Chill Factore hosted the Westbeach Freezer Jam last Saturday. More than 90 competitors took part in the contest. Col Mytton won the snowboarding contest, bagging himself a trip to Red Mountain and £150 while Charlie Smith took the top spot for the skiers, winning a week at Chill Chalet in France and £150 cash.

Full results and photos will be online in the next few days at www.westbeach.com/freezerjam

The first event of the Burton AM Tour took place in the Snow Dome in Bispingen, Germany at the weekend.
 
Nearly 70 snowboarders took part in the contest for a starting slot at the Burton European Open 2009 in Laax in January.

The dome welcomed participants from eight different countries.

After a highly competitive qualification it became obvious that the finals of the boys categories would be fought out among the Dutch and the British riders.

Mr. Rock n' Roll of the Junior Boys category was Jamie Nicholls from Great Britain whose “playlist” contained one chart topper after an other: Noseslide 270 off on the straight rail, Backside 180, Cab 720 and Boardslide on the curved Rail. With this symphony he received the highest scores from the stoked judges and won the category and the overall ranking.

In the younger category, the Youth Boys, Gino Rupp, retained the title he won last year to win the category again.

In her first appearance on the AM Tour stage in the category of Junior Girls, Rachida Aoulad-El-Haj-Amar put on an incredible show in the finals with a Frontside Boardslide, Noseslide and a Frontside 180 which secured her the top spot.

In the younger category, the Youth Girls, another English young-blood - Katie Ormerod - called the judges attention the most and achieved the first place.

The tour heads to Castleford on November 22 – visit www.burtonamtour.com for full details.

The 2009 LG Snowboard FIS World Cup heads to Sweden for its second big air contest of the season.

For the third year in a row, the 1912 Olympic stadium in Stockholm will be the venue for the event. More than 70 riders from 14 nations will take part in the contest on November 22, which is part of the free LG Winterjam festival.

The local heroes Chris Soerman, Kevin Baeckstroem and Jonas Carlson will try to gain their first ever Swedish podium place in the contest. But the international competition is stiff with former
Stockholm winners Matevz Petek (SLO, 2006) and Janne Korpi (FIN, 2007) due to take part.

Fellow Finnish rippers Antti Autti, Risto Mattila, Peetu Piiroinen and Sami Saarenpaa will also be looking to repeat last winter’s total podium sweep.

Stefan Gimpl will be giving them a run for their money alongside Peetu Piiroinen, who won the opener of the LG Snowboard FIS World Cup Big Air series in London.

The show will start at 12 noon with the first qualification heat, followed by the second one at 2.30 PM. The ten best riders will enter the final at 5:00 PM. SVT will broadcast the one hour-long final battle for the crown live. Eurosport 2 will the event from 6.30pm.

Burton Snowboards have hired Brad Kremer to head up the company's cinematography division where he will direct and produce all Burton films, commercials and blogs, as well as manage its film crews worldwide.

Moving forward, Burton team riders will focus exclusively on Burton film projects under Brad's direction.

"Brad is, without a doubt, one of the most highly regarded and influential snowboard movie filmers/directors in the industry," says Mike Nusenow, Senior VP of Global Marketing for Burton.  "He will play a crucial role in our media efforts in the years to come."

Brad most recently headed up creative efforts at Mack Dawg Productions and is regarded as a pioneer and innovator in the snowboarding industry.

He is also the winner of four of the snowboarding industry's Movie of the Year titles and has directed and edited eight feature-length snowboarding films. In addition, he has co-directed or led 11 films over the past 14 years, including the highly acclaimed Follow Me Around, Double Decade and Picture This.

"It has always been a dream of mine to work for Burton," says Brad. "I am honored to be a part of such an amazing team and I am looking forward to redefining snowboard media with Burton."
 

The Winter Dew Tour will see the world’s top riders compete for the Dew Cup and a share of the $1.5 million prize purse offered at the end of the three-stop series this winter.

The athlete roster reads like the who's who of professional snowboarding, highlighted by multiple X Games and Olympic medalists including Shaun White, Hannah Teter, Andreas Wiig, Travis Rice and Gretchen Bleiler.

