Nearly 3 feet of snow thumped down on Wednesday, February 24th. I was in and out of the white room all day and pointed it over cliffs I would never step up to without a sea of powder to land in!
At Mulligan's on Tuesday night, in-between scarfing down nachos smothered in melted cheese, serving N.Y. Strip steaks and chugging cranberry juice, I periodically opened the back door to see how much of the good stuff had accumulated.
I had been waiting for this all season. The night that I would have to blow up an air matress, lay it down in my 12'x12' office and crash here for the night. It needed to be done if I was to be on the American Express at the crack of dawn.
Burton, Forum, YES, K2, Atomic, Rossignol, Head - practically every ski & snowboard manufacturer in the industry happend to be here for a series of Demo Days and reps were frothing at the mouth, staring up at the empty chairs ascending into the snowy abyss.
Seemingly apologetic skiers were on their cell phones with friends who would miss the first chair. "They just closed the access road," one of them said. "And my buddies are stuck behind a Bud Light truck."
600 acres of untouched powder reserved for the 600 people who had spent the night drinking at Grizzly's, listening to DJ Boss-tone(out of Boston, where else?) and sleeping everywhere and anywhere but their own beds.
I went from bobbing my head to Sleigh Bells' "Ring Ring" playing in the background of a Sierra-At-Tahoe Powder Stache video to smiling and sweating in a balls deep stache of my own on Stumpy's. It was deep. I was with two kids who love snowboarding as much as I do. Boosting off of obstacles that would send a mountain biker to his bloody grave if he were truckin down this pitch in July.
Leone, who is the epitome of a fun-raiser, was talkin' to his homey Matty about the two things he loves most in this world as we sprawled out 3 wide on a high-speed six-pack in the Sun Bowl.
I love snowboarding because it makes me feel like I'm apart of a family. Not that I didn't have a family growing up, I did. And most of my family members were the ones who prompted me to beg and plead for a snowboard in the first place. But even now, with the members of my hometown crowd living the dream in their respective flats and cribs across the states, I still feel like I'm apart of something bigger. Something living and breathing and ever-changing.
This is my dream, and like the series of storms that keeps crashing into the Green Mountains, I don't want it to stop.
Monday, March 1, 2010
IOC Tips Cap to One More Skiing Revolution
With the start gates in an upright position, Switzerland’s Armin Niederer, Patrick Gasser and Andreas Steffen flex their skis and ready their bodies for an explosive start onto the Skier X course at Buttermilk Mountain.
A raucous, “Course is clear. Racer’s ready”, echoes through the nearby Aspens and steel-framed launch-pad before a soprano voice suddenly answers.
“No! Wait,” requests Winter X rookie Fanny Smith. Smith, the youngest skier on the roster at age 17, wants one more practice run. Gripping the start gate handles, she is as energetic as a girl who has just learned that her older brothers have agreed to include their sister in a race to the chairlift.
Smith was extremely fast and timed her passes perfectly in the Skier X women’s semi-finals. Keeping her speed through rollers, gaps and banked turns as massive and intimidating as the mythic Tahitian waves at Teahupo’o, she put herself in contention to make the podium in the finals.
With the most dominant racer in the history of Women’s Skier Cross, Ophelie David, Ashleigh McIvor, Kelsey Serwa, Aleisha Cline, Marte Gjefsen and Smith advancing, the stage was set for one of the most competitive finals in the history of Winter X and a preview of the upcoming Olympics.
Skier cross, which is making its debut as a full medal sport at the 2010 Winter Games, represents one of the most demanding competitions in ski racing today.
Not restricted by formal structures and formats, ski cross is part of the FIS freestyle discipline and the majority of competitors, Smith included, have an alpine skiing background.
According to her father Christophe, Smith, who is going into this year’s Games ranked 17th in the FIS World Cup standings, is crazy about the fusion of motocross and downhill racing because, “She doesn’t want to wait at the bottom of the course and watch 120 girls race the clock; she wants to ski more runs!”
Over the past 18 years, the IOC has introduced the freestyle skiing event of moguls, skeleton, the head-first sledding sport, snowboarding and more recently snowboard cross, to the Games. Not only are these sports attracting a younger and broader market of television viewers, but they are also attracting the next generation of Olympians themselves.
While bluebird skies and temperatures near 28 degrees Fahrenheit at mid-mountain meant the 3,500’ X course would be in choice condition, the same cannot be said for the Skier Cross setup in Vancouver.
Despite Cypress Mountain having installed a snowmaking system of 35 snow guns, 51 hydrants and a 5 million gallon reservoir designed to throw a three-foot blanket of snow over trails being used for Olympic events, organizers have been forced to move more than 100,000 cubic feet of snow via truck and helicopter to the venue.
