DOVER- Action sports enthusiasts have reason to celebrate. On Monday, the Alliance for Action Sports announced the venues for the 2010 Winter Dew Tour and Mount Snow is one of them. So mark the calendar for February 5-7, 2010, because the world’s best freestyle skiers and riders are returning to Mount Snow’s Carinthia Snow Park and will be ready to compete for top prizes in the Alliance for Action Sports Winter Dew Tour.

The Winter Dew Tour is a two-sport series featuring freestyle skiing and snowboarding. It has attracted several X-Games and Olympic champions such as Tanner Hall, Simon Dumont, Shaun White, Danny Kass, Hannah Teiter, of Okemo Mountain, and West Dover’s own Kelly Clark.

Breckenridge, CO, Mount Snow, and Lake Tahoe, CA, were the venues for last year’s competition. In 2010, the Winter Dew Tour returns to Breckenridge for the first leg, travels to Snowbasin, UT, for the second leg, and concludes at Mount Snow for the 2010 Winter Dew Tour finals.

Mount Snow events director Greg Fisher said he was pleased Mount Snow was selected. Fisher said Mount Snow signed a 2009 memorandum of understanding with the Alliance for Action Sports that if all went well, the Alliance for Action Sports would consider dates for 2010. Shortly after the 2009 season ended, Fisher said Mount Snow met with Alliance for Action Sports officials and the process went smoothly. “In the first year we put in a big 40-page proposal. Now we know each other,” said Fisher. “ We met a few times, swapped phone calls, and they were great to work with.”

Fisher said he was confident that Mount Snow would host the Winter Dew Tour for a second straight year. However, he wasn’t expecting to hear the good news that the Alliance for Action Sports selected Mount Snow to host the Winter Dew Tour championships. “The Dew Tour came to us and we initially made a verbal agreement for January 23-24. They looked at everything, came back to us, and said ‘we’d like you to host the finals instead.’ Hosting the finals is an awesome accomplishment for us,” said Fisher.

Not only is the Winter Dew Tour championship being held on the Carinthia slopes, it is also the final major competition before the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC. Skiers and riders competing in the Olympics will fine-tune their skills at Carinthia and then head off to the Pacific Northwest where they’ll be going for gold. “It was hard to keep away from (the press). We knew they were coming back but we didn’t want to release the information until this week,” laughed Fisher.

Chris Prybylo, vice-president of events for the Alliance of Action Sports, said Mount Snow was an all-around great venue during last year’s Winter Dew Tour. Prybylo said athlete participation, overall attendance, and fan support “were great across the board.” Alliance for Action Sports officials liked the layout of Carinthia Snow Park and they were impressed by the local community’s involvement. According to Prybylo, it was a no-brainer that the Winter Dew Tour should return to Mount Snow.

“(Mount Snow) was one of the top venues on the tour. They were a terrific partner, the mountain, the town, and the fans were very supportive and we want to build on that,” said Prybylo. “The great Vermont crowds and friendly locals really made an impression.”

Last year’s Winter Dew Tour was broadcast live on NBC Sports, MTV, MTV2, and USA television networks. The tour included more than 31 hours of live programming, concerts, and special television features. Prybylo said all three stops of the Winter Dew Tour will be televised live on NBC and simulcast around the world on Eurosport 2, Extreme Channel, and Fox Sports Australia, with additional coverage on USA and MTV2.

“We expect the same coverage as last year and given the Olympics will take place shortly afterward, it will bring a higher awareness of the sport,” said Prybylo. The Winter Olympic games take place February 12-28.

It’s still not clear which athletes will compete in this year’s Winter Dew Tour. Prybylo said the Alliance for Action Sports reached out to several athletes, but they won’t find out until the end of the year.

As for Clark, Fisher believes she will return to Mount Snow to defend her Winter Dew Tour championship. “The Olympics need to play themselves out. Some athletes will qualify and train on their own while others will qualify and want to compete,” said Fisher.

Regardless of who shows up, Fisher says the second Winter Dew Tour will be just as good as the first one. “We’ll put our best foot forward for the area. We can’t wait to do it again,” said Fisher.