April 6, 2007 – The ‘World Cup’ City of Schladming Austria played host to the Second Annual 2007 Atlas Roof Stone Extreme World Snowshoe Championships this past weekend on the Dachstein Glacier. Some of the finest winter endurance athletes gathered for the event representing Italy, Canada, the United States, Austria, Finland and Switzerland. The athletes raced over a very demanding 11km course at altitudes ranging from 8500’ to nearly 10,000’. Visibility was near zero as a low cloud cover consumed the glacier.

The Italian men and women proved to be the class of the field once again this year. The recently crowned 2007 European Snowshoe Cup Champion, Claudio Cassi of Italy, claimed the Gold Medal. Countrymen Antonio Santi and Daniele Cappelletti took the Silver and Bronze respectively. The first non-european finisher was 2007 Canadian National Snowshoe Champion Jimmy Gobeil of Sherbrooke Quebec Canada who finished in 4th place. The 2007 snowshoe season featured Canada’s first National Snowshoe Championships. The top American finisher was Matthew Medeiros of Saranac New York. His 5th place finish improved upon American Aaron Robertson’s 6th place showing from the 2006 World Championships. Sylvester Coons of Nevada finished a close 7th.

In the women’s competition, Italian snowshoe diva Cristina Scolari claimed her first World title. Sandrine Schornoz of Switzerland took the Silver, while two-time U.S. National Snowshoe Team member Laurie Lambert of Texas earned the Bronze medal. Lynann Lorenz of Apalachin New York raced to a 4th place finish right behind Lambert.