When St. Moritz, a city in Smith’s home country of Switzerland, was appointed by the IOC to host the second Olympic Winter Games in 1928, fluctuating weather conditions made these Olympics memorable. Warm weather plagued the Games and the 10,000 meter speed skating event was canceled entirely.
After a clean start in the finals, Whistler’s Ashleigh McIvor took the lead. She was followed closely by her fellow country woman Kelsey Serwa, but Cline, David and Smith were gliding through the most technical section of the course hot on the Canadian’s heels.
Ophelie David, who was attempting to make Winter X Games history by earning the first ever Skiing four-peat, shot herself off of an adrenaline-pumping feature dubbed the “Alter” and stole the first place position from McIvor. David maintained her momentum to win her fifth X Games medal and Smith narrowly missed the podium, finishing in fourth.
The six-time World Cup Champion is favored to win gold again in Vancouver, McIvor will benefit from her hometown crowd rooting for her success and all the racers will have to contend with difficult waxing conditions. If Smith manages to put down fast runs in qualifying she could earn a spot in the Women’s Ski Cross finals, which are scheduled for February 23rd, and happily ski one more run.
A raucous, “Course is clear. Racer’s ready”, echoes through the nearby Aspens and steel-framed launch-pad before a soprano voice suddenly answers.
“No! Wait,” requests Winter X rookie Fanny Smith. Smith, the youngest skier on the roster at age 17, wants one more practice run. Gripping the start gate handles, she is as energetic as a girl who has just learned that her older brothers have agreed to include their sister in a race to the chairlift.
Smith was extremely fast and timed her passes perfectly in the Skier X women’s semi-finals. Keeping her speed through rollers, gaps and banked turns as massive and intimidating as the mythic Tahitian waves at Teahupo’o, she put herself in contention to make the podium in the finals.
With the most dominant racer in the history of Women’s Skier Cross, Ophelie David, Ashleigh McIvor, Kelsey Serwa, Aleisha Cline, Marte Gjefsen and Smith advancing, the stage was set for one of the most competitive finals in the history of Winter X and a preview of the upcoming Olympics.
Skier cross, which is making its debut as a full medal sport at the 2010 Winter Games, represents one of the most demanding competitions in ski racing today.
Not restricted by formal structures and formats, ski cross is part of the FIS freestyle discipline and the majority of competitors, Smith included, have an alpine skiing background.
According to her father Christophe, Smith, who is going into this year’s Games ranked 17th in the FIS World Cup standings, is crazy about the fusion of motocross and downhill racing because, “She doesn’t want to wait at the bottom of the course and watch 120 girls race the clock; she wants to ski more runs!”
Over the past 18 years, the IOC has introduced the freestyle skiing event of moguls, skeleton, the head-first sledding sport, snowboarding and more recently snowboard cross, to the Games. Not only are these sports attracting a younger and broader market of television viewers, but they are also attracting the next generation of Olympians themselves.
While bluebird skies and temperatures near 28 degrees Fahrenheit at mid-mountain meant the 3,500’ X course would be in choice condition, the same cannot be said for the Skier Cross setup in Vancouver.
Despite Cypress Mountain having installed a snowmaking system of 35 snow guns, 51 hydrants and a 5 million gallon reservoir designed to throw a three-foot blanket of snow over trails being used for Olympic events, organizers have been forced to move more than 100,000 cubic feet of snow via truck and helicopter to the venue.
When St. Moritz, a city in Smith’s home country of Switzerland, was appointed by the IOC to host the second Olympic Winter Games in 1928, fluctuating weather conditions made these Olympics memorable. Warm weather plagued the Games and the 10,000 meter speed skating event was canceled entirely.
After a clean start in the finals, Whistler’s Ashleigh McIvor took the lead. She was followed closely by her fellow country woman Kelsey Serwa, but Cline, David and Smith were gliding through the most technical section of the course hot on the Canadian’s heels.
Ophelie David, who was attempting to make Winter X Games history by earning the first ever Skiing four-peat, shot herself off of an adrenaline-pumping feature dubbed the “Alter” and stole the first place position from McIvor. David maintained her momentum to win her fifth X Games medal and Smith narrowly missed the podium, finishing in fourth.
The six-time World Cup Champion is favored to win gold again in Vancouver, McIvor will benefit from her hometown crowd rooting for her success and all the racers will have to contend with difficult waxing conditions. If Smith manages to put down fast runs in qualifying she could earn a spot in the Women’s Ski Cross finals, which are scheduled for February 23rd, and happily ski one more run.
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