Cross-country skiers are hearty folk. The compulsion to race marathon-length distances in subfreezing conditions requires an eternally optimistic and fiercely independent spirit. The fear of blinding snow or paralyzing cold does not deter them, and it has been said that skiers do not merely laugh at adversity; they are completely oblivious to its existence. America's greatest cross-country ski race is the American Birkebeiner or "Birkie" for short. Every year, thousands of people journey from all over the globe to Hayward, Wisconsin, for a world-class celebration of life, winter, and the competitive spirit. Prior to the race, local participants find themselves in the throes of a unique and natural euphoria. They thrill at the prospect of participating shoulder to shoulder with elite international competitors in a wild race through the great Northwoods wilderness. Beyond Birkie Fever is the story of how America's magnificent cross-country ski marathon can expand your horizons and be the gateway to experiences beyond anything you'd ever hoped to imagine

The Perfect Turn promises us tales of skiing and skiers-but what gripping tales these are: ski history meets ski adventure. The story of great ski races and great ski racers, the pursuit of the World Speed Record on skis, memoirs of colorful, important, and simply remarkable skiers, winter backcountry expeditions through the remotest of snowy ranges ... Author Dick Dorworth weaves an engaging blend of action and reflection in the most thoughtful and literary ski writing to come along in ages. This is a book by a skier who has lived it all, skied it all, and then thought about his sport in fresh and surprising terms. This collection contains brings together 19 essays that probe and reveal the very soul of skiing, and ends with a poetic piece of short fiction that gives this collection its title.

When the Rogers Place arena opened in downtown Edmonton in September 2016, no amount of buzz could drown out the rumours of manipulation, secret deals, and corporate greed undergirding the project. Working with documentary evidence and original interviews, the authors present an absorbing account of the machinations that got the arena and the adjacent Ice District built, with a price tag of more than $600 million. The arena deal, they argue, established a costly public financing precedent that people across North America should watch closely, as many cities consider building sports facilities for professional teams or international competitions. Their analysis brings clarity and nuance to a case shrouded in secrecy and understood by few besides political and business insiders. Power Play tells a dramatic story about clashing priorities where sports, money, and municipal power meet.

"The premier guide to modern riding, from one of the sport's best coaches."
--Tim Windell, two-time World Cup co-champion

In "The Art of Snowboarding," USSA-certified club coach Jim Smith introduces you to the most popular tricks and stunts, including kickers (jumps) and other freestyle and half-pipe techniques, and stunts on rails and wood. He gives special emphasis to proper stance and turning techniques as the basis for more advanced moves. Time-lapse photographs demonstrate every step of every trick and technique, and dozens of additional photos show you the form of some of the country's best riders.

The story of Nordic skiing in the Midwest-its origins and history, its star athletes and races, and its place in the region's social fabric and the nation's winter recreation In the winter of 1841, a Norwegian immigrant in Wisconsin strapped on a pair of wooden boards and set off across the snow to buy flour-leaving tracks that perplexed his neighbors and marked the arrival of Nordic skiing in America. To this day, the Midwest is the nation's epicenter of cross-country skiing, sporting a history as replete with athleticism and competitive spirit as it is steeped in old-world lore and cold-world practicality. This history unfolds in full for the first time in Winter's Children. Nordic skiing first took hold as a sport in the Upper Midwest at the end of the nineteenth century, giving rise to an early ski league and a host of star athletes. With the arrival of a pair of brothers from Telemark, Norway, the world's best skiers at the time, the sport-and the ski manufacturing industry-reached new heights in Minnesota, only to see its fortunes fall after World War II, when downhill skiing surged in popularity. In Winter's Children Ryan Rodgers traces the rise and fall of Nordic skiing in the Midwest from its introduction in the late 1800s to its uncertain future in today's rapidly changing climate. Along the way he profiles the sport's stars and stalwarts, from working-class Norwegian immigrants with a near-spiritual reverence for cross-country skiing to Americans passionately committed to the virtues of competitive sport, and he chronicles races like the thrilling 1938 Arrowhead Derby (which ran from Duluth to St. Paul over five days) and the American Birkebeiner, the nation's largest cross-country event, which takes place every year in northern Wisconsin, snowpack permitting. Generously illustrated with vintage photography and ski posters, and featuring firsthand observations drawn from interviews, Winter's Children is an engaging look at the earliest ski teams and touring clubs; the evolution of cross-country skis, gear, and fashion; and the ambitious and ongoing effort to establish and maintain a vast trail network across the Minnesota state park system.

