Crystal B. Wright

Top male and female runs!

2012-01-16T17:54:00.000-08:00

Revelstoke Top Runs Finals from Subaru Freeskiing World Tour on Vimeo.

Revelstoke Finals " The Mac Daddy! "

2012-01-15T17:07:00.000-08:00

After waiting for three weather days and feeling that we were never going to compete for Day 2, it finally cleared on Wednesday! That morning we loaded the Gondola early and the weather was crisp and cold. The boys would be going first, so my nerves had not hit quite yet. I had looked at a ton of pictures of the face and felt pretty confident with my run on lookers right. The snow looked great over there and I would be able to get 3 good airs. There was another line that I had seen that was on lookers left, but I was concerned about slough management. Since the men were going first I knew that it could be an option to ski the other line. Hiking out to the ridge was beautiful, the mountains were covered with fresh snow and finally for the first time in 8 days you could see for miles. As I hiked out to the ridge I could see 2 helicopters parked along the ridge, I could not believe we got to ride in one of those to the start!!!

The boys started around 1030 am with perfect light on one of the most aesthetic venues I had ever seen. I watched a few boys ski my line to the lookers left and I decided that is what I needed to do! I started to get nervous, because this would be one of the biggest airs I had skied in a competition above serious exposure. We loaded the heli around 1230 pm to head to the top, I got to ride in the very front and it was the most exhilarating ride as the pilot just fell off the side of the ridge and flew us to the top. Looking down on my line from the helicopter I became incredibly nervous. From the top the snow did not look as good as it had from a distance. Standing in the start I was not completely sure where I was, but as I left the start gate I hoped I would recognize something as I started to ski. Sure enough I found my entrance, the snow was incredibly punchy and I knew I was above a lot of exposure so I skied a lot slower than usual as I go closer to my air I realized that it rolled away and was a lot bigger than I thought! I knew I could do it and I just had to go for it. I paused for a second lined myself up and then went. As I was in the air I might Have closed my eyes, but all I could think of is wow this might hurt. As I landed the air and skied out I was shocked I had just landed with no problems! I skied fast through the finish so pumped about my run, the helicopter was waiting to take us back up to the ridge. What an amazing day!! I finished second!

Finals set for Tuesday Heli drop!!

2012-01-08T16:27:00.000-08:00

The last week has been amazing in Canada, we could not have asked for better conditions! The sun has not been out once and it has continued to snow a little bit every day filling everything in nicely! After day 1 I am excited with my finish, the women are incredibly close, tied for 5th I am less than a point out of first. I skied the line I wanted to ski today and felt I skied well! I could have picked a more challenging line, but I really wanted to make sure I was able to make it to the finals! I had a blast during my run and coming through the finish was once again the most rewarding part! This is probably my 31st competition and no matter what I always have a hard time controlling my nerves! It never gets any easier, if anything I have more expectations for myself, but coming through the finish makes me realize why I continue to compete! The weather has blown in again causing us to have to use two weather days, I have yet to see the face I am competing on, but the photo makes it look pretty amazing! I also start to feel a little nervous thinking about it, because it is an incredibly steep face with a ton of terrain! I can not wait to be able to ride the helicopter and ski the Mac Daddy!

Day 1 Live tomorrow 11 am mountain time!

2012-01-05T21:18:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is Day 1 of the Freeskiing World Tour/ Freeride World Tour Revelstoke! Tomorrow should be good and the coverage is great! The venue was closed all day and it continued to snow,tomorrow should be good! Tune in live at 11 am mountain time to freeskiingworldtour.com to watch the event happen. The ladies run first and I luckily drew bib number 9, which is right in the middle! I am nervous, but excited to ski a fast and smooth run!

Kicking Horse and Revelstoke!!!

2012-01-04T17:06:00.000-08:00

Kicking Horse

Each year when I get to come to Canada, I get so excited because everyone is so nice and the ski resorts are mellow and have amazing terrain. The last 2 years I have driven past Kicking Horse and always wanted to stop. This year Hadley, Jess and I decided to make the 14 hour push and stay the night in Golden and ski Kicking Horse yesterday. I had heard that is was one of the only mountains that can compare to Jackson Hole. After skiing a full day there I was more than stoked with the terrain. It had a ton of fun chutes and steep terrain that is easily accessible from the Gondola. The vertical was continual and right around 4100 feet, I have not been that tired from skiing in a while and really helped my confidence for Revelstoke. The conditions were also great, it snowed all day so the skiing just kept getting better and better!

Revelstoke

Today it was dumping in Revelstoke and we headed up early to get registered for the competition and do some more pow skiing! The visibility was not great, but since a few of us have been here we were able to find the good spots. Such steep terrain with soft snow. A few of my friends have to compete in qualifiers tomorrow ( I am pre-qualified from my results in South America) so I helped them pick out lines. I really enjoy helping out the other ladies, I know how nervous I was for my first competition and how I had no idea how to pick out a ski line on a venue. I love picking out different lines on a venue for different skiers, all the ladies ski differently so it has been fun to help them. I hope they do well!! I scoped my line for Day 1 a couple of times and I am pretty excited about it, because the snow is bonding to all the rocks and is incredibly soft!! I have another day to scope lines and cheer on my friends, before competing on Friday!

Tours are Combining in Revelstoke!

2011-12-23T10:01:00.000-08:00

I am excited for the upcoming competition in Revelstoke, because the two tours are coming together! I am stoked to compete with a more international field. Also this year will be the first year that they are going to take the best riders from the Freeskiing Tour and let them compete in Verbier. I have a new goal for the season!

NEWS · SUBARU FREESKIING WORLD TOUR AND SWATCH FREERIDE WORLD TOUR PARTNER
21
Dec
Subaru Freeskiing World Tour and Swatch Freeride World Tour Partner

1
Subaru Freeskiing World Tour and Swatch Freeride World Tour Partner for long-term global big mountain freeskiing and snowboarding tour formats and strategy

World Tours join for first combined stop in Revelstoke, B.C., for the Swatch Freeride & Freeskiing World Tour Revelstoke 2012, Jan 4-11

Snowboarding added to Revelstoke with athletes from the Freeride World Tour and The North Face Masters

Salt Lake City, UT – Dec. 21, 2011 – North American-based Subaru Freeskiing World Tour and European-based Swatch Freeride World Tour have joined to establish a new global competitive big mountain freeskiing and snowboarding structure, with stops stretching from Revelstoke, British Columbia, to Verbier, Switzerland. The move comes after years of both tours experiencing incredible growth in both athlete and sponsorship participation.

