There are so many traps. There’s the booby trap and the sink trap. The velvet trap and the parent trap. The sand trap and the Trapp Family Singers trap. But the worst trap of all is the Can’t Do Anything Until You Do Everything trap.

That’s the trap with the biggest, baddest teeth. That’s the trap that immobilizes you before you take your first step. That’s the worst trap in the world.

Say, for example, you’re a skier or a snowboarder, and you’re getting a trifle concerned about the whole global warming thing. This has been a good snow year, but you remember last winter, and you can’t help but wonder — which is the new norm and which is the aberration?

So you decide to take a first step. Something small. Like change the light bulbs. Or carpool to the mountain. Or buy a gas miser instead of guzzler. Whatever. It’s your step.
You tell a ‘friend’ your plan. The ‘friend’ sets the Can’t Do Anything Until You Do Everything trap.

Goes like this:
“Change the bulbs, dude? That’s just pissing in the wind. You got, what, four bulbs, dude? Five? You think your puny little light bulbs are gonna have any effect on the whole planet?”
Or like this: “Carpool? That saves how much gas? Do you know how much more a 747 uses just taxiing down the runway? Like one-zillion times more. Fuggedaboudit!”

Or this: “Why not buy a Hogger III? I’m tellin’ you, until capitalism is overthrown, until indigenous peoples are no longer marginalized, until sexism and militarism are brought to their knees, it all means nothing. NOTHING!”

Here’s the truth. Our snow’s at real risk. Our planet’s at real risk. Your first step, when combined with my first step and his and her first steps may or may not be enough to turn the risk around.

Working together, can we save our snow? Dunno. Too early to tell. Or maybe too late.

But what we do know, and know for sure, is this: If you and I and she and he don’t take that step, if we let ourselves fall into the jaws of the Can’t Do Anything Until You Do Everything trap, we’re turning up the heat, not cooling our corner of the globe.

And if we let ourselves get talked out of taking that step and the next step and the next, we just may end up kissing our sweet snow good-bye.

As many as 11 Canadians could qualify for FIS World Cup Finals in Bormio, ITA with solid results this weekend. With nine racers already qualified and another two potentially added to the team with strong World Cup results this weekend, Canada is looking to qualify its largest team ever for next week’s World Cup Finals in Bormio, ITA.

World Cup downhill champion Britt Janyk (Whistler, BC), who is currently third in the downhill standings with one DH race in Crans-Montana, SUI to go on Saturday, leads the hunt or World Cup medals.

Janyk is followed closely by teammate Kelly VanderBeek (Kitchener, ON) who is fourth in the downhill standings.

Emily Brydon (Fernie, BC), who is a 2007/08 World Cup super G champion, sits fourth in the overall Ladies SG standings and ninth in the downhill.

On the Men’s side, World Cup champion John Kucera (Calgary, AB) has qualified for World Cup Finals in downhill, super G and giant slalom. Erik Guay (Mont-Tremblant, QC) has qualified in the DH and super G while Manuel Osborne-Paradis (Vancouver, BC) will enter the World Cup Finals in seventh place overall in the downhill standings.

Currently in 19th in the giant slalom standings François Bourque (New Richmond, QC) will be joined by Robbie Dixon (Whistler, BC), who is in the midst of a breakthrough season that has him sitting in 16th in the super G standings on his way to the first World Cup Finals of his career.

Jan Hudec (Calgary, AB) also qualified in the downhill but will not attend due to injury.

Jean-Philippe Roy (Ste-Flavie, QC / Gatineau, QC) and Michael Janyk (Whistler, BC) both have a little extra motivation this weekend. Roy currently sits 28th in the Men’s World Cup giant slalom standings with just one more GS race, in Kranjska Gora, SLO on Saturday, remaining before the World Cup Finals get underway.

The GS race in Kranjska Gora, SLO can be seen on CBC’s Pontiac Alpine Ski Series with coverage beginning at 2 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. MT.

Michael Janyk, who is currently 38th in the Men’s slalom standings, could qualify for the World Cup Finals with an excellent result in Sunday’s SL in Kranjska Gora. The slalom can be seen on Rogers Sportsnet at 2:30 p.m. ET / 12:30 p.m. MT.

The 2008 FIS Alpine World Cup Finals take place on the famed “Stelvio” slope in Bormio, ITA from March 12th to March 16th.

Canada sent a record 10 ski racers to the 2007 FIS World Cup Finals in Lenzerheide, SUI.

Steve Omischl of Kelowna, BC, clinched the season’s crown in men’s aerials with a victory on Saturday at the World Cup in Russia, while Deidra Dionne of Red Deer, Alta., won a silver in women’s aerials.

Steve Omischl

Omischl totalled 240.32 points for his fifth victory this season. Stanislav Kravchuk of Ukraine finished second in 236.45 and Nicolas Thepaut of France, third at 226.26.

“Anytime I win an event I’m pleased,” said Omischl. “And I also jumped well. I feel like I really earned this one. Plus the conditions were great today which allowed everyone in the field to get off their hardest jumps. That put a lot of pressure on everyone and I was able to overcome that.”

In the overall standings, Omischl is now uncatchable.

“Winning the overall is something very special to me,” he said. “I really believe it is the hardest thing to do in sport. It’s even harder than winning at World Championships or the Olympics. You have to perform every single week. It really defines the best athlete.”

More than 35,000 spectators were at the competition, one of the largest crowds in recent memory for a freestyle skiing competition.

“The crowd wasn’t too happy with me because I bumped a Russian down to fourth place with my performance,” said Omischl with a laugh.

In women’s aerials, Elizabeth Gardner of Australia was the winner at 86.15 with Dionne second at 83.16 and Xin Zhang of China third at 83.00. It is Dionne’s first big result since coming back from a serious injury that knocked her out all of last season.

Dionne hurt her neck in September 2005 in Buller, Australia, and underwent surgery to stabilize her cervical spine. After the Turin Olympics, she took the 2006-07 season off to strenghthen herself mentally and physically for competition. It was last summer before she began jumping again.

“It’s another little step along the journey,” said Dionne. “I’m jumping better every week and I take a lot of confidence from that. Getting a medal at this point is faster than I would have hoped for, as I’m doing easier tricks this year. We were ready to celebrate the fifth and sixth places… But today it happened; I was one of the best girls out there.”

It’s Dionne’s final competition this season.

“I don’t want it to end,” she said. “I feel so healthy I want to continue.”