Welcome to Colville, great place to ski!  Skiing is a pastime which has brought together all cultures of today. Many different types of skiing are popular, especially in colder climates, and many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Ski Federation (FIS), and other sporting organizations. Skiing is most visible to the public during the Winter Olympic Games where it is a major sport.

In skiing's traditional core regions in the snowy parts of Scandinavia, as well as in places such as Alaska, both recreational and competitive skiing is as likely to refer to the cross-country variants as to the internationally downhill variants.

Colville is a mountain town in America's forested northwest, a town with Victorian, as well as traditional modern homes, a clean looking town that serves recreational, timber, and farm interests.

Elevation:  1,635 feet;  population 4,990

 Colville (pronounced "Call-ville") is the county seat of Stevens County (population, est. 30,948 in 1990 census) and lies in the Colville River Valley about one-half mile east of the Colville River and 10 miles east of the Kettle River and Columbia River.

 Colville is located at the junction of U.S. Highway 395 (north-south), which runs completely from Mexico to Canada through the center of Colville, forming the town's main street, and State Highway 20 (east-west), which runs from the Idaho-Washington border to the Pacific coast and Washington's San Juan Islands.

 Colville's slogan is "City of Proud Heritage."  Trade area population is about 26,500, and extends to about a 60-mile radius.  Principal industries in Colville and nearby are timber, agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism.

 Special features include the town's unusually wide streets, originally designed to allow a 16-horse team of log-hauling horses to turn a load of logs.  North of town is Colville Mountain, which displays a lighted cross for Christmas and Easter holidays and for other special occasions.  Weather in Colville is moderate, with some precipitation occurring nearly every month.  Tornadoes are unknown but a "wind inversion" in 1990 did slight damage to a few buildings in town.

For most people worldwide, the term "skiing" refers to alpine skiing where one visits a ski resort, purchases a lift ticket, dons cold-weather clothing, skis, ski boots and ski poles, and embarks on a chairlift, gondola lift, or other means of mechanical uphill transport. Upon reaching the summit, the skier disembarks from the ski lift and travels downhill, propelled by gravity, usually along a marked route known as a piste, "run," "trail," or "slope". Most ski resorts use mechanical equipment to "groom," or pack down and smooth, the snow surface on certain ski trails. Grooming is normally associated with trails of lesser difficulty. Off-piste skiing includes skiing in unmarked or unpatrolled areas either within the ski resort's boundaries or in the backcountry, frequently amongst trees ("glade skiing"), usually in pursuit of fresh fallen snow, known as powder.

Skiing or snowboarding outside a ski resort's boundaries, also known as out of bounds skiing, is illegal in some ski resorts, due to the danger of avalanches on the un-patrolled areas; or the cost of search-and-rescue for lost or overdue skiers. France and Canada are two of the few countries generally permitting this activity. In the United States, out of bounds skiing regulations vary by ski area; many ski resorts prohibit it and some simply post warning signs that skiers are leaving the patrolled ski area boundaries. However, lost or overdue backcountry travellers are usually held responsible for the cost of search-and-rescue service if uninsured. Backcountry skiers traveling in steep terrain prone to avalanches are encouraged to take avalanche training, travel with other experienced people, and carry special equipment for self-rescue. It is recommended that skiers make the local ski patrol aware of where they are going if they stray off-piste in case of avalanches or bad weather that could put skiers in danger.

Skiing techniques are difficult to master, and accordingly there are ski schools that teach everything from the basics of turning and stopping safely to more advanced carving, racing, mogul or "bump" skiing and newer freestyle techniques. There are two primary types of downhill skiing -- "telemark" and "alpine." Telemark skiers use flexible ski boots, either leather or plastic, and do not have their heels locked to the skis. Alpine skiers use stiffer plastic, non-flexible boots and have their heels locked to the skis with releaseable bindings. The venue, speed and technical difficulty associated with the sport can lead to collisions, accidents, hypothermia and other injury or illness, occasionally including death. Regional Ski Patrol organizations, such as the National Ski Patrol in the U.S., exist as a voluntary organization to provide guidance, help, medical assistance and emergency rescue to those in need of it.

For beginning skiers learning under a trained instructor, skiing speeds are low, the terrain is not steep and is often well-manicured, and the risks are relatively low. For extreme skiers, testing their expert abilities against ever more challenging terrain, the risks may be much higher.

In addition to its role in recreation and sport, skiing is also used as a means of transport by the military, and many armies train troops for ski warfare. Ski troops played a key role in retaining Finnish independence from Russia during the Winter War, and from Germany during the Lapland War, although the use of ski troops was recorded by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus in the 13th century. The sport of Biathlon was developed from military skiing patrols.

Another type of skiing called Jib skiing or New freestyle is a new style of skiing that started in the late 1990s. In this type of skiing, skiers use jumps also called kickers,or rails to do urban style aerial tricks.^[1]