“This is the natural next step in the evolution of a long-term partnership between both tours,” said Adam Comey, president of Salt Lake City-based Mountain Sports International, the company that owns the Freeskiing World Tour. “This is a global sport with a common culture and passion for big mountain riding and a global strategy will best serve the athletes, events, and tour sponsors.”

Freeride World Tour organizers are in complete agreement.

“The 2012 season will be the next step in globalizing freeride,” said Nicholas Hale Woods, founder of the Swatch Freeride World Tour. “We’re extremely pleased to co-organize an event together with MSI in Revelstoke in 2012, and we’ will continue working ever closer with MSI to further align our events and activities in 2013.”

In 2012, the tours will operate independently as they have in the past, with a joint event in Revelstoke, British Columbia, in January, followed by top Subaru Freeskiing World Tour and The North Face Masters athletes joining the Freeride athletes again at season’s end in Verbier, Switzerland, for the Swatch Verbier Extreme, featuring a $32,000 prize purse.

“Although Revelstoke Mountain Resort is expanding into the family market, our heart and soul is big mountain skiing and riding,” said Revelstoke Mountain Resort Chief Operating Officer, Rod Kessler. “The combination of the Swatch Freeride Tour and the Subaru Freeskiing World Tour marks a historic event amongst the Snow Sports industry. Revelstoke Mountain Resort and the Revelstoke Accommodation Association is excited to host the world’s top big mountain ski and snowboard athletes in January 2012. Our goal is to deliver an unforgettable experience to both athletes and guests alike, while showcasing Revelstoke’s unparalleled terrain, snow conditions, and hospitality.”

In addition to event collaboration, the two tours will also follow a unified global event tier and points system, now giving athletes the chance to enter in small, open events that feed directly to the world’s biggest freeskiing championships. Events will be grouped as 5-Star, 4-Star, or 3-Star categories: 5-star events will include Freeskiing World Tour and Freeride World Tour main events. 4-Star events will include World Tour Qualifiers and long-standing regional events such as Taos and Red Mountain. 3-Star events include competitions with big, open fields, first-time competitors, and lower prize money such as the Ski the East Tour.

The official 2011-12 Subaru Freeskiing World Tour season started this summer in Las Lenas at the Argentinean Freeskiing Championships (Stop #1), then moved to Ski Arpa in Los Andes at the Chilean Freeskiing Championships (Stop #2). The Swatch Freeride & Freeskiing World Tour Revelstoke 2012, Jan 4-11, will be Stop #3 on the Subaru FWT. Twenty-five pre-qualified Freeskiing World Tour athletes will join 25 pre-qualified Freeride World Tour athletes. Fifteen open spots are up for grabs in the qualifier event boasting upwards of 80 freeskiing athletes. Twelve snowboarding athletes from The North Face Masters will join 12 riders from the Freeride World Tour for the snowboarding category of the event.

“By partnering with the Freeride World Tour we are going to make it more compelling for fans around the world to follow both tours and other independent stops, as their favorite athletes gain points. The event structure and points system will create a clear path and added exposure for all aspiring big mountain skiers and snowboarders,” said FWT event director Bryan Barlow. “The strategy for both tours has always been to grow the sport and keep it moving in the right direction, and I am looking forward to developing our partnership and events alike.”

The Subaru Freeskiing World Tour will continue on to Crested Butte, Colorado, Kirkwood, California, and Snowbird, Utah. An overall Subaru Freeskiing World Tour Champion will be crowned at the Subaru Freeskiing World Tour Championships at Snowbird.

By Curtis Olson

Day 1 Jackson Hole Mountain Resort!

2011-12-02T10:23:00.000-08:00

Opening day at Jackson was probably the second best I have ever had next to last year! Part of the upper mountain was open and I spent most of my day on the soft snow of Thunder. Only in Jackson can you get so much vertical in a short amount of time, I always forget how spoiled I am living here. I was focusing on fast non-stop runs and it was the first time since I broke my leg that I was not in pain on the bumpier conditions. I skied with two good ripping girlfriends and we just made fast high speed runs for 4 hours strait! So fun! I am really excited for the season and I feel like my leg is healed and my body feels strong thanks to pre season training! First stop Revelstoke British Columbia for the third stop of the Freeskiing Wolrd Tour January 4 through the 7th. Now we just need some more snow!!

Ski Fitness Article

2011-10-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

Thanks Brigid for the article, except I am not a huge death metal fan! Ha ha! We workout to dance music and everyone works just as hard!!!! My classes are for anyone and I have all realms of people taking the class and it has been an amazing learning and coaching experience for me. Everyone has gotten incredibly strong and we still have 2 weeks to go!

http://live.tetongravity.com/_Feature-60-Minutes-Of-Pain-With-Crystal-Wright/blog/5380431/75233.html

Ski/Snowboard week 4

2011-10-29T10:17:00.001-07:00

Ski/Snowboard week 4

This week on Day 1 we focused on some strength mixed with some suicide sprints at the end to work on recovery. Day 2 we added some upper body and increased the leg blasters and continued with skier hops. This week I could tell a major difference in how the athletes were moving and how much stronger their core and recovery was. It has been a awesome coaching and helping so many different people and seeing them all get stronger in different ways not only physically, but mentally. I am learning a lot about different muscle imbalances and how so many people are so different. It has been really rewarding.

Day 1

warm-up 7 min step-ups/ 3 x Barbell Complex

4 rounds

5x front squat
30x jump rope
3 x ride it down

4 rounds

6x ea sandbag clean
10x squat jump
3x shoulder dislocate

10 rounds 1 every 45 sec

3x burpees
suicide sprint

2 rounds

20/20 side bridge
10x ea single arm crunch
20x back extension
20x russian twist

Day 2

warm-up 5 min turkish getups/5 min sandbag get-ups

6 rounds

20 sec push press
20 sec swing

6 mini leg blasters 30 sec rest

10 squats
10 alt lunges
10 jump lunges
5 jump squats

2 full leg blaster

20 squat
20 alt lunges
20 jump lunges
10 squat jumps

3 rounds

30 sec hop/30 sec hold/15 sec rest skier hops

3 rounds

30/30/15 hop over sandbag

2 rounds
45 sec jane fonda

South America skiing!

