Teter has some tricks up sleeve

She's healthy and ready for Tour

The easygoing Hannah Teter is tight-lipped when it comes to how she plans to fly in the halfpipe this season.

"That's top secret information," she said with a laugh from South Lake Tahoe, Calif. "I'm working on a lot of stuff. I'm trying to do more inverts and corked-out rotations that you don't see at the girls' level. I want to be more creative."

Teter's spent a lot of time in the gym after a knee injury forced her to take it easy last winter. Nonetheless she delivered third-place finishes at the European Open and Breckenridge Grand Prix.

The 2006 Olympic halfpipe gold medalist and Vermont native is among several planning to compete in the three-stop AST Winter Dew Tour, which begins Dec. 18 at Colorado's Breckenridge, stops at Vermont's Mount Snow Jan. 8-11, and wraps up in Lake Tahoe, Calif., Feb. 19-22. Shaun White, Kelly Clark, Torah Bright, Danny Kass, and Kevin Pearce are also expected to compete. The snowboard and free-ski Tour has a $1.5 million purse.

"Kelly [Clark, an Olympic gold medal winner with Vermont connections] is definitely the one to look at this season," Teter said. "She's definitely pushing it and I'm going to be on her tail."

Teter is from Vermont's first family of snowboarding. She is being coached by big brother Abe, whom she remembers competing in the X Games at Mount Snow in 2000.

"I went there and watched Abe compete," she said. "I remember thinking it looked fun and that I should do that. That inspired me to do the same."

Since her Olympic win, Teter, 21, donates her competition earnings through her charity, Hannah's Gold, which raises money through maple syrup sales to children in Kenya. She and her family visited Kirindon, Kenya, recently where she saw the money being used for improvements to buildings and sanitation.

"This is a rest-of-my-career decision," she said. "I wanted to make some cashola for the children there. I needed a new kind of motivation to compete and this keeps me going while helping other people."

Cushioning the blow

Windham Mountain in upstate New York will become the first US ski resort to use a huge, inflatable compression bag to cushion the blows for skiers or boarders who botch their landings while performing halfpipe aerial maneuvers.

The heavy-gauge "Big Air Bag" measures 56 feet by 33 feet and reinflates every 10 seconds. Manufactured in The Netherlands and just now starting to catch on in Europe, Windham Mountain expects it will be a hit stateside, and signed on to be the product's distributor in America.

Windham intends to incorporate the Big Air Bag as a training tool for local freestyle teams as well as a fun perk for ticket-holders, but aspiring aerial acrobats will be required to view an educational demo video first.

A Big Air Bag Bash will be held at Windham Dec. 26-27. More information on the safety device can be found at www.bigairbag.com.

Granite grants

College and postgraduate athletes who are training for international competition and have a connection to New Hampshire snow sports are eligible for financial grants awarded by Friends of New Hampshire Skiing. Founded 30 years ago, the organization has raised $700,000 to help offset the costs of race training and traveling, and claims to be the only program of its kind in the US. Applicants must be affiliated with the Granite State through either residence, college, or ski club. Grants are awarded based on need and an athlete's potential to be in contention for a national team. Deadline for applications is Nov. 30, and details are available at www.skinhl.com or by calling 800-887-5464.

Getting green light

While on a trade mission to Dublin two weeks ago, US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) touted a unique visa program that will offer green cards in exchange for an investment of greenbacks in the Green Mountain State.

Since 1992, the federal EB-5 immigration program offers legal US residency to foreigners who invest $500,000 in businesses located in rural or high-unemployment areas of the country. A new three-phase expansion project at Jay Peak qualifies for the federal cash-for-visa swap, and a representative from the northern Vermont resort told The Irish Times that it is seeking 200 foreign investors.

An investor's spouse and children also qualify for green cards, but the EB-5 rules stipulate that the project must prove it has generated local jobs before permanent residency will be awarded.

Showtime on slopes

Opening day is near across New England. Hearty skiers and riders already have made turns at Sunday River, Killington, and Mount Snow.

Temperatures have slipped to snow-making digits and many resorts have the guns going when it's cold enough. Looking to open this weekend are Stowe, Okemo, Jay Peak, and Sugarbush in Vermont. Maine's Sugarloaf is shooting for Friday ($25 lift tickets this weekend with three cans of food).

Bretton Woods in New Hampshire could open today or tomorrow, with Attitash, Loon, and Waterville gunning for Saturday. Wachusett and Jiminy Peak are thinking Saturday, too.

Go to the Expo

Before venturing to ski country, explore the 27th Boston Globe Ski and Snowboard Expo at the Bayside Expo Center, which starts today and runs through Sunday. Among the featured demonstrations are two-time Olympian Doug Lewis's Elite Training Challenge, the Nor'easter Snowdown Rail Jam, and the Skyrider Aerial Spectacular on trampolines. Expo hours are from 4-10 p.m. today and tomorrow, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday . . . Wildcat Mountain was hit hard by what are believed to be scrap metal thieves in late October. Up to 30 aluminum pulley wheels used on towers to guide lift cables were stolen from a maintenance shed, and New Hampshire State Police said the wheels weigh about 10 pounds each, measure a foot in diameter, and are valued at $19,000 altogether. Salvage and recycling centers in northern New England are being asked to keep an eye out for the wheels, and Wildcat is offering a $500 reward for their return.

Globe correspondent T.D. Thornton contributed to this report.