Photo courtesy of UniversalSports.com

Fellow POC athlete and Olympic downhiller, Steve Nyman, shredded some muddy water on the Colorado River recently after a brief stint at the Teva Mountain Games held in Vail.  He brought Ken Hoeve and Whitney Guild with him to test out their surfing mettle on the Colorado’s mighty flow down at the Glenwood Springs play wave. 

Ready for a Stillwater Preserver Mission

Well, it seems that the last six or so weeks of my life have existed in that place between ‘holy shit, that was awesome!’ and ‘wait, what just happened?’, leaving me in a fluttering state of mind.  Going into it, I knew my time in Canada would pass quickly, but ninety days flashed right on by.  The last few weeks were chock full of new experiences and wild stories.  I had a chance to ski from the summit of Mt. McKenzie and cross Arrow Lake on an inland ferry with my van in the same day.  I drank a boilermaker shot with some Canadian Legion members and skinny-dipped with fellow ski bums Leah Evans and Dersh later that evening.  I swam in hot springs – commercial and natural, with tunnels and diving boards, hot and cold dips – all around the Kootenays , from Ainsworth to Fairmont, Halcyon to Radium. 

This short ninja mission to SIA is coming to a close. Meetings with sponsors, high fives with athletes, and parties galore. Denver is a little mellower of a location for the ‘Snow Show’ than Vegas, but no one is letting that hamper the festivities.

The snowboard side of the Denver Convention Center was just as obviously raucous as it was in Sin City, with Volcom once again claiming straight clown status with all their whistles and hijinks. It’s an interesting approach to conducting business at a tradeshow: make as much noise as possible to distract business in nearby booths, while slipping their own clients into some soundproof booths. It’s a sabotage strategy that somehow relates to core points for a brand that is ever constantly growing bigger and farther away from being core. Or, maybe I’m just not core enough to appreciate it all.

As for the skiing side of things, I peeped the new offerings by Blizzard/Tecnica and was greeted by some awesome new Tecnica Agent AT boots (Dynafit compatible) and some early rise Titan Argos shred sticks. From the vibram soles on the freeride boots, to the neon sidewalls on Blizzard Answers, it’s great to see the designers trust our freeride team’s suggestions.

I was on POC’s behalf that Justin and I even considered leaving snowy British Columbia for the city streets and skyscape of Colorado’s capitol city. POC’s new line of sunglasses stole the show, in my opinion, with four frame styles and some great lens options. The party on Wednesday night at the Bluebird Theater proved to be quite the show, with yours truly acting as MC and introducing musicians like Bryon Friedman and Everclear. Huge thanks to POC and General Snus for turning over the mic to this ski bum.

Now, Justin and I are waiting for our first flight here at DIA with crossed fingers that our 23 minute layover in SLC will be long enough to clear the international security check and board our plane. If only Delta could promise us even a 50% odds that we’ll make it. At least my beautiful girlfriend, Jamie, drove down from Aspen yesterday to hang out. She even gave us a ride to the airport early this morning; a hug and kiss later and we won’t see each other until her birthday trip to BC in March.

So, with girlfriends, SIA, cities, and CO snow-drought behind us, Justin and I are ready to bury ourselves deep into BC’s interior and continue our quest for fresh pow. Powder Highway…we’re baaaaack!!

I know, I know, I’m the Powder Highway Ultimate Ski Bum. You’re probably thinking that I should be in Canada the whole three months, ripping around the Kootenays in uninterrupted bliss. And I agree with you.

However it’s SIA time, and all things skiing are happening in Colorado this week. This ski bum is going down to Denver to host a party for helmet and body armor manufacturer POC at the historic Bluebird Theater. Top secret playbill, so make sure to line up early!

I’ll be running around the tradeshow floor pumping the Powder Highway and drinking free beer on Friday, so say hi if you see me. Then, it’s back to Canada to finish off the next two months of pow hunting in BC. Yippee!

Up here in Revelstoke, BC, the Freeskiing World Tour (FWT) competition has ended and athletes are making their way down to the US for the next stop. The 2010 inaugural event here in Revy saw everything from blue skies and sun to blistering wind and snow. But, the organizers saw to it that it went off in style, and the finals were spectacular.

The much anticipated helicopter ride for the athletes to the top of the final day venue took off just as planned, and with a bit of a weather delay the athletes had a big task ahead of them. When the skies cleared enough and the fog lifted, everything went into full comp mode and the ladies started charging down the steep hill. Rocks, cliffs, chutes and big moves in hang time kept the crowd charged up as athletes delivered line upon mindfreakin’ line.

Notables of the day went to Jacqui Edgerly with her fast fluid style arcing turns down highly exposed terrain and finding the sweet air at the bottom. Julien Lopez hit his bottom air at 110km an hour and flew a million feet straight out into the stratosphere, landing close to 18m back on the snow below.

Winning runs were turned in like clockwork by Jess McMillan over the course of the weekend, with the Jackson local claiming her trophy like the true professional she is. What a great presence to have on the FWT! The ladies are definitely amping up the game, and spectators were left wondering who was who on those burly lines up in Revelstoke’s MacKenzie face.

The real treat for me this week was in watching fellow POC athlete Arne Backstrom put down some solid, consistently impressive skiing on the way to the top of the podium. He came out of the gate strong and sent it hard down terrifying terrain, all while carving turns through rocky cliffs and landing in greasy turns on each air. The game is on, and Arne has set the bar for the 2010 FWT.

Justin brought out the camera in the rare bits of sunshine during this last week, and we’ll be dropping an edit soon. It’s been storming up a bit around here in Revy, and we met up with the Trew Crew in their bright blue and purple bus to get some pow turns and check out their rippin’ athletes tearing it up. Chuck Mumford, Mike McCabe, Will Dujardin, Colter Hinchliffe, Sonja Lercher, and Craig Garbiel definitely turned some heads while flipping, spinning, slashing and laughing all around Revy’s lengthy terrain. The trewth has been spread.

With a few more days in Revy ahead, and a sweet drive up and over Roger’s Pass to Kicking Horse, a ski bum can only wonder what lay on the road to Golden…??

What a trip!