US confident despite up-and-down start

The US Alpine Ski Team headed into the Christmas break contemplating a mixed bag in terms of results thus far, but with some genuine rays of hope for the rest of the season.

For technical racers, that hope starts Sunday and Monday in Semmering, Austria, where Julia Mancuso - Olympic gold medalist, and once ace of the staff - hopes her recovery from back surgery a year ago helps her build on the 13th-place super-G finish at St. Moritz last week.

Defending champion Lindsey Vonn still holds a slight lead in the overall World Cup standings, though she had some disappointing races leading into the break.

Because of cancellations and postponements because of bad weather, the speed schedule is heavily loaded in the weeks right after the break. Seven races in the next eight weeks should sort things out for the women.

The men rebounded after some tough going at Whistler in early December, followed by some rough luck with the tough Birds of Prey course in Colorado.

At Val Gardena, Italy, last week, a record five US skiers placed top 10 in the downhill. Bode Miller finished second, while Marco Sullivan came close to the podium with his fourth-place finish. Rookie Erik Fischer, wearing a No. 52 bib, placed seventh, and sounded emboldened.

"I began the season struggling," Fischer told the Associated Press, "but now with some confidence, it's definitely game on."

Steve Nyman placed ninth with TJ Lanning taking 10th.

After the break, the men's World Cup resumes in Bormio, Italy, this weekend.

Seth Wescott and Michelle Gorgone led the way for the US Snowboarding team at the World Cup stop in Arosa, Switzerland, last week. Wescott notched his first World Cup snowboardcross victory and Sudbury's Gorgone seized her first second-place World Cup parallel slalom finish.

Gorgone, a 2006 Olympian, reached the World Cup podium for the sixth time in her career and has done well racing parallel giant slalom.

"I have always raced in both disciplines, however, I have never had much success in parallel slalom until Arosa," she wrote in an email from Europe. "Sunday's course was extremely soft, making ruts form quickly which played a huge role in the line that was fast for the day. My approach was just to ride the banks and get as much speed out of them as I could."

Wescott, the snowboarder from Farmington, Maine, was relieved to get his first win under his belt.

"I have had so many times where I've made mistakes," Wescott told ussnowboarding.com. "It's nice to get it done. Standing in the gate before the last heat I looked at the guys around me . . . I was feeling confident and I got it done.

"It was nice to get it over with."

A couple of New Englanders - Kelly Clark and Scotty Lago - launched themselves onto the podium on the Winter Dew Tour's first stop last weekend in Breckenridge, Colo.

Clark, the Olympic gold medalist from West Dover, Vt., finished second in the superpipe Sunday to Gretchen Bleiler.

Lago, of Seabrook, N.H., bagged third in the superpipe behind winner Danny Davis and snowboard phenom Shaun White. White rode to slopestyle victory Friday, with Sam Hulbert of Peterborough, N.H., fifth and Kevin Pearce of Norwich, Vt., ninth. Landing a 1080 helped Tanner Hall win Friday's freeski superpipe competition; Simon Dumont of Bethel, Maine, finished fifth.

The tour stops in Vermont at Mount Snow Jan. 8-11.

The early returns are in, and preseason sales of snow sports equipment seemingly defied the economic recession by rising 9 percent over last year. But a closer look at nationwide retail figures reveals that "carryover" gear drove the market, meaning consumers were opting for clearance items instead of shelling out bigger bucks for current-year model skis and snowboards.

An audit released by Snowsports Industries America covering August-to-October retail sales shows that carryover ski sales rose a whopping 73 percent over 2007, and that carryover snowboard sales were up 47 percent. Sales of new skis and snowboards were "down significantly" in most categories, according to SIA.

Cranmore will roll back lift ticket prices to $3.30 on Jan. 9 in conjunction with a weekend celebration of the first ski trains that rolled into North Conway, N.H., 70 years ago. Festivities will also include train rides, a ski history lecture, a blessing of skis, and live music.

For snow sports enthusiasts who can't decide exactly what activity they'd like to try, Great Glen Trails is offering an all-inclusive one-day pass for a discounted price. The "T3" package includes rentals, a trail pass for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, all-day access to the tubing hill, a session on the 25-foot indoor climbing wall, and a 75-minute SnowCoach tour above the Mount Washington treeline. The $65 adult T3 pass ($103 if all activities were purchased separately) also allows guests to swap rental skis for snowshoes. A junior version for kids under 12 is available for $45.

Globe correspondents Marty Basch and T.D. Thornton contributed to this report.