Spring Time Slush

Well that time of year is here, the temperatures are rising and the snow is getting soft and people are sure to fall victim to some nasty sunburns.  Spring skiing has arrived, one the best and worst times of year to ski.  They are a mix of days with perfect snow from an overnight sprinkle and bluebird skies with warmer temperatures to slushy snow, over-heating and closing down of your favorite runs.   As April draws near, avid skiers are saying a sad farewell to the season and already planning out their days for next season (me) or they are just going to migrate with the snow to Chile or somewhere that they can keep that incessant goggle tan going.   Spring skiing seems to posses some the best on-mountain stories. I am going to recap my personal favorite.

One of my first memories of the sacred spring skiing season is when my friends and I all got to be in a ski school class together (what were are parents thinking), it met every Saturday for six weeks.  Being in 2^nd grade at that time we thought we were the coolest kids the mountain, grant it we were higher level than most kids our age but we needed a reality check.  At the end of the six-week program every “team” would do a performance for parents at the bottom of the hill.  You did a synchro ski routine to the song of you choice and you had a team name that they announced, we took this very seriously. We practiced every single week, our poor instructor Pania, who we idolized, with her skilled skiing and Australian accent could hardly change our old skiing habits with our focus on the final performance.

            The second to the last week we all decided we all wanted to do the performance on blade skis, they are super short, Band-Aid looking ski’s, that do not handle the spring slush well at all. We had incorporated all kind of low level tricks and turns that needed to be done in your normal ski but we thought the extra touch of the blades along with our song choice “Eye of the Tiger” and team name of “Snow Cheetahs” was a clear winner. Clearly we were into the cat family at that time.

             Pania told us that we could do not it on blades, she told us do not bring them next week, she also explained we would for sure not win any recognition if we did them on blades. Did we listen? Of course not. We all lied to our parents, and told them we could bring our blade skis, our parents, not strangers to the spring snow perils were questioning this but let us go ahead anyways. 

Ali, Alex, Ashton, Jordan, Ally, Me and Reid

            Fast-forward to the final day, the big performance, we even received the privilege of being able to take or helmets off, which our parents did not enjoy, to wear bandanas on our head.  Imagine a team of six 2^nd grade girls, in different colored bandana (hello bikers), being announced as “snow cheetahs” to the song “Eye of the Tiger”, it was a scene. We started down in our blades, about to perform our first trick of skiing under each other legs, half the group made it through the other half, blades could not cut through the slush, so it was a car crash 10 seconds in. As they struggled to get up, the other half proceeded with Pania stuck in the middle, they were doing a gate simulation with bodies.  It is staggering each other to ski through like gates, as they entered the tuck position.  Kendall Blake, I will never forget, crashed into me so hard from her edge being caught, that there was a gasp. We were laughing and within 30 seconds of our two-minute performance it was already done. All because of those stupid blade ski’s. We are all so mad, and embarrassed that we could not finish nor that we showed off our perfected routine. On the other hand if left our parents and Pania laughing and gave them the worst parent permission to say, I told you so.  

            All I can say is, spring snow you win, you literally took us down.  It not only taught us the ways of spring skiing but also gave us a reality check about how seriously we should take ourselves.  Kendall, Ashton, Ali, Alex, Jordan and Reid, I still think we look pretty good out there. I still have that bandana, I wore the bright blue one.  Spring skiing may not be the best conditions for skiing but I think it is the best condition for memories.

            

2013 X-Games Hometown Showdown

Tinge, France is about to experience a intense showdown. In the 2013 X-Games Park City has sent five different athletes to compete. They compete March 20-22. Some of them were born and raised in PC, others moved to town early on to train. Each of these athletes grew up perfecting their style right in front of each other weather at the Utah Olympic Training Park or the Park City Mountain Resort half-pipe and terrain park.

These guys were also the people who I grew up walking the halls of high school with and sometimes skiing with. I may not be park skier myself but I have a lot of respect for the skill and talent of these guys. As I skiied the trees to right of the run, I could see each "cork-screw" or "back-flip mute grab" (different trick's coming off the jump or pipe). Needless to say, between my I-phone X games app and a friend with Tivo, I cannot wait to watch my hometown showdown. Here are the competitors:













Torin Wallace- Mens Superpipe







Walter Wood- Mens Superpipe
















McRea William - Mens Slope Style




















Alex Schlopy - Mens Slope Style









Joss Christensen- Mens Slope Style



For a little background on what this all about. The Winter X Games are, as described by ESPN is: " a competition compiled of the greatest winter action sport athletes from around the world competing on an annual basis" I totally agree, the X-games is not meant to replace the the thrill of the Olympics but be in a totally different realm of sport competition. It has a judging system that better recognizes the difficulty of the high-risk tricks. It also embodies the FreeSki culture much better, and competition is much more individual. The events also include snowboarding and snowmobiling.


The first Winter X Games took place in 1997 at Mountain Resort in Big Bear Lake, California. Starting in 2002, the games Winter have been held at Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen, Colorado. This year ESPN decided to do two rounds of the winter X-Games, first round occurred in January in Aspen and this week the second round is taking place in Tinges, France.



Being in Texas is not ideal when thinking about how I could be perfecting my own carve or rotation but watching these risk-seekers is pretty good. Your sport becomes that much more special when you are cheering on people  you know. Fame, glory and the vision of Marker and Burton sponsor deals are on the horizon for them. Best of luck to all the athletes but I know who I am looking to see on the podium.

The World Cup Review

I can tell you it is not the fireworks that make a great World Cup experience, save that for 4th of July.  It the combination of practice run the actual  few competition runs, and the atmosphere of high caliber competition. The World Cup is an experience that cannot be surpassed, it is a honor to host the global community and watch athletes try and reach Olympic dreams. The fact that it is at my home resort of Deer Valley, makes me want to get a plane and get home for some freestyle skiing.

Getting on the chairlift in your snow boots and shoes as the sun sets down up the resort, indicates the special experience, this is no normal events on the mountain. Make sure you dress warm or you will freeze in those dark nights. As always there is the IHC LifeFlight helicopter at the top, which is stark reminder that this high actions sport is full of risk for that 10 second thrill.
The hike up to the base of the venue is always a trek, the cold air filling your lungs.

As you approach you come upon the huge white VIP tent, let me tell you in all my World Cup watching days, I have never been in the white tent but I would rather not. It is down on the snow, leaning against the fence where you can get sprayed with by the athletes as they come to a stop that really and seeing their moms and dads face that makes this such a cool event.

It is hard not to to go slack-jaw when you see the athletes bump and bounce across the moguls, hopefully nailing their Iron Cross. The ring of the cow-bells and people waving flags from all the over the world, brings this feeling of such content. It is very uniting, everyone doing this for the same purpose. I am counting the minutes until the 2014 FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup in January already.

I love how  extremely goal-oriented this event is and normally skiing is not a place where I place too much emphasis on goals.  But when watching the world cup I cannot help but envision myself trying to accomplish all the flips and flys of those athletes one day. I want the snow gods to grant me the ability to catch all that high flying air. I guess that is my competitive spirit coming through. Hey you never know maybe one day you will see me on that FIS route.