2011-09-23T19:45:00.000-07:00

The Wind River Mountains

2011-09-18T13:29:00.000-07:00

Haystack

Brian climbing Flash Flood on Haystack

Deep Lake with Temple in background

This summer has been a little crazy and my time for climbing has been close to zero. My focus has been more on work and competing in skiing which has been very rewarding and fun. I have not been able to get into the mountains and climb as much as I would have liked. My boyfriend Brian and I always try to get into the wind rivers once a year so this past weekend we saw good weather and decided to go for it! The Winds are the mountains that I grew up in because my family manages the Big Sandy Ranch at the base of the Winds and they really were the only mountains I knew until I was 19 and started exploring the Tetons. I never climbed in the Winds until about 6 years ago and it was like a dream come true because I had always looked at the Cirque and the Deep Lake area and wondered what it would be like. We decided to go to the Deep Lake area and had a route on Haystack planned and Lost Temple Spire. We camped at Clear Lake and the weather could not have been better, no bugs and perfect temps which is hard to come by in the Winds.

Lost Temple Spire 2nd pitch

Climbing has always been my nemesis, no matter how long I climb it never gets any easier and I do not see myself getting any better. Also a majority of the time it is type 2 fun, which means I love it afterwards, but during I feel that my nerves are all over the place. But for some reason I keep going back for more and look forward to the long days in the mountains. I am still not comfortable leading trad and I am okay with that being a professional follower has been great. ( ha ha) I get to climb some fun routes! The first route we climbed was on Haystack, we originally wanted to climb Major Diehedral, but did not have enough time so we decided to climb Flash Flood to the North Face. This was a 10 pitch route total, with some challenging climbing, but really fun and we topped out on Haystack at 7 pm as the sun was setting over the mountains and valley. The next day we decided to do Lost Temple Spire, which was about a 2 hour approach from camp and harder climbing. It was beautiful route, but a little above my climbing abilit for how much I had been climbing this summer. I get so frustrated when I feel that I have improved climbing, but then each year I feel like I am starting over. Maybe this is partly why I love it, always a challenge and nothing compares to being on a beautiful mountain or wall! What an amazing trip and I can't wait to climb again even if Lost Temple Spire got the best of me!!

Sunset from top of North Face of Haystack

Termas De Chillan

2011-08-27T08:09:00.000-07:00

After 2 weeks of competing I was a mentally ready to go home, but I still had 4 days in chile so why waste it. My two girlfriends that were committed to traveling with me bailed, so I was not totally sure what to do. I just knew I needed to ski more, because I felt that I had spent 2 weeks in chile with very little skiing. I headed to the bus station to see if I could get on a bus to Las Trancas, which is where Termas De Chillan is an amazing little ski resort in southern chile. I caught the 2 o'clock bus and started my 6 hour journey south. I knew I only had 2 full days to ski, but I figured it would be better than hanging out in Santiago. As soon as the bus left chillan and I was the only person still on the bus I knew I had made the right decision. I got to Las Trancas around 9 pm checked into the Chillin Hostel which is where I stayed last year and I felt right at home in my same room from the previous year. Compared to Santiago this place was so quiet barely a person around. As I arrived it was dumping rain so I hoped that meant it was dumping snow up high.
I awoke to bluebird conditions and hopefully some new snow. I had to hitch hike to the mountain, which is pretty challenging because about a car every 15 minutes goes by so it took me a little while to get to the mountain. When I arrived I loaded the old 20 minute chair and decided to do a few runs before I skied my volcano. I should have paid more attention to the names of the runs (not sure the names), but I cut right off the chair and had first tracks down about a 2000 foot run. Yes!!! Finally I was skiing continuously. I took four of these runs and then decided to go on my trek up the volcano. I was the only one around as I toured upward, so beautiful. I started at about 8,000 feet and I topped out at 10,252 feet in about 1 hour 45 minutes. The volcano was steaming around me and I had an awesome view of the Andes in the distance. Also i was stoked about my run down. I had about 3000 feet of untracked wind blown powder that made my day. So fun!!! I skied right to my favorite bar The Igloo and enjoyed an Escudo and some good food outside on the deck. Life could not get much better! I was so happy I came, but as I sit in the airport I could not be happier to go home!!!

Second podium in South America, 20th podium of career psyched!!!

2011-08-23T17:51:00.000-07:00

The last couple days in Ski Arpa have been pretty unique. Ski Arpa is an amazing little cat operation in the middle of the Andes. To get there you drive an hour and half from Los Andes up a very windy road where chains are mandatory on a 4 wheel drive car. A few of us rented a truck so we drove up to the mountain for the three days of competition, Arpa received about 2 feet of snow which made the conditions pretty ideal. It turned blue on our first inspection day and as we unloaded the cat at the top of our venue you could see Aconcagua very large in the distance. The Andes stretched along for miles. It was so beautiful, I felt so lucky to be here. We had the entire place to ourselves which was a new experience. The venue that we were given for day one was pretty small and did not have a lot of options. I found a line that had two 15 foot airs with fast fluid skiing in between.

The North Face Chilean Freeskiing Championships -- Finals Day Highlights from Subaru Freeskiing World Tour on Vimeo.

I felt that I had some confidence after the las Lenas , but as always I was Still really nervous in the start gate. I only was able to do 4 turns before my first air which is always a little hard on the legs with no warm-up. I came out of my top air with a lot of speed and skied fluidly into my second air and had no problems with the landing. As I skied through the finish I was psyched with my run, but not entirely sure how it would score. A couple of the other girls skied some more unique lines and even if they were easier i had a feeling they might score higher. I was in third place after day one and was ready for another run. The second day venue ended up being to rocky for us to compete so as athletes we decided to go back to the day 1 venue. To make it fair the judges decided to do best out of 2 runs. I decided to ski the line that had won the previous day to see if I could better my score. For some reason it did not score that high and I was not able to better my 3 rd place finish. In the end I was stoked to be on the podium again and am now leading the tour going into the season. That also marked my 20th career podium. I am off to Termas De Chillan for a few days of skiing and then back home on Friday.