"I feel like the Dew Tour is gonna be huge and I'm really looking forward to riding on the entire series this year," said Teter. "The roster of athletes that will be competing on the Winter Dew Tour is sick. It'll be a fun battle to see who comes away with Dew Cup at the end of the season."

White, who's competed in skateboard vert on the Summer Dew Tour, will be the first Summer crossover athlete. White was the Dew Tour season points leader for skateboard vert in 2007, and was awarded the coveted Dew Cup for his efforts. After successful Summer season's, White will compete in the superpipe discipline on the Winter Dew Tour. The 22-year-old from Carlsbad, California has been a force to be reckoned with in competitive snowboarding since the tender age of 14.

"This is shaping up to be as impressive of an athlete field as anyone could hope for in a winter event; the Winter Dew Tour competition is bound to be a fight to the bitter end," said Wade Martin, AST president.

"With more than 28 hours of original programming on NBC, MTV, MTV2 and USA, there will be action-packed content for the crowds onsite in addition to the fans at home tuning in to the broadcast."

The roster of snowboard athletes includes the following notables:

Snowboard Superpipe
* Shaun White
* Mason Aguirre
* Trevor Jacob
* Hannah Teter
* Gretchen Bleiler
* Kelly Clark

Snowboard Slopestyle
* Travis Rice
* Andreas Wiig
* Danny Kass
* Kevin Pearce
* Jamie Anderson
* Hana Beaman
* Torah Bright

The complete list of Winter Dew Tour competitors will be released on Monday, November 24.

Similar to the Dew Tour's summer competition structure, the Winter Dew Tour will be based on a cumulative points system as the top snow athletes battle it out for a piece of the $1.5 million prize purse and the chance to take home the Dew Cup at the conclusion of the season in February.

The complete 2008/09 Winter Dew Tour schedule is as follows:
Stop 1 Dec. 18-21, 2008 Breckenridge, Colo.-Breckenridge Ski Resort
Stop 2 Jan. 8-11, 2009 West Dover, Vt.-Mount Snow Resort
Stop 3 Feb. 19-22, 2009 Lake Tahoe, Calif.-Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort

More information can be found at www.ast.com
 

Two of Alberta’s resorts have opened for the season. Mt. Norquay and Lake Louise opened the slopes on Saturday November 8 to allow skiers and riders access to the earliest snow in Canada.

Mt. Norquay, which has opened earlier than expected, is allowing access at weekends only whilst the resort is prepared for its full opening on the December 5.

The nearby slopes at Sunshine Village are due to open tomorrow, November 14 completing the Ski Banff-Lake Louise trio.

Further north the town of Jasper is also getting snow in abundance and the slopes at Marmot Basin are due to open, this Saturday November 15.

Nakiska, known as Calgary's closest mountain is due to open its slopes to the public on Saturday December 6. Castle Mountain is scheduled to open on December.

If you’re heading to Alberta from the UK, Crystal Ski has pre-Christmas trips from £699 – visit www.crystalski.co.uk for more info.

Inghams has February half-term deals for under £700 too – full details at www.inghams.co.uk

Canadian Affair is introducing extra flights to Canada this winter and has deals to the Rockies starting at £689 – get the lowdown at www.canadianaffair.com

BBC Children in Need will be filming live from Chill Factore on Friday November 14.

In the Alpine Village there will be entertainers and attractions in the street with bucket collections happening to raise money for the event.

Filming will commence at 6.30pm and there will be live recordings taking place throughout the evening with celebrity interviews and guest speakers.

The snow activities, shops and restaurants will be open as usual with the exception of Chillis bar and snowplay area which will be used exclusively by Children in Need from 6pm.

To book an activity, visit www.chillfactore.com or call 0161 749 2222. Find out more about Children in Need at www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey
 

The Nissan Outdoor Games are taking place in Chamonix on February 20 and 21.

The event brings together athletic performance and a creative and artistic dimension to a film and photography festival.

The concept is to create a five minute film uniting five outdoor sports activities: mountaineering, skiing, snowboarding, paragliding & hang gliding, base jumping & wingsuit flying.

The world’s best specialists in each discipline utilise their skill and creativity to present their sport.

