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Skipress - TWSSF Special Edition 2008 - Index

SNOLIFEEDITED
BY
What Do You MEAN IF?
The Festival’s If Ullr Was a Girl contest is back
for its second year. As with all things female,
there have been a few — just a few! — changes.
But let’s start with what’s the same.
Ullr Girl is still a women-only competition,
combining a slopestyle event, a big-mountain
event, a Superpipe event and Ullr Unleashed
— a showcase of arts and culture. It’s still all
about fi nding the ultimate mountain woman:
worthy of dethroning the god of snow and
seizing the crown herself. And Whistler is once
again backing the event with another $25,000prize
purse dedicated to female rippers.
As before, women had two weeks to join the Ullr
Girl online community (ifullrwasagirl.com) by
posting their profi les alongside mountain-gals
BURKE
IS BACK
Fresh from her skiing superpipe super
win at ‘08’s Winter X Games in Aspen,
Canadian girl Sarah Burke is back
home in Whistler for the Fest.
Grete Eliassen’s coronation as last year’s Ullr Girl.
LORI KNOWLES
from across North America. From that, four
wildcard athletes were chosen and will join up
to 12 invited ski and snowboard pros to contend
for the crown April 13-15.
What’s different: This season the ‘07 Idol-esque
online voting was nixed… sorry, Simon. Instead,
the four wildcard athletes were selected, based
on their demonstrated passion for mountain life,
by a panel of judges. Says judge Michelle Leroux,
“We wanted to see creativity, enthusiasm and
proof that these girls rip and deserve to compete
for $25,000.”
Skier Grete Eliassen took the Ullr Girl crown last
year and donated her entire prize to charity.
FoMoInfo: ifullrwasagirl.com
Sarah Burke won gold in Ski
Superpipe Finals at January’s
Winter X Games.
Photo: Jordan Junck/TWSSF
Photo: Eric Lars Bakke/Shazamm/ESPN Images
Photo: Jordan Junck/TWSSF
I WANT MY
MTVEEEEEEEE!
The crowd awaits the arrival of the Big Air
rockgods, all the while chanting,
“I Want My… I Want My…MTVeeeeeeee!
Serenaded for being the Acropolis of the gods
of cool by Dire Straits in the 1980s, MTV has
remained the key propaganda promoters for
successive waves of the Next Generation. And
nothing snap crackles and pops with culture
and catchy guitar riffs quite like TWSSF, which
explains why MTV would dub it the jewel in
their crown, the snowscaped version of a
Daytona Beach Spring Break hoedown… and
their primo new event partner in Canada.
This year, MTV broadcasts live from Whistler,
shooting several special episodes spotlighting
the gods, rock stars and pop-heroes of the
snowsports world, and hooking up some
lucky popsters during the Festival with a
tricked-out stay in a Whistler chalet and a
private concert with The Trews. Contest
details are at mtv.ca. — LISA RICHARDSON
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THE TWSSF ISSUE 2008 11