Extreme Downhill Ski Racing presents the thrills and spills of this intriguing extreme sport. The carefully written, considerate text will hold the readers' interest and allow for successful mastery and comprehension. Written with a high interest level to appeal to a more mature audience, these books maintain a lower level of complexity with clear visuals to help struggling readers along. A table of contents, glossary with simplified pronunciations, and index all enhance achievement and comprehension.

A journey into the world’s original extreme sport: downhill ski racing. Harnessing nature’s most powerful forces, elite downhillers descend icy, rugged slopes at speeds cresting 90 miles per hour. For decades, American skiers struggled to match their European counterparts, and until this century the US Ski Team could not claim a lasting foothold on the roof of the Alps, where the sport’s legends are born. Then came a fledgling class of American racers that disrupted the Alpine racing world order. Led by Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn, Julia Mancuso and Ted Ligety, this band of iconoclasts made a place for their country on some of the world’s most prestigious race courses. Even as new technology amplified the sport’s inherent danger, the US Ski Team learned how to win, and they changed downhill racing forever. The Fall Line is the story of how it all came together, a deeply reported reconstruction of ski racing’s most dramatic season. Drawing on more than a decade of research and candid interviews with some of the sport’s most elusive figures, award-winning journalist Nathaniel Vinton reveals the untold story of how skiers like Vonn and Miller, and their peers and rivals, fought for supremacy at the Olympic Winter Games. Here is an authoritative portrait of a group of men and women taking mortal risks in a bid for sporting glory. A white-knuckled tour through skiing’s deep traditions and least-accessible locales, The Fall Line opens up the sexy, high-stakes world of downhill skiing—its career-ending crashes, million-dollar sponsorship deals, international intrigue, and showdowns with nature itself. With views from the starting gate, the finish line, and treacherous turns in between, The Fall Line delivers the adrenaline of one of the world’s most beautiful and perilous sports alongside a panoramic view of skiing’s past, present, and future.

White Heat is pure adrenaline—a thrilling exploration of extreme skiing that pushes the reader over the edge with heart-pounding accounts of people who risk their lives on the fastest, steepest slopes. Often obsessed and possibly crazy, extreme skiers and snowboarders are having the time of their lives facing death-defying challenges. But the extreme skiing life isn't just about the quest to finish first; it's a lifestyle made up of insane jumps, bone-breaking speeds, and world records—not to mention the wild off-mountain social world, the flamboyant gear and slang completely unique to it, and, of course, the remarkable history of the racing champions and events that is its backdrop. Wayne Johnson, former competitive skier and acclaimed novelist, takes us into the cult of extreme skiing populated by stars such as one-eyed jumping champion Jerry Martin, who held the North American distance record for more than a decade, and Vinko Bogataj, whose world-famous wipeout on ABC's Wide World of Sports gave rise to the expression “pulling a Vinko.” Here are real-life adventures, everything from Shane McConkey ski BASE jumping the Eiger in Switzerland to Shawn White, the Flying Tomato, throwing 1260s in the halfpipe. Johnson, who has spent a lifetime on the mountains, also puts you in his boots when recounting goose-bump- inducing tales of high-speed downhill racing, Nordic jumping competitions, avalanche control, and the hip, ripping world of snowboarding. If you've ever wondered what kind of nut would willingly choose to fly off a twenty-story ski jump, or have ever dreamed of living outside the usual boundaries, or just like to read about people having life-expanding adventures, then White Heat is an exhilarating thrill ride that will leave you breathless.

“Great sports writing. . . . [Vinton] is taking us inside a world few ever visit.”—James Hill, Washington Post Harnessing nature’s most powerful forces, elite downhillers descend icy, rugged slopes at speeds cresting 90 miles per hour. For decades, American skiers struggled to match their European counterparts, and until this century the US Ski Team could not claim a lasting foothold on the roof of the Alps, where the sport’s legends are born. Then came a fledgling class of American racers that disrupted the Alpine racing world order. Led by Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn, Julia Mancuso and Ted Ligety, this band of iconoclasts made a place for their country on some of the world’s most prestigious race courses. Even as new technology amplified the sport’s inherent danger, the US Ski Team learned how to win, and they changed downhill racing forever. The Fall Line is the story of how it all came together, a deeply reported reconstruction of ski racing’s most dramatic season. Drawing on more than a decade of research and candid interviews with some of the sport’s most elusive figures, award-winning journalist Nathaniel Vinton reveals the untold story of how skiers like Vonn and Miller, and their peers and rivals, fought for supremacy at the Olympic Winter Games. Here is an authoritative portrait of a group of men and women taking mortal risks in a bid for sporting glory. A white-knuckled tour through skiing’s deep traditions and least-accessible locales, The Fall Line opens up the sexy, high-stakes world of downhill skiing—its career-ending crashes, million-dollar sponsorship deals, international intrigue, and showdowns with nature itself. With views from the starting gate, the finish line, and treacherous turns in between, The Fall Line delivers the adrenaline of one of the world’s most beautiful and perilous sports alongside a panoramic view of skiing’s past, present, and future.

Men of the U.S. ski team compete to see who can get down the hill the fastest, without breaking his neck. They do it to see how far they can push themselves. They also do it for money, and for the sheer, heart-pounding thrill of it. This book is a searing portrait of these ski racers who stake their youth for the adrenaline rush of perfecting this most difficult -- and riotous -- of sports. It portrays the glamour, intensity, and intoxication of their lives, following them across Europe and North America as they sweep into each resort along the tour, party like crazy, and fight like hell to keep their place among this elite group of athletes.

Discusses the sport of extreme downhill skiing, including the unique equipment, safety measures, and aerial stunts.

There is an old joke among skiers, usually put to other fans of the sport as a question: what's better, sex or skiing? The answer is a given, but the hesitation in answering, that moment of serious consideration, is cause for humour. Extreme skiers get it. They know skiing isn't just a sport; it's a lifestyle, one inextricably bound up in the notion of adventure. This book is all about that adventure, that call to some of the world's best known, and unknown, slopes. About downhill racing, and the sophisticated, international club of competitors and the upstarts who on occasion beat them. Throughout this book are skiing's stars, such as Bode Miller, Stein Erickson and Jean-Claude Killy. This is a book about riding on the edge of danger and surviving it, about the thrill and focus of competition, and the thrill of rescue. It is a book of people; some quirky, some delightful, some strange, some just plain crazy, but all of them drawn to White Heat, the extreme skiing life.