Subaru FWT Day One Highlights Ski Arpa from Subaru Freeskiing World Tour on Vimeo.

Here are 2 videos with highlights I will not be able to post photos until I am home! Thanks everyone for all the support, I feel very lucky!!

Bittersweet!!!

2011-08-15T20:40:00.001-07:00

Thursday I woke up to rain pelting the windows of the room. The visibility was not looking good and the organizers called a weather day. Las Lenas has no trees so the visibility needs to be good to be able and compete. I was okay with them calling a weather day even though I really wanted to be able to ski and be done with the nerves. We met again Friday morning and the weather looked a little more promising but the winds on the top were blowing 100 mph. Since the event was a Red Bull sponsored event they wanted to at least try to have a big air event and they had spent all week making a jump for the event.

They loaded us in a cat around 2 in the afternoon as the weather seemed to deteriorate, I was not sure exactly why they were trying so hard to pull off this part of the competition when we arrived at the jump it was a crazy feeling because it was just our little freeskiing family in the middle of whiteout blizzard conditions and a a big Red Bull jump. I was excited to hike up and ski some pow, but was not really feeling the jump since I could barely see 5 feet in front of me. The skiing was really fun and I watched as a few of the guys went for the big air, it was pretty cool to watch them spinning through the air in these conditions. It was getting late and they finally had to call the event. It was a bummer because the organization worked so hard to the get it off.

That is when I realized that I had won the competition, I was so stoked it has been a while since I have won, I have had a lot of seconds in the meantime so I was so happy to win especially against a strong field of women. It was a little bittersweet because I would have loved to get another run, but at the same time a first place finish is awesome. Saturday we woke up and it was one of the most
amazing bluebird powder days I have had in a while. I realize why people love Lenas, because when it turns blue there is some amazing terrain. This day would have been perfect for event, but mother nature did not cooperate. Off to Chile for the second stop!

Red Bull Powder Disorder Day 1

2011-08-11T15:54:00.000-07:00

Since I have been skiing in Lenas I have been having a hard time with my leg, the muscles are just incredibly painful. It has been really difficult on my confidence. I woke up this morning feeling a little more nervous than usual, but was excited to compete. I could not believe that we were actually competing. The snow was incredibly challenging and during inspection I changed my line to fit the new snow conditions. The bottom half of the venue was frozen ice chunks which was difficult to ski. I knew my line really well and just hoped I could ski strong to the bottom. I started to get really nervous at the start because I had not skied since I broke my leg and definitely had not taken any air since Fat Bastard. ( the air I broke my leg on) Four turns into the competition there was a mandatory man made air that the athletes had to hit. As I left the start I told myself I could do this, I can ski. I threw a small spread eagle on the kicker laughed at myself and then gained some confidence when I did not feel the pain in my leg. I skied fast into my first air and continued to try and keep my speed through the rest of my features to the bottom of the venue. As I approached 3/4 of the way down my legs started to burn. I just wanted to stay strong and on my feet.

As I approached the finish I was greeted by a cheer of people and my other competitors that had skied before me. Being done was the greatest feeling and I realized why I love this sport because it is always so humbling physically and mentally. I felt that I was in contention, but it was in the hands of the judges and it is always hard to tell. When the results came out I was so nervous to look. When I saw that I was in first by 2 points I could not believe it! There was an amazing group of female skiers and I was sitting in first. It has been a really long time since I have been in this position. I hope I can hold onto it through tomorrow. Psyched!!!!!!

Argentina

2011-08-09T11:08:00.000-07:00

Finally made it Las Lenas after 3 days of traveling a day in Mendoza and very little sleep. Sleeping on the plane is always tough and then the hostel that we stayed in was in the middle of party central on a Saturday night and I went to sleep with loud beets vibrating the bed until about 6 am. Sunday was spent in Mendoza which was pretty relaxing and got to try some nice Malbecs from the area. There was quite a crew from the tour staying in Mendoza and it was great to see the ski family again. It is always fun to see everyone after the summer break and running into them in South America is always pretty cool. We all come together from all over and meet in Argentina to do the sport that we are all very passionate about whether it is the organizers or the athletes.

I headed to bed for about 2 hours and then woke up at 130 am to take the night bus to Lenas there were 7 athletes crowded into 4 tiny cabs with skis hanging out the window. It was quite the site, we made the night bus and arrived in Lenas around 8 am with very little sleep. The Marte that accessed our venue was closed by the time we were able to ski, I have not skied laps since my broken leg so it was a great day to get back on my feet and feel my skis. My leg is definitely a little sore, but I just need to work my confidence as a skier and believing that I can ski even with a small injury. I hope with some sleep that the day of skiing will go better tomorrow. Also it is supposed to snow and my leg loves the powder! Day one starts wednesday!

South America and Red Bull Powder Disorder

2011-07-21T13:04:00.000-07:00

Las Lenas

I have decided to give the Freeskiing World Tour another go, the last 2 years I have not participated in the entire tour. Thanks to my sponsors and my second place finish on the tour last year I think I am going to be able to compete in every stop this season. The first stop is going to be in Las Lenas Argentina and is an invite only event based off of results from last season. Red Bull is helping sponsor the event which brings a little more money into the competition and we are supposed to have a helicopter, which is exciting! Since breaking my leg in March I have skied only in the Tetons and have not been able to get the miles. I only have 2 days to ski before competing so I am hoping my leg will feel strong. I have been training at Mountain Athlete 3 days a week ski specific to prepare for skiing again. After Lenas I will head to Valle Nevado for the second stop on the tour, followed by 4 days of skiing in Termas De Chillan. I am really excited to get back on snow and see the ski family again! Thanks so much to my sponsors for helping me be able to travel and compete in South America. Head, Arcteryx, Mountain Athlete, Scott, Probar, Gu , Hestra, Icebreaker and Jackson Hole Mountain Resort!

