Thursday, March 24, 2011

Final day for 2011 Jackson Hole Mountain Resort!

Crystal Wright GoPro Reel 2 from Brian Mulvihill on Vimeo.



Hoping to heal fast and be skiing in the Tetons by May 1st! Miss skiing already, but it is always good to have a al ittle break!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Amazing Season, injuries, competitions and hoping to ski in 6 weeks!



This year has been a pretty crazy year for me, it started in the end of August traveling and competing in South America. I placed second in the Las Lenas Freeskiing World Tour competition with only two days of skiing and then traveled around Chile skiing for another two weeks. The winter came early in Jackson this year and I started skiing around Halloween and have not taken more than a week off until now. In December I broke some ribs and only took a week off and then continued to ski and compete by wrapping them to deal with the pain. This was hard on me mentally for competing and skiing to my full potential. After just 3 weeks after injury I competed in Revelstoke having a rough trip crashing in the finals, but still adding a fourth place to my results. I came back to Jackson, skied and worked a ton and then Brian and I went to Europe for 8 days and had an amazing trip to Chamonix and La Grave.




I flew directly back into Kirkwood for the 4th competition of the season and brought my knee to my face on a flatter and bigger cliff then I had expected. I was home and back skiing with a swollen face but feeling pretty good about my skiing. In the meantime our skiing community lost a dear friend, which made it hard for me to want to ski with the normal aggression that I usually felt. I traveled to Snowbird for the finals and had a great finish and finals run, also it was great to say goodbye to all my fellow competitors and friends. It was a great year and we all became a close family once again, I was excited to come home and just ski for myself. There are so many lines in the Tetons that I would also like to get done this season.


Video of last skiing day and crash download here: https://files.me.com/brianmulvi/e4mv1o.mov


On Friday I decided to hit an air that I had been looking at for a long time, but had not hit because of travel, my ribs and my face. I felt that I was ready and was pretty nervous skiing into it, but I knew I could do it. As I was in the air about to land my right ski crossed my left ever so slightly and also clipped the left side of my friend Jimbobs bomb hole. (can see in video) My ski continued to twist with the force of the landing and my fibula snapped on the impact. I felt my shoulder also sublex and as I tried to ski down I could feel my bone moving in my boot. I knew that was not a good feeling to have, I tried to ski more, but I became very nauseated and dizzy and thought I should probably call patrol. I have never been so happy to see the patrol, they are like my second family and they safely took me down Rocks Springs Canyon and to the clinic. Thanks so much Cam, Mike, Sparky and Smiley, you guys are amazing. Also thank you Dr. Jeff for coming in to take care of me!! I am lucky and am only going to be laid up for about 6 weeks, so I hope to get back out into the Teton Park skiing! Overall I have had a pretty amazing year, but it still is hard not to be able to ski because I love it so much. Thanks to all my amazing sponsors as well for helping be able to travel and compete. Thanks Head, Arcteryx, Mountain Athlete, Scott, Hestra, Nuun, GU and Probar.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Snowbird Finals!!

Super excited with my finals run had a great time, placed second on the tour and second in Snowbird!

Thanks so much Arcteryx, Head, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Scott, GU, Nuun, Icebreaker, Hetsra and Probar!

Finals Women's Top 3: Snowbird 2011 from Subaru Freeskiing World Tour on Vimeo.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Ryan Hawks Memorial and Snowbird Day 1




Coming to Snowbird this weekend I had a lot of emotions flooding through me. I was not feeling like competing, but I just wanted to see everyone after our good friend and fellow competitor Ryan passed away in Kirkwood, Ca. Last night about 300 people went to the top of Hidden Peak and we all gathered around as the sun set over the Wasatch and the wind was hollowing. Ryan's dad gave a beautiful speech and then other close friends also spoke of good times and memories. We all huddled together as the the sun disappeared behind the mountains and I realized why I love to compete and why I love this family that we all have. It was so great to be with everyone that has the same passion and understanding of the sport. We all celebrated Ryan and came together as one!




Today was a beautiful sunny day and a super fun competition to ski in and watch, there was so much great skiing from everyone and in my opinion it was some of the best women skiing I have seen in a while. I picked a very fluid and fast run, and am sitting in a great position for tomorrow only one point out of 1st place. I love the venue and am surrounded by amazing friends and have great support from home. Tomorrow it will go live at freeskiingworldtour.com at 1030. Should be a good show!!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Tough Love


This is what happens when your face comes into contact with your knee!!


Since I won the World tour in 2009 I have had a hard time with finding the happy medium in my skiing. When I play it a little safe I always end up on the podium which is awesome, but I am never totally satisfied with my runs. When I won the world tour I was on the podium every single stop, which was great. There were only a few runs that I actually was really stoked on. Last year I tried to take it up a notch and with new venues and visual inspection I crashed 5 runs in a row. This was hard on my confidence, but I was able to finish the season with a second in Snowbird and winning the final run by 4 points. This year has been up and down for me starting Las Lenas, we only had one run and once again I was second. The tour moved to Revelstoke where I missed my air on the first day and fell the second day and ended up 4th. The Kirkwood stop was the one I was really looking forward to and one that I really wanted to do well in. The problem was I was just sick of playing the game and ending up on the podium with mediocre runs. I wanted to start out the first day with a high score and be able to carry that into the finals. The start list had some of the top female skiers in the world, so I decided to go for it. I picked out a pretty sizable air, probably more than I needed to do well, but I wanted to see if I could do it. The landing looked a little flat, but not to bad. As I skied into it I wished I could have turned around I could tell that it was very overhanging and there were two big horns of rock I had to clear. I just went with my sluff and somehow cleared the rock and felt great in the air. As I Ianded my right ski exploded off my foot on impact and my knee rebounded into my face. It hurt pretty bad and completely knocked my goggles and my Go Pro off. I could not find my helmut cam, which was a bummer! There I was not skiing the next day and completely bummed that I picked a very silly line. A lot of the girls ended up falling and I could have definitely played it a little safer, but I did what I wanted to do. What do you do? Now I have a puffy face and a black eye and I am going home empty handed. One of these days I will figure it out, I keep learning and improving my skiing in the process.