It's been a slippery slope

US Alpine team struggling overall

Though the season is very young, most members of the US Alpine ski team are off to a relatively slow start.

Defending overall champ Lindsey Vonn is back in first place, but the team's inconsistency during World Cup races in North America this month showed the US isn't likely to repeat last year's record haul of five world titles.

Both the men and women had several skiers finish in the top 15 a year ago; this season, only Vonn and Olympic champion Julia Mancuso - in her return from surgery - are in the women's top 20.

Some of the perennial heavy hitters top the men's overall standings, with Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal nailing the speed events (first in downhill, second in super-G) to lead and former overall champ Benny Raich from Austria in second (first in combined, second in downhill, and fourth in giant slalom).

The top US male through seven races is Ted Ligety, who is in a three-way tie for seventh thanks to his second-place standing in the giant slalom. Bode Miller of Franconia, N.H., is off to a slow start in defense of his overall title, sitting 12th. Miller is a surprising second in slalom, but 54th in super-G, 25th in downhill, and 23d in giant slalom.

The men return to World Cup action tomorrow in Val Gardena, Italy, while the women begin three races in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Ross Powers wants to leap from halfpipe amplitude to getting the hole shot in boardercross. The two-time Olympic medalist is gunning for a spot on the US team for Vancouver 2010.

Powers, 29, plans to compete in a couple of Colorado Nor-Ams and the Boreal stop of the US Grand Prix next month. Acing those tests can lead to a World Cup slot.

Powers says he's still learning about racing tip-to-toe against a bunch of riders heading down a course loaded with jumps and banked turns.

"Boardercross is a little more serious," he said. "The hardest part for me is I'm used to jumping jumps to see how high I can go. I have to learn how to absorb them and stay low to the ground."

Powers spent a portion of the summer training with the US team in Argentina and participating in a couple of Continental Cups in boardercross. His best finish was sixth.

Powers grew up racing gates, and also dabbed in motorcross.

"I have the experience, I just have to train and put it all together," he said.

This weekend, Sunday River celebrates the grand opening of its Chondola lift, offering free skiing and riding as well as live entertainment and fireworks.

"The Chondola is one of the biggest construction projects Sunday River has ever seen," says Dana Bullen, general manager of the resort in Newry, Maine. "Our goal with the Chondola is to provide better overall experience for our guests. From a more efficient ride to the new activities associated with the Chondola, there is a lot to celebrate."

The Chondola takes skiers and riders to the top of North Peak in just seven minutes. The lift combines 64 six-rider chairs with 16 eight-passenger gondola cabins.

Don't have a car to get to the slopes? Take the bus. Starting Jan. 4, the Loon Express will travel on non-holiday Sunday and Friday mornings from Rhode Island and Boston to Loon Mountain in Lincoln, N.H.

The bleary-eyed leave from the University of Rhode Island at 5:30 a.m., with stops at the New England Action Sports parking lot in Warwick, Brown University, and Rhode Island School of Design. In Boston, look for pick-ups at the Grove Street MBTA lot, St. Ignatius Church in Chestnut Hill, and Boston University. The return bus leaves Loon at 4:30 p.m.

The cost, which includes an all-day lift ticket, is $59.95 for Friday and $69.95 on Sunday. Reservations are a must; call 1-800-477-SNOW.

If you drive a Zipcar to Waterville Valley, everyone in the car gets a $15 discount on a lift ticket. Zipcar also has a promotion for college students who don't go home during break. Those who carpool in a Zipcar to Waterville Valley mid-week (non-holiday) can get a $30 lift ticket and free board rentals. For more information go to www.zipcar.com.

Sugarloaf and Sunday River are teaming up for 12 days of Christmas deals, including tomorrow's promotion of $39 lift tickets for residents of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, free lift tickets for seniors (65 and older) on Dec. 24, and free lift tickets for kids 12 and under on Christmas Day . . . Stratton Mountain has a new Sunday afternoon (non-holiday) family four-pack of tickets for $99 that includes a free pizza at Grizzly's . . . Start the new year by learning to ski or snowboard for free. From Jan. 4-11, a dozen Vermont resorts will have free lessons, rentals, and limited lift tickets for first-timers. Sign up at www.skivermont.com.

A rare type of ice build was blamed for the partial collapse of a gondola tower at the Whistler ski resort in British Columbia Tuesday afternoon. Thirteen people were slightly injured and dozens were trapped for hours in unheated gondola cabins when a tower on the Excalibur gondola buckled, bouncing two of the cars off the ground. The resort, which will host the Alpine events of the 2010 Olympics, said the tower failure occurred when water somehow seeped into a splice on a section of a tower. An extreme deep freeze turned that water to ice, rupturing the splice in what the resort says is an extremely uncommon phenomenon known as "ice-jacking." Those findings must still be confirmed by the British Columbia Safety Authority, but a spokesman for Whistler was confident a safety authority inspection would find no similar risk on any other lifts at the resort. All lifts on Whistler Mountain were expected to be opened yesterday.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.