Top of the Marte lift

Middle Teton Glacier Route!

2011-06-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

First light on East Face (click on photo for view of the top of route)

The last couple weeks have been tough conditions in the Tetons and I have had great skiing, but have gotten skunked on being able to ski the routes that I wanted to ski from the top. Yesterday that all changed when my friend Redbeard and I headed up Garnet Canyon attempting to ski The Middle Teton Glacier Route from the summit of the Middle. Heading up the snow felt pretty firm and we were more concerned about the Face not softening up. The Route has a lot of exposure right off the summit so skiing in rock hard conditions was a little intimidating. As we booted up the South West Couloir the snow was incredibly firm, so we did not know what to expect. Our route had been in the sun for about 2 hours so I was hopeful.

As we crested over the top the sun hit us and there was amazing views of the Grand and the South Teton. There were parties on the South and Grand summits getting ready to ski. Watching the person ski the Grand was pretty amazing from the Middle, as I looked over the East Face I got a little nervous. I could not see the exposure but knew it was there. These mountains are always so humbling to ones skiing ability, big and exposed! I clicked in, tapped the summit marker and then made my way across the narrow ramp facing the grand. Redbeard entered in first and made two beautiful corn turns above the large exposed face. As I dropped in I had two great turns and then cut right towards the south. The exposure was not over we had to cut across a ramp and then there was a quick side step drop-in above the Middle glacier. We continued to have amazingly steep corn turns the entire way down to the meadows. I was so excited that I had finally skied the route, it was so exhilarating! The route was definitely one of the cooler routes I have ever skied in the Tetons and the ski was well worth the hike.

Southeast Face to lower Southeast Couloir on South Teton

2011-06-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

Bottom of Southeast Couloir

Tuesday night the conditions cleared and the temperatures dropped to freezing. My friend Brendan and I decided to head into the park and try for the Amora Vida Couloir on the South Teton. With the way the conditions have been we decided to approach from Avalanche Canyon so we could go up the route that we were going to ski. We left the trailhead at 330 with the full moon shining a lot brighter than any headlamp. As we turned off onto the Avalanche Canyon trail we started to bushwhack, this trail is not a maintained trail and after the winter the mountains had there was a ton of debris covering the trail. After about a little over an hour we were able to put our skis on and start skinning which I was grateful for after bushwhacking with my skis and boots on my back. As we skinned up toward Lake Taminah the snow was nice and hard, which made us feel hopeful. I could see the Southeast face above us and started we started to head toward the first couloir that was near the face. I had seen a few pictures of the Amora Vida, but was not totally sure if we were ascending the right couloir.
As we got closer to the Southeast face I realized that we were on the skiers left and I knew that to access the Amora Vida Couloir you skied down skiers right of the face. We Continued across and up the Southeast face the temperatures were getting warmer and the snow had not frozen completely underneath. Being above a lot of exposure we opted to turn around and ski back down the bottom of the Southeast Couloir.

Amora Vida Couloir

I had 4 awesome turns of perfect corn on the Southeast face and then continued to have great turns and snow into the bottom of the Southeast Couloir. I am glad we decided to ski that instead of the Amora Vida, because the snow did not look as good in the other couloir. We skied back down to the lake and then bushwhacked back to the Bradley/Taggert and were sitting on the deck of Dornans looking up at the South Teton 11 hours after we had started. (this is always my favorite part!!) I decided next on the list is the Southeast Couloir proper from the summit and approach from Garnet Canyon. It looks like a beautiful line!!

Standing on Southeast Face

East Face Teewinot Attempt

2011-06-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

Looking up toward Summit

Friday morning my friend Neal and I left town at 2 am with idea of possibly skiing the Diagonal Couloir on Mt Owen. The Weather has been really unsettled and it has been hard to ski in the mountains, because it has not been freezing in the evening. As we drove to the parking lot the temperature was in the mid 40s, we decided to go for the East Face of Teewinot, because the approach was a lot closer and it was a lot easier to bail if needed. We only had to hike for about an hour before we hit snow and were able to start skinning. This was so nice to get the weight of skis and boots off the back. It is the middle of June and the snow line is still incredibly low, it makes me wonder if climbing in the Tetons is ever going to happen.

After skinning for about another hour it was time to start boot packing, the snow was incredibly punchy and we were breaking through up to our knees. It took us about and hour to get to the Worshipper and the Idol and the sun had just started rise over the mountain. We still had about 1500 feet until the summit and decide to dig a pit, there was really no solid layer. We still had some time before the sun baked the face to much so we continued on for about 10 more minutes and decided that it did not feel safe. I still had an awesome ski down at sunrise, there was a bit of an inversion so the valley was covered in clouds. We were back at the car around 830 am. I was a little bummed that my day in the Tetons was over, but psyched with my ski fairly long ski down.

Peak 11,930 Wind River Mountains

2011-06-07T12:27:00.000-07:00

Sedgewick Meadow and the mountain in the distance!

I grew up in the Wind River Mountains in the summers and ever since I can remember I have always wanted to ski in the Winds. The problem is the approaches are long and nothing is very accessible. So it figures I decided on the biggest snow year in 20 years that I wanted to ski either Temple Peak or Peak 11,930. These peaks are both near the Big Sandy entrance of the Winds. On Friday Brian and drove up the Big Sandy Openings road from the ranch and were stopped about 4 miles from the ranch my a huge mud hole. We brought our bikes to scope out how far we could actually get up the road. We were able to bike another 2 miles to the Dutch Joe Guard Station. The station is still about 3 plus miles from the turnoff to Sedgewick Meadow, so we knew we had our work cut out for us. Regardless we were still more than excited to go.

Summit view of Temple Peak, Tip is ready to ski!

