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Thursday, May 16, 2013

crested butte and back to nz

The last comp of my season in America was at Crested Butte.
I went into CB feeling really confident in my skiing, and ready to send it.
At first glance the venue for day one was looking rather uninspiring, but after spending a while picking through the options in inspection, I settled on a line I liked.
I skied really clean and moved through to the final day in 6th position, along with a nomination for sick bird (which Neil Williman won!).

I went into the finals feeling mighty confident in my skiing.
I picked a relatively unique line that I could tell I was going to really enjoy.
The snow on the finals venue was pretty thin and firm for us, but I can tell it would be off the chain with a little more soft stuff!

My finals run didn't go quite as smoothly as I had hoped.
I made my way down to my first feature, a side hill drop into the main chute.
As I popped off the lip of my drop the snow collapsed a bit under my feet, which knocked me forward and put me in a bad position to land.
I landed on my feet and put down a hand, almost hip checking and got pointed up hill.
Although it took me a while to get back on track and sort my self out, I never actually fell and managed to ski the rest of my line as planned, finishing the comp in 12th overall.

A result I am happy with, all things considered.

Neil Williman deserves a big shout out for his efforts.
He put in a solid effort and sent it on day 2 and finished up in second place, aaand he won the title of Sick Bird.
Sick Bird is the award given to the person who sent and stomped the biggest, gnarliest drop/line out of anyone in the comp, they give out one sick bird belt buckle at each of the Subaru Freeski Stops in the USA, and as far as Im aware Neil is only the 2nd Kiwi (following Janina Kuzma) to earn that title.
His result at CB also guaranteed him a spot back on the WORLD TOUR necxt year.
So congrats Neil!
Your a badass!

Crested Butte has probably got the best, most easily accessed in bounds pillow skiing I have ever come across.
Massive steep lines with stacks 5 to 10 high, possibly more, closing out into some pretty gnarly trees.
All accessed by a simple traverse off the T bar.
The snow was a little unforgiving for pillow skiing while I was there, so I didnt get a chance to immerse myself in the pillowy madness, its definitely a spot id like to return to with some pow!