In 2008, snowboarders taking part included French Olympian Karine Ruby and Eric Themel.

The teams will have seven days – from Saturday February 14 to Friday February 20 to film and edit their movies.

The action will take place in the Mont Blanc mountain range, where each team will have mountain guides to help them find the best spots.
There are five teams, bringing together athletes, production companies, professional filmers and photographers from all over Europe and North America.

A jury will rate the movies during the day on Saturday February 21 and the winner of the Golden Peak Trophy will be announced that evening. Other awards for the best photographer, best sports sequence and Jury’s Special Award will also be given.

Along with the opening ceremony and the awards ceremony in the centre of Chamonix, there will be two full days of events dedicated to outdoor sports taking place on February 20 and 21.
(February 20-21).
 
There’ll be ice climbing tasters, mountain security clinics, games of balance (slackline), aerial shows (acrobatic paragliding and wingsuit flying) at the Aiguille du Midi (on Saturday February 21 in the morning) and at the Grands-Montets (Saturday February 21 in the afternoon), live concerts in the Nissan Outdoor Games village, autograph signing sessions and partner stands.

Full details available at www.outdoorgames.fr

Mpora.tv and Yahoo! Eurosport are coming together to launch a new extreme sports section on Yahoo! Eurosport.

The Mpora.tv extreme sports section will form part of the broader Yahoo Eurosport offering, with exclusive footage from the biggest events across the extreme sports calendar.  Content will include exclusive video highlights packages, daily news articles and feature interviews written by some of the top names in the industry.  Users will be able to watch highlights from world-renowned events, including the Billabong Air and Style in Innsbruck this January and the Vans Triple Crown of surfing in Hawaii this December.

The content will be delivered by Mpora.tv, Europe's largest extreme sports online channel, who broadcast action from the worlds of surfing, motocross, mountain biking, skateboarding and BMX.

There are one million regular extreme sports' participants in the UK, with a three-and-a-half million estimated total audience in the UK alone. 

Darryl Newton, Managing Director, Factory Media, said: "Extreme action sports no longer only appeal to a niche audience but are becoming part of a mainstream lifestyle as more and more people get into snowboarding, surfing and skate.  We are delighted to be working with Yahoo! Eurosport to make this content more available to an even bigger audience."
 

Breckenridge and Keystone have opened for the winter season. Thanks to their snowmaking teams and a little help from Mother Nature's snowfall this week, both resorts are open with excellent snow surfaces and top-to-bottom skiing. Keystone opened Spring Dipper and Lower River Run Trails with features of its A51 Terrain Park, the top-ranked park in Colorado by Transworld Magazine on Spring Dipper. Breckenridge Ski Resort opened with top- to-bottom skiing on Springmeier off the Colorado SuperChair on Peak 8. 

Both Breckenridge and Keystone Resorts are opening strong this season, with new resort improvements, new events and a renewed excitement for another spectacular ski season in Summit County, Colorado.

A new, state-of-the-art, eight passenger River Run Gondola replaces the previous six-passenger River Run Gondola at Keystone this year. A key component of the new gondola includes the move of the bottom terminal into the River Run Village which greatly improves the guest experience by making access to the gondola easier.

Also, a new mid-station is now located halfway up Dercum Mountain with loading and unloading in both directions, giving skiers and snowboarders an option to access Keystone's upper trails from mid-mountain and to download at the end of their ski day.

The new gondola was designed with passenger comfort in mind with floor-to-ceiling windows providing the best possible views and the cabins are large enough to accommodate skis and snowboards inside the cabin.

Additionally, the new gondola offers level walk-in heated load and unload stations to provide convenient access for wheelchairs, mountain bikes, strollers, sight seers, mountaintop tubing hill guests and night-time dining guests.

With a vertical rise of 2,307 feet and a top-to-bottom average trip time of less than 12 minutes, the new eight-passenger River Run Gondola will transport about 2,400 people per hour, more than twice the previous level.

Keystone will operate the new River Run Gondola winter and summer.

Also, the new Mountain Service Center, located at the base of the new gondola will provide skiers and riders with a single location for lift tickets, on-mountain activity information, season passes and more.

Visit www.snowusa.com for terrain updates, snow reports and event details.