On Saturday we awoke at 345 am and headed up to the mud hole and parked the truck and biked for about 20 minutes to the snow line. I have never seen so much snow up in these mountains, it took us about 2 hours to get to Sedgewick Meadow where we finally had a view of the mountain. We had decided to ski Peak 11,930 because it was a little closer than Temple. The sun was just shining through the mountain when we arrived in the meadow and it was so peaceful and such an surreal feeling knowing that no human was anywhere near us. It took us about another 2 hours of skinning and crossing creeks to finally reach the base of the mountain. We reached the summit around 1030 and took in the views and let the snow corn up a little and then had an amazing 2000 vertical foot ski down. I finally had my first ski descent in the Winds! The trudge out was long, but we finally made it back to the car around 3 pm.The day was about 11 hours car to car, but it was all worth it in the end. I ended the day with some inner tubing back at the ranch staring up at the peak we had just skied! Great day and my leg felt strong!! I can't wait for the next ski adventure. Tetons next weekend anyone?

Tubing Squaw Creek with dog at the end of the day!

Tram opens, my first real day skiing in 10 weeks!!

2011-05-31T14:52:00.000-07:00

Photo credit: Julie Weinberger

The last 10 weeks have been tough, I have been trying to stay positive and look forward to summer, but all I have been wanting to do is ski. My season got cut short this year when I broke my Fibula in the middle of March. Since I broke my leg it has been a powder day almost every other day! I realize that I am very lucky and it could be a lot worse, but an injury is an injury and is always difficult. I skied Taylor Mountain at my 8 week anniversary and my leg was still really painful and week. My proprioception still has a long ways to go. I have been training in the gym to get my strength back, which has been awesome for my confidence as well.
Photo credit: Julie Weinberger

I went on a little vacation and then decided to give skiing another go, right at my 10 week anniversary. The last day I had skied before I got hurt was on Cody, so it definitely brought back some good and bad memories. It was so beautiful as we hiked to Foreshadows and I was shocked with how much snow was there. I was a little nervous to ski, because I was not sure if my leg would work properly, but sure enough I jumped in and had three awesome turns. I could feel my leg, but overall is felt great. We then hiked to Powder Eights doing two laps there. It was so awesome to ski fast again and feel my skis underneath me! The last 10 weeks have been a great learning experience and chance for me to focus on other things, but I have never missed skiing so much and never been happier to ski!!!

Photo credit: Julie Weinberger

Icebreaker for skiing and rodeo!

2011-04-09T08:15:00.000-07:00

I am in the roping box trying to square my horse properly so we can both get out of the box smoothly when the calf is released. I am trying to control my nerves, my rope is tucked underneath my arm and the cowboy is waiting for me to nod my pusher is in position behind my calf. It is a cold summer night in Jackson and I am wearing my icebreaker base layer underneath my western shirt for warmth. It is perfect because it is warm, but not bulky and I do not have to wear a jacket. (we have to be in western attire to compete, so cant wear a jacket to compete.) My competitors always ask me how I am not cold just wearing my western shirt and I tell them about my awesome base layer!!

Katie my horse can feel my nerves in the box and she starts to move back and forth underneath me. She is ready to go, but we are not quite in position so I try to calm my nerves hoping that will help her to relax. To calm my nerves I think about standing in the start at a big mountain comp, the only difference is I am on an animal about to rope another animal. In a big mountain comp the only thing I have to worry about riding is my skis and I have to think about in a sense roping those cliffs and just like I want to rope my calf I want to stomp my landings. The two are such different sports that if I think about each when doing the other then it tends to calm my nerves.

I have been using Icebreaker for all my activities and sports for the last couple winters and I am completely sold on the warmth and the amount of activity I can do in the layers and how much I can sweat and not get chilled and also I can wear my layers day after day with them staying pretty much odorless. If it is really cold I double up on sport 320 and the body fit 200 and am toasty warm all day. Icebreaker has really helped keep me warm whether it is rodeo, raft guiding, skiing, biking or climbing I wear it all the time and love how great it actually works!!!

Final day for 2011 Jackson Hole Mountain Resort!

2011-03-24T13:56:00.000-07:00

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!

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

2011-03-20T13:22:00.000-07:00

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.

Snowbird Finals!!

2011-03-13T08:05:00.000-07:00

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.

Ryan Hawks Memorial and Snowbird Day 1

2011-03-11T19:51:00.000-08:00

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!!

Tough Love

2011-03-01T19:49:00.000-08:00

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.

Powder for day one tomorrow!!

2011-02-26T17:56:00.000-08:00

Today was a great day of skiing, it was a cold bluebird powder day!! What more could you ask for on a weather day! We were able to see and check out the venue that is permanently closed to the public which will be amazingly deep powder tomorrow! This competition is going to be one of the most amazing to watch because not only are the tours combined, but this is some of the best conditions that we have ever had for a competition! I am stoked with my line, I picked a more open line that I hopefully can flash and ski well. There is one other person skiing my line before me, but hopefully I can land in a different area off the air. It is really awesome to be able to compete against so many great female skiers. I know every girl out of the 27 and they all rip! So cool!! If you get a chance tune in live tomorrow at freeskiingworldtour.com or on facebook at 10 am!! Should be a great show to watch. Here are a few photos of the area where I am skiing and the venue.

So much snow! Day one set for Sunday!!

2011-02-25T18:22:00.000-08:00

Today has been crazy I have never seen a blizzard and a storm like this, kinda fun! It has already snowed 32 inches in the last 24 hours and it is still blowing and snowing. The mountain did not open and neither did the roads. We were literally snowed in. Sunday it is supposed to clear so hopefully we can get the competition off! it could lead for some interesting conditions with all the snow and wind. We have visual inspection only so it will be hard to know what the landings are like and how wind blown certain areas have gotten. Today high on the mountain the wind gusts were close to 100 mph. Getting out of our cabin today was a task, lots of shoveling. We are staying at Caples resort and the guy has been working continually today to keep us from being under 4 feet of snow. One of these pics is of a snowcat going right past our cabin to help pack down the snow. So crazy!!

The tours come together in Kirkwood!!

