speed and slope increase every 2 minutes. The winner is the last one still running. The losers are everyone if the guy in front eats it first. No word yet on how it turned out, they might still be running.

Also, it's worth noting how incredibly clean and tidy that gym is.  It's like they cleared out the operating room at Mass General to do a little workout.  Does your gym look that good?


Svindal's original blog post.
Photo is from the post.


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@AnjaParson: She's Going to Beat You at Arm Wrestling

Paerson posted this picture and tweeted:

Putsade på finbilen min hos syrran idag.Klippte hennes gräsmatta,plockade blåbär och bytte blöjor. Provade på vardagsliv

In English, roughly:

Washed/waxed my sister's nice car today. Cut her lawn, picked blueberries and changed diapers. Tested in everyday life.

So, forget about those pull-ups.  Go wash the car and change some diapers.

Here's the Twitter feed.
Here's the picture.


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What To Do Next Time You're In Chile

VCA 2010 RACE RUN from changoman on Vimeo.


Man that is narrow! And I got a little carsick watching this.

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