McMaster University hosted the 2010 Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race at Glen Eden ski area, near Milton, Ontario. Engineering students were there from across the country, from Victoria to St. John's. What makes these contraptions official 'concrete toboggans'? All surfaces in contact with the snow must be concrete. They also need a structure on top to hold the five riders, plus some sort of marginally functional braking system. Let's just say that it's a good thing there's lots of hay at the bottom of the track!

Olympic double-medallist Karen Percy-Lowe and members of Team Ontario and Team B.C joined us on the slopes at Lake Louise to teach me the basics of aerodynamics in ski racing. The perfect tuck is an essential element in downhill racing, and Karen's task was to see if she could turn me into a speed demon! The snazzy yellow speed suit didn't hurt, either!


Our guest skiers were all smiles here, but it was cold out there and they still hung in with us! Hope everyone has finally warmed back up again! Thanks for the lessons!

It was cold and snowy at Banff's Mt. Norquay in early December, but that couldn't stop us as we took a very close look at how snowboarders exploit Newton's third law of motion every time they execute a spin in the air. (Actually, they exploit all the laws all the time, but we chose to focus on the third law!) The third law, in its common form, says that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. And if you want to spin in the air, then you had better implement all the forces necessary to execute that spin before you leave the ground. Otherwise you'll just wiggle a lot!


Thanks to Mt. Norquay and our snowboarders - John, Colin, Tony, and Steve-O! Don't forget that for all the jumps you get to see in the segment, they had to walk back up the hill! It was a great day for everyone, and you'll notice that there are no photos of me going off the jump. I'll stick to trying not to fall over on my face.

On December 1, 2009, the Daily Planet crew descended on Mt. Van Hoevenberg at Lake Placid, NY, one of the host sites for the 1980 Winter Olympic Games. We conducted a simple experiment to explore how momentum affects the speed and elapsed time of the bobsleigh. As an integral part of the experiment, I had the thrill of a lifetime as I took three runs down the World Cup track in a two-person sled. To understand what it's like, imagine yourself inside a hardware store paint-shaking machine sliding downhill at over 100 km/h. It's unbelievably painful, scary, and fantastic!


Huge, huge thanks to driver Bryan Berghorn, brakeman Nate Mousseau, launcher Ethan Albrecht-Carrie, organizer Jon Lundin, and the entire sliding crew at MVH! You guys rock! And you're just a little bit nuts.

If you want to get cold and wet very quickly, then go halfway up a mountain and turn on all the snowmaking cannons! And then stand in the middle of it while filming. The folks at Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid, New York, showed us how to get 'er done! They had snow on the top of the mountain, but their snowmaking was critically important for getting the base started on the lower half. We filmed this on November 20, 2009.