2011-02-23T09:49:00.001-08:00

Kirkwood Day 2

Kirkwood Day 1

I have just arrived back into the U.S. after an awesome trip in France, I can not wait to go back and might try to go spend a month next year! There is just so much to learn and to ski, but I definitely need more time. After traveling for 24 hours I am in Reno Nevada, it is a bit of a culture shock because this place is so different than Europe. I am waiting to get up to Kirkwood tomorrow hopefully to do some pow skiing and inspecting for the comp if I can see! I am really excited because this is the first time that the two tours are going to be combined and also it is the biggest prize purse for the women that we have ever had!! After doing the Freeride Tour last year I kept thinking how awesome it would be if the competitors from both tours would be able to have a showdown. There is so many great North American skiers that have never had a chance to compete against the best European riders and now it is finally happening! I am stoked to compete against a great field of women and also stoked to watch the guys rip it up to. It is going to be an awesome show and 2 feet of snow is expected! The competition is scheduled to start on Friday, but the weather does not look to promising so I am thinking we will compete Saturday and Sunday. The event will definitely be live on the web at Freeskiingworldtour.com, so I will keep my blog updated with details!

Chamonix and a little La Grave

2011-02-20T23:27:00.000-08:00

France_part2 from Brian Mulvihill on Vimeo.

Le Meije

2011-02-20T13:26:00.000-08:00

The Le Meije is one of the most beautiful mountains that I have ever seen. In La Grave when riding the Telephrique it looms above the entire way and it can be seen from La Grave and all the surrounding villages. Yesterday we drove high up onto the hill across the way and drove to 3 villages that have the most amazing views and are on steep hillsides. These villages were built high on the hill, because the Le Meije , surrounding peaks and canyon is so big it blocks the sun from most of La Grave until the afternoon. We visited the La Grave church which is higher on the hill and is about 600 years old. They have a really impressive graveyard overlooking the village and the mountains.

The history in Europe is so crazy to that of the U.S., it is so much older and people have been settling this area for 700 years.

Yesterday Brian and I went out on our own and skied some of the classics in the general area. We skied Trifede two, which was great snow, exposed very aesthetic tighter couloior. We also skied the Banan or Banana couloir which is always fun with the high walls on either side. It is so crazy how much vertical feet you can get in one day without starting right at 9. We got almost 30,000 feet with taking a nice coffee break and our first run was not until 1030. Today we decided to go ice climbing since the mountain was socked in and it had snowed a little.

My 4th time ever and we did a very nice 4 pitch route just down from La Grave. It was very warm and wet so I was getting soaked on the entire climb. I guess I needed a bath!! ha ha.

Very fun climb and the the perfect pitch for my 4th time. Tomorrow is our last day which is so sad, but all good times come to an end. Got to get back so I can go compete at Kirkwood for the Freeskiing World Tour!! Either one more day of skiing or some steeper ice climbing for Brian, he said 90 degrees plus. Hope I am ready for that!!!

La Grave

2011-02-19T00:19:00.000-08:00

We loaded the Telephrique this morning expecting to become acquainted with the mountain again. We ran into my old friend Joe Vallone who Jess, Angela and I skied with us last year. He is someone that loves La Grave and the mountains more than anyone I have ever met. He also knows these mountains very well and has guided in La Grave for 9 years. He was accompanied by his french friend named Frank who has lived here for 16 years. It was so cool to learn more about the area and here more about all the different lines that are doable. The first run we just traversed high under the Telephrique and skied a North facing shot that still had some great powder.

The runs here are so long that you get about 6,000 vertical in one run. We then decided to go adventure skiing to the road, with the lack of snow I was not sure how far we would get. We skied the first 5,000 feet in awesome untouched powder with amazing views of the mountains and canyons. The last 2,000 feet was some serious bushwacking and walking, but it was still worth the upper turns and ended up being quite and adventure. We caught a ride back to the bottom of the telephrique and caught the last ride up and enjoyed some wine in the sun at 12,600 feet and then skied the second Trifede couloir at sunset. So beautiful! Can't wait for another day of skiing in the sun.

The last two days in Chamonix Grand Montet and Agui du Midi

2011-02-18T00:06:00.000-08:00

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On Wednesday we went up the the Agui with Liz and Erin Smart, two awesome guide friends that we met through some Jackson peeps. The weather was a little socked in, but it was still absolutely gorgeous the top of the Agui it is about 12,700 feet and you come up to that elevation from the valley floor. It always impresses me in Europe because they have trams up everything the steeper the better. We walked around on the top for a moment and then did the sketchy walk down to where you put your skis on. The entire time you have great views of the valley below and Mont Blanc, which I hope to ski someday. The snow was a bit interesting about 6 inches of pow on some really hard pack snow. We skied through the glaciers and some small couloirs and then traversed down on the glacier with an amazing cirque of mountains all around us. We ended at an ice cave that was pretty neat and then hiked up about 200 stairs to a small gondola and then to a train that took us down to the valley floor. I can't wait to go back and ski more in that area, there is so much to do. Thursday we skied the Grand Montet which also has some great terrain and the snow was chalky and firm but super fun. I can't imagine these places on a powder day!! Chamonix was a quick trip, but definitely got to experience a lot of new things and share it with Brian which was also really special. Now we are in La Grave one of my favorite places in Europe!!

Ice climbing Chamonix near Argentiere Glacier

2011-02-15T11:33:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Chamonix yesterday morning to very little snow, but sunny skies. With the mountains and the valley of Chamonix it is still one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been. We skied Brevent for 4 hours enjoyed the views, some beers and the springtime sunshine. Last year this is where I competed for the Freeride World Tour and the venue that we competed on was not even skiable!

Hut near ice

The face I skied down was a sheer rock face, which is pretty crazy to think about even skiing that with snow. We caught up on our sleep and then today decided to do some ice climbing. I have gone ice climbing twice in my life so I was a little nervous, also being in Chamonix where everything is so big made me a little more intimidated. Brian loves to climb though and has done quite a bit, so I felt I was in good hands. I wore my new Dynafit boots for the first time not to ski but to ice climb. They worked well except my feet were absolutely killing me and my crampons were sliding around a bit. I definitely used my arms more!! We took the first leg of the Grand Montet Tram and then hiked to the ice. Brian and I rappelled down the ice we were going to climb and then climbed two pitches, I was nervous the entire time, but thanks to my amazing boyfriend I remained calm and climbed fine!! (ha ha) After that we enjoyed a beer at the Chalet Refuge De Lognan a small hut overlooking the bottom of the Argentiere Glacier. We then took the tram down and caught the bus back to our cute little hotel in the heart of Chamonix. Great first day, tomorrow hopefully some skiing in Courmayeur, Italy. This is only about 30 minutes away, so crazy how close the countries are.

