The athletes and organizers of the Freeskiing World Tour had a powder day today, choosing to use the optional weather day to wait out the surging storm. Revelstoke Mountain Resort is offering up the use of their helicopter to shuttle athletes to the landing zone (LZ) at the top of the almost 2000 vertical feet of spines, chutes, and cliffs. With everything on hold for the day, the mountain was abuzz with the whoops and yells of roving groups of freeriders dressed in baggy, bright clothes.
If you had a chance to ride the 8-seater gondola from the mid-mountain lodge today, you would probably have seen some frozen waterfall lines being sent by shredders in full-face helmets. Or snowboarders slashing some turns down a steep, powdery face. Not much sun out, so most folks were taking advantage of their low-light goggle lenses to battle the drab greybird day full of indistinguishable clouds. With all the gladed, steep tree skiing on the main aspect of Revelstoke’s frontside, poor-visibility is not an issue.
To wrap up our day, some friends and I ate some good burgers at Nomad’s and finished it all up with a hot tub session. The yoga from the other night can still be felt in my muscles, but the hot tub definitely helps. Tomorrow, the comp wraps up; I’m hoping to get some interviews with fellow POC athlete Arne Backstrom , while he sits in third place going into an epic finals.
Well, it’s been a few days since this year’s Telluride Freeskiing Open finished up and crowned new champions for the 2008 season. Griffin Post and Hannah Whitney each threw down a series of runs throughout the two-day event to solidify their spots at the top of the podium.
The big news of the weekend came out of Aspen, which Frankie and Pauldo (the gracious announcers) dubbed the “Ripper Factory” for all the talent that has recently been coming out of the woodwork. John Nicoletta and Adam Moszynski came in 2nd and 5th, respectively; it’s great to know that the people I get a chance to ski with on a regular basis can rip so hard AND do it when the pressure of a competition is on. So proud of you guys, and the rest of the Aspen crew will be out in force at the rest of the competitions for the season, so watch out for the “Ripper Factory” to set a new standard in your home ski area.
In other news, my first day run sent me into the air in a sideways hangtime and my dream of a successful weekend was cut short by a hard impact into the middle of the main gully of Genevieve (the first day venue).
The following video is the first episode in a series I like to call Man vs Mountain. Each episode will be one of my competition runs from the US Freeskiing Series this year. Enjoy!
Well, Emily and I made it back to Aspen without much of a hitch. The drive out to Vegas was a little hairy at times, and we had to pull over twice due to the whiteout blizzard conditions. But, with it all said and done, SIA was really fun; it’s hard not to have fun though, when you’re in Vegas with a bunch of pro skiers and free booze. Luckily, the call of the powder back in CO gave us a little foresight when accepting the plentiful libations offered. I know I thankfully declined a few in hopes that my body would last until I was back on the gondola at Ajax.
There’s some sweet pics from my cell phone from the show; check out my Facebook profile for the shots.
I’m making my way to Vegas, and after negotiating rides out to the city of sin, I’ve teamed up with Emily from FreeTime Goods for the trip. We’re going to Vegas for the annual SIA (Snowsports Industry Association) tradeshow to go and support our friends at Discrete and High Society. Emily’s gonna play the part of navigator/full-throttle energy consultant/hat designer&crocheter while I man the wheel and burn rubber all the way to the Strip. Check out my Twitter -ing down in the green box below and Facebook me back any comments or ideas of what to do on this most epic of adventures!
If you’re in Vegas, come find us at the Blizzard/Tecnica or the Discrete booths!
The TatsVan is gettin’ some press coverage. Check it out:
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