Tierra Unica

Cloud formation over Mt.Fuji, Japan

Cloud formation over Mt.Fuji, Japan

found at http://ow.ly/rWtGP

Squaw Valley Season Wrap!

Squaw TV takes a look back at the long and outstanding 2009/2010 ski & snowboarding season.

Here is the 2008- 2009 Resort Overview - Squaw Valley USA

Opening Day At Squaw Valley USA 2009 - 2010 season, the advanced skiers resort, where the best skier go to carve & shred snow in the USA.

A few pictures of me and the scenery of this outstanding ski season at Squaw Valley USA:

 

 

Skiing Downhill With Lindsey Vonn!

Ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympics, the gold medal favorite in alpine skiing, Lindsey Vonn, hit the slopes with the reporter Bill Pennington from the New York Times. She spoke about crashing, recovery and being the fastest woman on the mountain.

Lindsey Vonn is not only hot, she is a skiing athletic beast!!!  What a champion.  A couple days ago she revealed to the world press that is currently injured from a bad training fall a couple weeks ago, but I think she will "shake it off" and win at least one gold medal for the U.S Ski Team at the Vancouver Winter Olympic 2010 Games. 

Vancouver 2010 Winter Games Athletes Medals!

Here is a beautiful video of the unveiling of the gorgeous athlete medals of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

The Games in Vancouver and Whistler Blackcomb in British Colombia, Canada starts tonight with the spectacular Opening Ceremony.

 

 

Llama Overlooking Machu Picchu!

via www.flickr.com

Machu Picchu (Old Peak) is a pre-Columbian Inca site located 2,430 metres (8,000 ft) above sea level. It is situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, which is 80 kilometres northwest of Cuzco and through which the Urubamba River flows. Often referred to as "The Lost City of the Incas", Machu Picchu is one of the most familiar symbols of the Inca Empire.

The llama's are the only residents left in Machu Picchu (the lost city).

How Fast Must A Man Go To Get From Where He's At - Downhill Racer!

With the much anticipated 2010 Winter Olympics in British Colombia, Canada just a few weeks away.  The eternal question pops up again but with a twist in last month's DVD release of docu-drama classic Downhill Racer.  The film asks those of us with some talent and ability - "How fast must a man go to get from where he's at?"

The 1969 sports classic movie "Downhill Racer" starting a very young Robert Redford tries to answer this pondering question that all of us with a crumb of talent and ability ask ourselves everyday.  How much ambition to you have in you to take your talent and ability to the next level?  Can you take it to the highest level in your chosen field or career?  At what cost?

What if you get to the top and you find out you never really left from where you started?

What gets me about this classic sports/love movie is that Gene Hackman has hair!!!

According to Hollywood critics, Downhill Racer is the best sports movie ever produced with some of the most spectacular ski scenes ever filmed.  It is not really a sports movie par se (Olympic downhill ski racing is just the setting), but more of a romantic drama told in documentary style in exotic ski locations like the Lauberhorn at Wengen, Switzerland and the Hahnenkamm at Kitzbuhel, Austria. Also included were Megeve, France and St. Anton, Austria.

25 year old former Swedish glamour beauty and actress of the 60's Camilla Sparv in 1965.

Here is what Image Entertainment wrote about the movie:

"Astonishing Alpine location photography and a young Robert Redford in one of his earliest starring roles are just two of the visual splendors of Michael Ritchie's visceral debut feature, DOWNHILL RACER.  In a beautifully understated performance, Redford is David Chappellet, a ruthlessly ambitious skier competing with an underdog American team in Europe for Olympic gold, and Gene Hackman provides tough support as the coach who tries to temper the upstart's narcissistic drive for glory.  With a subtle screenplay by acclaimed novelist James Salter, DOWNHILL RACER is a vivid character portrait buoyed by breathtakingly fast and furious imagery that brings the viewer directly into the mind of the competitor."

Very Short List wrote last month of the new DVD release of Downhill Racer:

"Just weeks after Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid made Robert Redford into a megastar in 1969, the actor turned up in a very different kind of picture—a documentary-style movie about a fearless skier with an all-consuming desire for Olympic gold. Downhill Racer (available from Criterion 11/17) shows Redford at his early best: outrageously charming, naturally physical and unrelentingly sexy.

Much of Downhill Racer—which was directed by Michael Ritchie, who reteamed with Redford in 1972 for The Candidate—is a sort of thrill ride: Cameras mounted to actual skiers provided bird’s-eye footage of what it’s like to careen down slopes at what looks like a million miles an hour. Sure, there’s a love interest, and a rival or two, but the film focuses mostly on the development of one great undisciplined athlete into a bona fide star. Plus, Redford’s coach is played by a young Gene Hackman, who gives us a peek at the guy we love so much in Hoosiers."

