This just in from Pat Sewell, fellow Blizzard team rider:

Hello friends!!! I hope this letter finds you all in good spirits and in good health with many powder days under your belts this season! I just wanted to drop you all a line and invite you to the "First Annual Fallen Friends Memorial Bump-Off, Shred Fest, and Fundraiser" set to go off Saturday March 21st at Aspen Highlands! I hope you all can come celebrate the mountain lifestyle that unites us all in honor and remembrance of our fallen friends Johnny Nicoletta, Wallace Westfeldt, Billy Poole, Blake Davidson, and all the others of an unfortunatley long list of fallen friends. The event is a benefit for the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club and is a team formatted new-school bump off and shred fest intended to unite the entire snowsports community. The venue will consist of a unique set of bumps, jumps, jibs, bonks, kickers, and even a ski splash. A venue with something for everyone whether you’re new-shool or old-school. Participants will compete in teams of 2-5 throughout a two hour jam session and be judged based on overall impression, team costume, and various other catergories. DJ Naka G will be spinning live on scene and a party & good times are a sure thing! So come get get your shred on and help raise some money for the kids! Saturday March 21st, Aspen Highlands, Colorado, USA, Earth… Get a team a 2-5 people together, decide a team name and theme/costume, register at www.aspensnowmass.com/springjam or bring $$$ the day of the event, and come ready to shred, party, and celebrate the lives of our fallen friends. $25 per participant. All proceeds going to the Aspen Valley Ski Club. See you all there!!! Do it! Do it!
P.Sewell
PS- Please forward this e-mail to all your friends and help me spread the word!

Sad news today:

Julien Lopez alerted me to the fact that our good buddy and great skier, Adrien Coirier was injured during today’s Freeride World Tour event in France.  He has sustained injuries to his shoulders, ribs and back, and may have to be medically induced into a coma.  This is a terrible situation and one that is too close for many in the freeskiing world.  Please think good thoughts for our friend Adrien, and know that he is strong of both character, will, and body.

Thank you.

Well, after a long night of little sleep, I found myself loading the Snowbird Tram once again on a quest to make it into the Freeskiing World Tour stop in Utah.  After a conversation with some of the event staff last night at the Tram Club, thoughts of how to make something happen at this comp began to swirl in my head.  It was almost unbearable, especially since we had discussed ways to tone back my ‘go for broke’ approach.  This is something I just haven’t been able to do, and today’s qualifier was no different.

After my inspection run early this morning – well before the sun crested the ridge of West Baldy – I couldn’t choose anything on the venue that looked good.  All the snow had hardened up overnight after yesterday’s warmth and sunshine cooked the recent snowfall that graced the slopes of Snowbird’s steeps.  All the take-offs and landings on any air I could find were either too difficult to maneuver or too icy for what I could see as a successful attempt.  And, being as it were that I was running fairly early in the start order, I couldn’t hope for the sun to have enough time to warm up the snow before my run.

Luckily, the event staff understood the less-than-ideal situation confronting all of us qualifiers, and they decided to push back the start time to give the venue a chance to get a peek of that bright, warm orb in the sky.  This was exactly what I needed to get out there and just shred.

With that call made by the organizers, and after a pep talk by my good friend Andy , I finally came to a decision on the line I would ski.  And boy oh boy, am I happy about that!  There is nothing worse than sitting in a qualifier, not knowing exactly what to do or where to go with no more chances to on-hill inspect the venue.  So I decided to go for a similar line to my last year’s qualifier that had placed me in 8th.

This is a quick couple of turns with an air or two, followed by a straightline down a chute and finishes up by chattering across old traverse tracks and down through the finish.  It is fast and highly consequential if I fall, so that was exactly my plan: don’ fall.

With my run finished, I could finally breath again and I began to look at tomorrow’s venue with a little more zest.  If I had fallen today, my weekend would only consist of drinking beers at the bottom while watching my peers ski sweet lines in each venue.  So, with no fall, I was now able to pick out some fun features to catch air and ski fast on tomorrow’s venue, hoping only for a good start position.

Whew…

Well, here I am in Snowbird once again for the US Freeskiing Nationals.  I have drawn a start number of 18 for tomorrow’s qualifier, meaning I will be running fairly early in the start order of 65 guys.  And this is after the first qualifier heat went off all day today.  Wow.  The popularity of these comps is greatly represented by the number of qualifier participants, not to mention the record fast time for the comp to sell out online.

And with more skiers comes a depth of talent ever better each year.  I like that.  It’ll feel better to win it all with so many good skiers out there.

But, I’ve gotta get through this qualifier first.  Eat, sleep, wake, shower, eat, and shred.  The name of the game tomorrow is fast, fluid and show that I deserve to be in the big show.  More to come tomorrow…

Freeskier Magazine Ski Test:  Day 2  (all photos by Shay Williams)

Day two was a lot like day one.  However, the sun decided to hide behind the clouds, which left the snow firmer than we have seen this week.  By 11am, the recreational skiers on the hill had lazy-turned their way down enough to shave a nice layer of softy-slough snow on the surface of every groomer – a recipe for absolute ridiculousness.

As if testing a different ski every couple of runs wasn’t enough to shake me out of my comfort zone, Shay Williams decided to gather a flock of freeskiers to send a blind knoll on the front side of Copper Mountain.  With Kevin Kruse’s ecstatic motivational stories of a youth spent avoiding ski patrol wrist-slappings on the very knoll we were about to send, my confidence began to build.  It was when our group of twelve broke into sessions of three or four and pointed it towards the lip at mach-schnell, that I decided that whatever went down would become quite the story, not to mention the photographic evidence to go along.

Then I found myself dodging the last few gapers on the hill, following Steele and his friend through the orange maze just before the knoll, thinking only of the ridiculous skis I had on my feet.  It was my first run on them, and I had no opportunity to build any ability to believe they handle stomp a big landing, let alone the DIN quality of the demo bindings.  But there I was, topping 30 mph towards a blind take-off, my only confidence based on the positive movements Shay was demonstrating from behind the lens as he perched right at the lip and waved his free hand.

Whoosh.  Tip grab.  Stomp.  Sweet, I’m still on my skis and in my bindings.  My mind rushed; I could barely recall Steele’s friend tossing the smooth 360 not more than three feet ahead of me as we sailed through the air.  Confidence rushed right back into my brain as I slid a few turns to a stop.  These skis rip, I say to myself.

“I think they call that a Zudnik!” someone yelled from my right, stomping his landing, afterbang in full effect.  Blindly ignoring the trees rushing past him to the side, Henrik Lampert dropped his hips and slashed a turn, spraying snow up in the air and covering the nearest tree.

“Sure!”  I replied; it didn’t matter the name of the trick, or even how big.  The general stoke of the situation was enough to pull even the most hungover of testers out of bastardness.  High-fives all around, our little group of ski testers and reps alike laughed about our ‘rebel’ act, our minds wandering back to the task at hand.  Length? 181. Radius? 38. Tip profile? Lowered.  Shop talk aside, the session exacted its meaning upon us: we were here to have fun.  Beer and nachos at the end of the day only helped grease the fires for the evening’s debauchery, but that is a story for another time.

Check back for more hot Freeskier Fest action on Day Three at Copper Mountain Resort.