Break through to the next level of ski performance Renowned instructor, coach, and ski technique expert Ron LeMaster takes you beyond "The Skier's Edge" by improving, expanding, and enhancing that seminal work. The result, "Ultimate Skiing," will help you master the mechanics of great skiing as never before--explaining how it's done, showing how it looks, and describing how it feels.

LeMaster has made "Ultimate Skiing" a comprehensive manual on ski technique. Learn how skis interact with the snow and how best to manipulate your skis, boots, and poles on the steepest slopes, in monster mogul fields, and through the deepest powder. Technique tips and kinesthetic cues help translate the sensation of each movement.

Throughout, LeMaster incorporates his one-of-a-kind, full-color photo montages and 3-D diagrams to take you onto the slopes and into the action. These phenomenal images capture some of the world's greatest skiers while illustrating the correct techniques for every condition and terrain.

To get the most out of your skiing potential, you need the ultimate in ski instruction. You need "Ultimate Skiing."

A comprehensive insider's view of the world's fastest-growing winter sport and the energetic subculture it has spawned. It offers a holistic picture with action shots, behind-the-scenes reportage, hospital portraits and the latest graphic designs and illustrations. These images are infused with commentary, quotes and jargon from those who live for snowboarding - pitching iconic high-points alongside day to day minutiae, weather obsessions with the trappings of a professional rider's engagements. Blower has made its way in to snowboarding's inner circle - sourcing information and iconography from the specialist print media, clothing and graphic creatives who are shaping its future.

Encompassing some of the most revered moments in sports history as well as some of the most forgotten, " The Salt Lake Loonie & Other Stories Every Sports Fan Should Know "by Brett and Jesse Matlock is a survival guide to table-top sports talk.
Arming the greenhorn and the journeyman sports fan with new insights and takes on sports stories that cover the classical to the comical--what was "the Curse of the Bambino"? Who won the so-called "Battle of the Sexes" in tennis? What is the real story behind "The Salt Lake Loonie"? Organized by themes and identifiied by fun sport symbols, "The Salt Lake Loonie "makes for an easy and engaging read. Fast Facts are interspersed throughout, arming sports fans with new insights and fun bits of trivia. With an introduction by Olympic gold medalist Hayley Wickenheiser and illustrations by Dwight Allott, "The Salt Lake Loonie "is destined to be the "sports bible" that every fan will love.

Incredible jumps, spectacular crashes, amazing wins and crushing defeats -- these are the ups and downs of the pro snowboarders life. Meet some of the best Canadian riders to ever carve a turn in this look at one of the hottest extreme sports.

2017-18 marks the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the National Hockey League. But the league almost didn't survive its first year. Bob Duff chronicles the trials and tribulations of that first season, and tells the story of that first generation of hockey heroes who lent their names to the game they loved, and helped to make it great. Bob Duff, former sports columnist for the Windsor Star, has covered the NHL since 1988 and is a contributor to The Hockey News and msnbc.com.

'A groundbreaking debut from an extraordinary writer ... a testament to where a woman can go after rock-bottom' PIPER KERMAN, New York Times bestselling author of ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK Keri Blakinger's brave, brutal memoir, Corrections in Ink, is a riveting story about suffering, recovery and redemption' DAVID SHEFF, NEW YORK TIMES 'A raw, fast-paced portrait of one woman's descent into a mental abyss' Irish Independent Keri Blakinger had always lived at full throttle. Whether flying through the air, chasing Olympic dreams on the ice rink; surviving on as few calories as she could; or balancing a heroin addiction with pursuing a degree at an Ivy League university. But on a cold December day, Keri is arrested with a Tupperware container full of heroin. Shortly afterwards, she is convicted and sent to prison. Forced to confront her addiction, Keri finally manages to break free of it, and finds herself in a place unlike anything she has experienced before: a world built on senseless brutality, but whose inhabitants, her fellow inmates, will change her life forever. Written in luminous prose, with searing honesty and flashes of dark humour, Corrections in Ink shines a light on a broken prison system, and the cruelty and kindness Blakinger experienced there. It is a radical call for justice, and a testament to the power of finding one's voice.

Coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the NHL, Golden Boys looks at fifty players that have shaped the history of hockey in Manitoba. Featuring detailed biographies, rare photographs and plenty of never-been-told before stories, Golden Boys is sure to delight, surprise and cause arguments amongst hockey fans young and old.

The Chicago Tribune Book of the Chicago White Sox is a decade-by-decade look at one of the American League's original eight teams, starting with the franchise's Windy City beginnings in 1900 as the Chicago White Stockings (the former name of crosstown rivals the Cubs) and ending with the current team. For more than a century, the Chicago Tribune has documented every Sox season through original reporting, photography, and box scores. For the first time, this mountain of Sox history has been mined and curated by the paper's sports department into a single one-of-a-kind volume. Each era in Sox history includes its own timeline, profiles of key players and coaches, and feature stories that highlight it all, from the heavy hitters to the no-hitters to the one-hit wonders. To be a Sox fan means to know breathtaking highs and dramatic lows. The team's halcyon days—starting with the championship it won during the first official season of the newly formed American League in 1901—have always been punctuated with doldrums and stormy stretches, including a period of time in the '80s when it looked likely that the team would leave Chicago. But with the diehard support of their fans, the "Good Guys" have always made a comeback—including the team's landmark 2005 World Series win, the first by any Chicago major league team in 88 years. This book records it all. The award-winning journalists, photographers, and editors of the Chicago Tribune have produced a comprehensive collector's item that every Sox fan will love.

Bill Mosienko was one of Manitobas greatest hockey players and athletes. This is his story. Mosienko became a hockey legend in 1952 when he recorded the fastest hat-trick in NHL history -- a record that stands to this day. This biography tells the story of a Manitoba legend, from his childhood spent skating on the rinks of Winnipegs North End in the 1920s and 30s to his illustrious fourteen-year NHL career to his return to Winnipeg to play with the Winnipeg Warriors to his post-retirement career as the owner of the iconic Mosienko Bowling Lanes. Through exclusive interviews with Mosienkos friends, family, and teammates, Dillello paints a vivid picture of Mosienko, a man known for his sportsmanship and community spirit as well as well as his incredible hockey talent. Mosienko became a hockey legend in 1952 when he recorded the fastest hat-trick in NHL history -- a record that stands to this day. This biography tells the story of a Manitoba legend, from his childhood spent skating on the rinks of Winnipegs North End in the 1920s and 30s to his illustrious fourteen-year NHL career to his return to Winnipeg to play with the Winnipeg Warriors to his post-retirement career as the owner of the iconic Mosienko Bowling Lanes. Through exclusive interviews with Mosienkos friends, family, and teammates, Dillello paints a vivid picture of Mosienko, a man known for his sportsmanship and community spirit as well as well as his incredible hockey talent.

WINNER OF THE TIMES BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR AT THE BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS In the 1930s, as the world hurtled towards terrible global conflict, speed was all the rage. It was described by Aldous Huxley as 'the one genuinely modern pleasure', and one of the fastest and most thrilling ways to attain it was through the new sport of bobsledding. Exotic, exciting and above all dangerous, it was by far the most popular event at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics. It required an abundance of skill and bravery. And the four men who triumphed at those Games lived the most extraordinary lives. Billy Fiske was an infamous daredevil, blessed with a natural talent for driving. He would later become the first American airman to die in the war - flying for the RAF. Clifford Gray was a notorious playboy and a player on both Broadway and Hollywood. Or was he? His identity was a mystery for decades. Jay O'Brien was a gambler and a rogue who, according to one ex-wife, forced women to marry him at gunpoint. And Eddie Eagan, a heavyweight boxer and brilliant lawyer, remains the only man to win gold at both the Summer and Winter Olympics. This is their story, of loose living, risk-taking and hell-raising in an age of decadence, and of their race against the odds to become the fastest men on ice. We will never see their like again. Especially after the world did descend into that second, terrible global conflict.

Utah is known for having "the greatest snow on earth," and this comprehensive guide provides all the details you need to make the most of your vacation.
From listing by terrain types to tips and tricks at each resort, this book explores skiing and snowboarding in Utah in exceptional detail and provides the insight you need to enjoy everything the mountains have to offer. Full-color throughout.