Libby et Ingrid dans USA today!!

Un article de presse generaliste vraiment sympa avec en plus libby dedans!!! Trop cool, Une pleine page!

Le texte:

Extreme
passion
for sport
Backstrom, Biittner
hooked on freeskiing
By Gary Hook
USATODAY
SNOWBIRD, Utah - Meet Ingrid Backstrom and Lib-by Biittner, two divas of big mountain freeskiing.
They do things on snow that mere ski mortals envy and would never even try to duplicate. Each can rip around a mountain, skimming down 50-degree slopes and hurtling off 40-foot cliffs. Each spent years ski racing at an elite level, leaving behind that kind of skiing for a competitive world that rewards skiers for being innovative and taking risks.
Risks? There are risks - and then
Skiing there are risks. Is this sane?
"Out of my career as a freeskiing athlete, I'm scared 90% of the time," says Wendy Fisher, a two-time world extreme champ. "I ask myself if I am paid enough to put myself on a peak and ski something where I could die. But then there is the addiction, and that's what keeps you going."
Risk took its toll last week in the Subaru U.S. Freeskiing Nationals in Snowbird. Biittner crashed after coming off the lip of a jump Wednesday and broke her collarbone. She had surgery to have a steel plate inserted. She hopes to be heeled enough to compete in April. Backstrom hit a rock during her run Thursday, knocking her out of the competition.
Danger lurks: Libby Biittner, left, chatting with Back-strom, sustained a broken collarbone during a jump.
The veteran's career
Backstrom, 26, has sponsors and a budding career in ski films. On the freeskiing circuit last year, she finished second in the world behind Kit DesLauriers, wife of extreme skiing pioneer Rob DesLauriers. Her second-place finish was largely because she opted out of some competitions to join in the filming.
Her style generates enormous buzz.
"She skis like a guy," says Scott Gaffney, a cinema-tographer for Matchstick. "She is out there ripping all the time, and she skis the guy line. She got the job at Matchstick because she skis for herself every day the same as she skis for the films."
Her parents were volunteer ski patrollers at Crystal Mountain in Washington. The family stayed in campers in the parking lot on weekends. Her parents took turns patrolling while the other skied with her and her two younger brothers, Arne, 24 and Ralph, 21.
"We had a converted 1954 CMC Bookmobile that slept eight," Backstrom recalls. "When I was 14 it was the bane of my existence, but now I wish I had it because it would be the coolest thing.
"My parents made it OK for us to move to the mountains and be a ski bum for a while," she says, "or get a job in the industry."
Her entry into the industry was in 2001 at the age of 22. She had earned her geology degree from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., where she was a three-time All-American in ski racing.
She "kind of had a real job for a little while" but soon settled in Squaw Valley, Calif. At the urging of a friend, she entered a freeskiing competition in Kirkwood, Calif., where she finished third.
The accolades and accomplishments have had trouble keeping up with her. She was the only woman named in Powder Magazine's list of Future Big Mountain Heroes. She's featured in this year's Warren Miller ski film Impact, along with being featured in Match-stick's film Yearbook.
The rookie's rise
Biittner, 19, finished last year - her first on the circuit - ranked third behind Backstrom. Insiders expect that she'll begin generating wide buzz soon.
"I skied with Libby the other day," says Kristen Ul-mer, a former extreme champ. "Wow, she has gotten good!"
Biittner's 58-year-old father, Michael, a ski instructor at Snowbird, says his daughter grew up skiing with him.
"I'm a perpetual ski bum," he says.
"This is the thread of continuity in my life between marriage and divorce and being with my kids when I could. It was the one thing I could give my kids."
Aaron, Libby's 21-year-old brother, became a professional snowboarder this year.
"My dad has influenced my skiing more than anyone else," Libby Biittner says. "Both on technique and my attitude. My racing coaches are important, too, but the one lasting influence is my dad."
She spent eight years competing with the Snowbird ski team. Her coaches thought she had the potential to make it to the structured environment of the U.S. ski team.
After a good racing season her final year of high school, she decided against "the endless struggle" of trying to make the U.S. ski team and chose big mountain freeskiing last year at age 18.
"I love freeskiing for so many reasons," Biittner says. "Other skiing disciplines require everyone to strive for one style, or technique, while freeskiing allows for so much variation. I love how there is no set standard and there is always room for change and progression. I love freeskiing for its lack of limitations."
Last year she picked up some help from sponsors but doesn't have a contract. She works part time at the Wings gift shop at Snowbird and is a coach for the Snowbird ski team. She attends college during the fall, taking the spring semester off so she can compete.
'The best feeling ever'
While the money and sponsorships help pay the bills, they both are big mountain skiers because of their passion for the sport.
Looking in: Spectators watch the freeskiing competition from a sunny slope.
Part of the passion comes from the atmosphere.
"Everybody just loves it," Backstrom says. "It's a lot of ski bums who really love skiing, who save to go to these events. There is a huge fellowship and camaraderie. It's like this little tribe, and everyone has the same passion."
A bigger part of what drives these divas? The mountain and what it offers.
"Freeskiing is liberating," Biittner says. "When it comes down to it, it is just you and the mountain, and regardless of who is watching or what the expectations are, the run is yours to create.
"Also, it forces you to free your mind of any distractions and allows you to have a better perspective of things. When you're standing on a 60-degree slope with huge exposure and consequences trying to find a line you can survive, suddenly your term paper and credit card bills aren't so urgent or intimidating. This is the best feeling ever."
• See video of Backstrom's epic run in Yearbook and view a photo gallery from the 2005 nationals at sports.usatoday.com


Competitive big mountain freeskiing has no designated course, as does ski racing. There is a start and end point, but competitors use all available features of the mountain, including rock cliffs, steep slopes and narrow chutes, to squeeze out points from judges watching at the finish area.
Needless to say, there's also no grooming of the snow, as there is in ski racing.
There are 10 possible points each in the categories of line choice, control, fluidity, technique and aggression for a maximum of 50 points a run.
Kit DesLauriers, winner of last week's Subaru U.S. Freeskiing Nationals, and Ingrid Backstrorn are holding a women's clinic on big mountain skiing at Grand Targhee, Wyo., this month.
"The biggest thing is that you have to be able to ski at the ability that blows people's minds," says Kristen
Ulmer, a former world champion. "You have to take people's breath away."
That is easy to do when you factor in the pitch of the slopes, which can be 50 to 60 degrees.
Consider:
• The standard set for most house stairs is a 30- to 35-degree pitch.
• The standard set for the steepest slopes (double blacks) in recreational ski areas is 30 to 35 degrees.
• The start at Grizzly, the site of the men's 2002 Olympic downhill, was 35 degrees.
"I try to not let fear play in too much," Backstrom says. "I think too much fear harnesses you, but you have to let a little fear come in because it helps get you going."
Contributing: Gary Hook, David Leon Moore

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