Snowboarding Takes Yet Another Hit

That it hasn’t snowed for a week might be the story of the week. . . .

Nah.

All this white stuff on the ground has people doing all sorts of foolish things. As if they need it to do the foolish things they’re doing.

Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati claimed he was a victim of secondhand smoke when he tested positive for marijuana during the Olympics at Nagano, Japan, after which he was temporarily stripped of his gold medal.

Fellow Canadian Frederic Brett Tippie, 29, and Michael Kildevaeld, 31, a member of Denmark’s Olympic snowboarding team, will not have that luxury, having been caught with a veritable smoking gun, which in their case was a pipe and two grams of marijuana.

The bust occurred last Saturday after they were stopped by a Nevada sheriff’s deputy who clocked them at 83 mph on U.S. 395 near Topaz Lake, about 35 miles north of Bridgeport.

Kildevaeld admitted that the substance belonged to him, the deputy said, but both he and Tippie were charged with felony possession of a controlled substance and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.

A third snowboarder, Anton David Pogue of Hood River, Ore., was asleep in the car and not arrested.

The three were headed from an event at Kirkwood Ski Resort south of Lake Tahoe to Bear Mountain in Big Bear Lake when the traffic stop occurred--only two miles from the California border.

Had they been pulled over by police in California, where possession laws aren’t nearly as strict, they probably would have received tickets and been sent on their way.

Instead, Kildevaeld and Tippie, who were released from a Minden, Nev., jail Wednesday on their own recognizance and are scheduled to appear at an April 8 hearing, face felony charges that could jeopardize their careers. (Kildevaeld finished 15th behind Rebagliati in the men’s giant slalom at Nagano; Tippie finished 31st in the world championships in Italy a year ago and did not compete in the Olympics.)

FATAL MISTAKE

One would have thought the death of Jamil Khan, a promising pro snowboarder killed two weeks ago in an avalanche near Donner Summit in the Lake Tahoe area, would make people think twice about venturing into the back country ill-prepared and during periods of extreme avalanche danger.

Khan, 22, who was standing atop a cornice that collapsed, taking him down the mountain and burying him under eight feet of snow, did not have an avalanche beacon and his friends did not have shovels. It took rescuers two hours to find him.

Now comes word of the death in Colorado of Danny Kim, 20, who was not a pro and was relatively unknown.

Like Khan, Kim went into the back country despite avalanche warnings and with no beacon.

Along with Kim on this foray into the Rockies was Jude Fontenot, 21, who brought skis instead of a snowboard. The pair hiked for two hours on snowshoes to the top of remote Berthoud Pass.

They were caught in the slide they triggered moments after beginning their descent. Fontenot’s skis came off and he managed to “kind of body surf” on the snow; Kim, who remained on his snowboard, was not as lucky.

Fontenot eventually made it to nearby Berthoud Pass ski area. Members of the ski patrol later found Kim’s body buried under three feet of snow.