For the week of February 27 - March 5, 2002

Sol FEST on Bald Mountain is slated for end of March

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By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

Sun Valley’s annual dose of "new school" skiing and snowboarding is coming in March.

Sol FEST, scheduled for March 24, highlights expression in skiing and snowboarding and will feature a massive kicker on Bald Mountain’s Roundhouse slope. It’s an effort to tap trends in alpine winter sports and to help market Sun Valley to a younger demographic.

Last year, local skiers and snowboarders and two professional skiers dazzled a crowd of more than 2,000 with their huge bags of huge tricks.

It was the most impressive display of aerials to hit Bald Mountain since Sun Valley was on the cutting edge of the freestyle skiing movement in the 1970s, according to the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber of Commerce.

This year, the event’s third, promises to be bigger and better, according to the chamber.

Salomon and Airwalk are joining Budweiser, Freeze Magazine, Sun Valley Co. and Smith Sport Optics as event sponsors. Athletes sponsored by Salomon, Airwalk and Smith are slated to perform.

Sucker, a funk band from Boulder, Colo., will perform at the River Run base of Bald Mountain following the big air exhibition, and Merl Saunders and His Funky Friends are slated to perform later that evening at the nexStage Theater in Ketchum.

 

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