32 year old Robert Redford on location in the Swiss Alps for Downhill Racer in 1969.

 

A young 40 year old Gene Hackman with hair - Un joven de 40 años Gene Hackman con pelo!

 

Awesome Skier vs Snowboarder Fight - Pelea Mano A Mano En La Nieve!

Awesome Skier vs Snowboarder Fight - Pelea Mano A Mano En La Nieve!

 

A skier kicks the crap out of some punk snowboarder with a lightning punch on the slopes of Alta-Snowbird, Utah.  The snowboarder's hat, goggles, and ego was knocked down to the snow.  The boy got clocked and owned!!  

 

What a good fight!!!  The skier then beats up the snowboarder's friend, another snowboarder.....lol

 

Screen shot of the fight

 

Snowboarding Vs Skiing: The Dying Feud

Now, are you “gay on a tray” or a “two stick prick”?

2009 Resort Overview - Squaw Valley USA!

Here is the website and short video of one of the United States' greatest ski resort - Squaw Valley USA.

Squaw Valley Ski Resort is Tahoe's most expansive resort has 33 lifts that access 4000 acres of legendary terrain. The resort hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics and that spirit lives on today. This season join in the fun as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of those Olympic games and the 60th anniversary of the resort's opening. 

 

Looking at the Squaw Valley Tram with beautiful Lake Tahoe, CA. in the background!!! 

 

The Mother Ship & me

After a hard & fun day of skiing the runs below "The Mothership" - KT - 22 lift at Squaw Valley USA!  The greatest (most difficult) chair lift in America!!!

Castellano (Español)

Despues de un duro dia de diversion en las pistas de esqui por debajo de "The Mothership" (la Madre Nave) - KT-22 de elevacion en Squaw Valley USA!  La grua mas grande (difícil) de esqui en los Estados Unidos!

High Camp @ El. 8,200 ft (2,499 meters)

Features - Spectacular views of Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada, ice skate at the Olympic Ice Pavilion, learn a little more about the 1960 Winter Olympic Games at the Olympic Museum, enjoy the Snowtubing Arena, drink at the Poolside Umbrella Bar, and soak up the Sierra Nevada sun in the Swimming Lagoon & Spa (opens for the Spring and Summer).

Look toward the Siberia ski lift at Squaw Valley USA.

 

At top of Granite Peak, Squaw Valley USA - Windbuffed.

 

Fresh Snow & Spectacular Base Jump Kick Off Squaw Valley USA's 60th Season!

STORY SUMMARY courtesy of Lake Tahoe Media Center: (Olympic Valley, Calif.) Squaw Valley USA commemorated the start of its 60th season today with a gala celebration that included a spectacular B.A.S.E. jump from the Squaw Valley Cable Car by pro-skier JT Holmes.

FOOTAGE INCLUDES: B-roll of B.A.S.E. jump, plus soundbites.

SUPPORTING COPY: (Olympic Valley, Calif.) In a celebration marking the opening day of its 60th Anniversary season, Squaw Valley USA offered skiers fresh snow and great early season conditions, and a unique spectacle in a B.A.S.E. jump off the Cable Car.

The jump was performed by Squaw Valley pro-skier/BASE jumper JT Holmes. Following a raucous countdown by the crowd below, Holmes jumped from a precarious perch on the carriage that holds the Cable Car to the cables. The height was approximately 300 feet above the ground.

8-10" of fresh snow fell in a strong, fast-moving storm Friday afternoon, allowing the resort to open more terrain than originally planned. Conditions for the early season were fresh and packed powder.

"The fresh snow was perfectly timed and the jump was so exciting," commented Savannah Cowley, Squaw Valley's spokesperson.This is a great start to the big anniversary season at Squaw Valley USA.

Squaw Valley USA is celebrating two major anniversaries this season - the 60th anniversary of its founding and first season, in 1949-50, as well as the 50th anniversary of the Eighth Olympic Winter Games, which were held at Squaw Valley in February, 1960.

Picture of pro extreme skier & ski base jumper American J.T. Holmes.

Opening Day At Squaw Valley 2009 - 2010!

Approaching Squaw Valley USA (near lake Tahoe, California) on opening day Saturday, November 21, 2009. 

Squaw Valley turns 60 years old with an epic opening day celebration.

 

Tribute to former Squaw Valley resident Shane McConkey, world's greatest big mountain/extreme skier and ski base jumper in history.  Shane lost his life earlier this year in the Italian Alps filming a ski-base jumping commercial.

R.I.P. Shane.....:-(

Picture taken during the Saturday night festivities on November 21, 2009.