Cook enjoys taste of first World Cup victory

Six years after a horrendous crash in which both her feet and ankle bones were crushed, US aerials skier Emily Cook, a Belmont native, broke through to earn her first World Cup win last Saturday in Moscow.

Cook, who once wondered if she would ever walk well enough to ski again, went through extensive surgeries and rehabilitation. Two weeks before the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, Cook landed short of the steep incline and came down on the flats from a height of more than 20 feet.

"This is just an incredible feeling," said a jubilant Cook to Ski Racing at the finish of the event, competed in heavy winds and snow before 30,000 fans. "I knew that someday my first World Cup would happen. It's really rewarding to go out and perform your best and be on top of the podium.

"I was shocked. Really and truly, you just focus on your jumps and take it one jump at a time. I was at the bottom and had no idea that I won."

Cook, a 1997 graduate of Carrabassett Valley Academy in Maine, did not know at the time that the technical director of the event was Glen Eddy, a longtime director of the CVA freestyle program, now living in Moscow.

Teter isn't wobbling

The US Snowboarding Grand Prix lands at Killington, Vt., later this month with Elijah Teter leading the men's overall halfpipe standings. The middle man in Vermont's snowboarding family, which has produced 2006 Olympic gold medalist kid sister Hannah Teter and pro rider Abe Teter, is ahead of snowboarders such as Shaun White, Louie Vito, and Scotty Lago.

"I've finally got some runs that I've been landing," he said on the phone from South Lake Tahoe, Calif., where he lives. "It took me a while."

Teter's riding has improved since a 2006 backcountry accident. Six weeks later, he was snowboarding again with a new attitude.

"That changed my mind-set," he said. "I was able to take some good from the bad."

On the women's side, Kelly Clark leads the standings, followed by Ellery Hollingsworth and Gretchen Bleiler.

Jacobellis riding high

Whiteface is a hot spot for Lindsey Jacobellis. She notched her fourth consecutive win since 2005 at the upstate New York mountain outside Lake Placid Saturday by taking the US Snowboarding Cup.

The snowboardcross victory put the Vermont rider atop the World Cup standings. She's still second in snowboardcross behind Canada's Maelle Ricker.

Nick Baumgartner picked up his first World Cup win at the event while Tyler Jewell placed second in Monday's parallel giant slalom . . . Torrin Koos (Leavenworth, Wash.) finished 19th and Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, Vt.) was 22d in the 1.2k classic sprint race in downtown Drammen, Norway, yesterday, although neither advanced to the semifinals of the World Cup event.

Honor for Bartlett

Middlebury's Steve Bartlett was named Alpine coach of the year by the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association.

The second-year coach led Middlebury to a string of impressive finishes during this year's carnival tour, including a win in the Vermont Carnival.

He also led the Middlebury men to the Dartmouth Cup this season for winning the combined total score for Nordic and Alpine racing this EISA season.

Before coaching at Middlebury, Bartlett worked for four years as a coach for the US Ski Team in Park City, and was a member of the 2006 coaching staff at the Turin Olympics, where he guided gold-medal winner Julia Mancuso.

Fun and fund-raising

White Mountain Adaptive Snowsports School, a nonprofit program at Loon Mountain that provides skiing and snowboarding instruction to people with disabilities, will host its 19th annual Kostick Kup fund-raising event Saturday.

Festivities begin at 10 a.m. with the Kostick Kup Race on Coolidge Street on Loon Mountain. Teams of five, each with at least one racer with a disability, compete against the clock and each other.

Prizes are awarded not only to best performance, but for most stylish descent and a category known as "agony of defeat."

Evening activities include a silent auction, live auction, and awards ceremonies. The Kostick Kup has raised around $70,000, the funds going to scholarships and general operating expenses for students with any disability to enjoy participation in snowsports.

Ski area for sale

Mount Abram, the small western Maine ski area in the shadow of nearby Sunday River, is for sale at $1.8 million.

Owner Josh Burns, a Falmouth, Maine, portfolio manager, purchased the 44-trail ski area at a 2000 auction for $325,000, plus back taxes.

The mountain is family oriented, and Burns has invested in improvements in necessities such as chair lifts and snowmaking. Mount Abram also offers tubing.

Ski area operators and real estate developers in the Northeast and Canada are being targeted as primary buyers.

Mount Abram, in Greenwood, changed hands three times in the 1990s before Burns bought it.

Meister Cup on tap

Hannes Schneider's influence is still felt at Cranmore in North Conway, N.H. Known as the father of modern skiing, his Alpine skiing technique helped energize skiing in the 20th century. Cranmore is celebrating its 70th anniversary, and this weekend the 12th annual Hannes Schneider Meister Cup honors the Austrian skimeister. Schneider ran the ski school from 1939-1955. His son Herbert, now 87, was also an integral part of the mountain and is expected to attend this weekend, as are racers from the Ski Club Arlberg in Austria, the active-duty 10th Mountain Division of Fort Drum, a team from the Army Mountain Warfare School, and one from the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

Deal hard to pass up

A troika of northern New England ski areas are joining forces for a season pass next season. Loon, Sugarloaf, and Sunday River will offer the New England Pass, which allows skiers and riders access to 305 trails and 13 terrain parks. The early bird gets the big deal on the pass, starting at $349 if purchased before April 30. That price - the Bronze Pass - is a midweek, nonholiday pass. The Silver Pass at $599 has 12 blackout dates, with the Gold Pass at $899 giving unrestricted access to the Boyne Resorts . . . Snowboarders looking for a spot in the US Open this month at Stratton Mountain in Vermont will vie for a slot at Waterville Valley in New Hampshire this weekend during the Burton Demo Tour Super Stop. The North American tour touches down in the White Mountains, with lots of demo gear for riders. The halfpipe event is Saturday and slopestyle is Sunday. The tour stops at Stratton March 14-16 . . . More than 1,000 telemarkers are expected for the 33d annual NATO Telemark Festival at Vermont's Mad River Glen Saturday and Sunday. There are demos and clinics for all ability levels. The ever-popular Mountain Dew Vertical Challenge hits Jiminy Peak Sunday.

Globe correspondent Marty Basch contributed to this report.