Chamonix from Brian Mulvihill on Vimeo.

Freeskiing Comp, No Name, Gothic, Once and Twice!!

2011-02-11T07:16:00.000-08:00

Untitled from Brian Mulvihill on Vimeo.

Jackson Hole Freeskiing Qualifier Video

2011-02-02T16:01:00.001-08:00

I love second place!!

2011-01-30T11:42:00.000-08:00

The past two days the Freeskiing World Tour qualifiers came to Jackson, it was spring break in January super warm! It made for some interesting skiing conditions. The first day I definitely did not ski the exact way that I wanted to and did not get rewarded for the line that I attempted to ski. I was about 5 points behind going into day 2, which meant a lot of catching up on my part. I picked a line that I really liked and skied strong! I moved up to 2nd and my good friend Rebecca took first! She skied very well both days and I could not be happier for her. This is my 12th second place in my career so I have to laugh a little though because it seems to be kind of where I am stuck 90% of the time. Here are the top 3 ladies runs

Finals Top 3 Women: Jackson Hole 2011 from Subaru Freeskiing World Tour on Vimeo.

Jackson Hole Qualifier Freeskiing World Tour

2011-01-27T09:54:00.000-08:00

This weekend the tour comes to Jackson for a qualifier stop, this does not count for overall tour points, but gives people the chance that are not already pre-qualified a chance to do so. Since it is in my hometown I figured it would be good to compete hopefully a little stress free. Also it will be good to get another competition under my belt before Kirkwood which is not for another month. The last 3 years that the comp was in Jackson I was in first place after the first day and was never able to hold onto it without crashing under the pressure. I hope this year to just ski 3 solid runs and finish strong!!! I have a little redemption with tower 3 and toilet bowl!!! The event with go live tomorrow around 10 am or come watch it in Casper bowl on Friday and Tower 3 on Saturday.

Outdoor Retailer and Arcteryx

2011-01-25T08:40:00.000-08:00

Part Of Arcteryx Team

This past weekend I experienced the Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake. It was a great time to see all of next years gear from different vendors. I met some of my various sponsors reps including my Arcteryx rep Laura, who I am constant contact with via email, but have never met. I also got to check out the new colors Arcteryx is coming out with and the new designs. I also learned more about the Hestra gloves, Jansport backpacks, Icebreaker and Nuun & Company. The night I happened to be there was the celebration of Greg Hills 2 million vertical feet self-supported in one year. Pretty impressive!! Greg is also an Arcteryx athlete so it was really neat to meet such an amazing athlete. Glen Plake was there and he is always a great person to be around, he has so much energy and I realize why he made extreme skiing the way it is today. It was great to meet some of the main Arcteryx team from the head designer to the head of apparrel and color. Arcteryx has been such an amazing sponsor for me so it was great to be able to learn more about production and how the company functions. I like to be able to talk about the different gear when people ask, so it definitely was a good learning experience and a lot of fun!

Greg Hill and Glen Plake

Awesome heli ride and 4th place with a fall.

2011-01-12T08:18:00.000-08:00

Mac Face after it had sloughed and with patrols on it!

Revelstoke was an awesome experience, but was one of the more mentally stressful comps I had competed in. Before leaving to go to Revy my ribs were definitely not a 100%. When we first got there they started to spasm really bad and I was not sure I would be able to compete. I found a line on day one that I thought was awesome and I thought I knew it really well. I missed my top air and it cost me 5 points, which put me pretty far out. The comp was also delayed for two days, which was good for my ribs but stressful mentally because I was just ready to compete. After day one I was psyched to ski Mac face and it looked amazing. Monday morning I headed up the mountain and it was on of the coldest days that we had experienced in Revy. (easily negative 20 with wind chill) I watched the patrollers do ski cuts and all the snow slide off the face. I could not believe how thin the face had become. I decided to pick a chute that was technical, but did not have a lot of air. We loaded the heli after the patrollers had done two runs of control. The heli ride was so amazing the day was cold and clear so you could see for miles into the mountains. We unloaded on the top and I think all of our nerves came back after the excitement of the heli ride. We were all a little unsure what to ski. The first two girls went and walked out of their skis above exposure, which was a little intimidating. The snow was incredibly punchy and crusty and the head judge was telling us to go slow and just ski fluid. I entered in and felt the snow breaking underneath me, I went into the chute and all the snow was strait sugar to rock. Every turn I made it would all slough away to rock. I made it down the rocky exposed chute pretty well until I decided to ski out with some speed. I came out a little hot and hit the hardened avy debris and spun around on my back twice. I was back up skiing as fast as I could through the debris. I watched the other two girls fall behind me as well. I had to go for it with the position I was in, but it was so crazy to see every girl fall except one. My fall did not score as well as the others and I was left with 4th place, which I am happy with and now I am sitting in second in the tour standings. Overall such a fun skiing experience! Can't wait to go back.

Helicopter on the landing zone!!

Helicopter and powder competition!!!

2011-01-09T19:59:00.000-08:00

FINALS DAY VENUE!

Today was a great competition the snow was great and it was so fun to watch. I was so excited about my line and I thought I knew my line really well. I have been more nervous than normal at this comp and I entered in feeling pretty good, but came in to hot and missed my top air that was really the main points for my line score. I just blacked out and was not sure where I was! Lucky for me I am still in for the finals, I am 5 points out though, so I have some catching up to do. Tomorrow we get to ski by visual inspection only and 60 cm of fresh powder!!!! I am really excited, I am ready to ski something that gets my heart pumping a little. Today I kinda blew it in that department! Revelstoke has been awesome and tomorrow should be a beautiful day for a comp. Tune in at 1230 pm mtn time for the live cast (freeskiingworldtour.com). Should be a great show and I am excited to redeem myself and ski a fun line. My ribs feel better as well so that really helps my confidence!

PART OF Venue

It has not stopped snowing since we arrived here and today the skiing got even better. It has snowed about 3 feet since Tuesday. The energy on the hill is amazing all the locals are pumped and all the athletes are having so much fun ripping lines. My rib is feeling better and I am stoked tomorrow because the landings are soft and there is a lot of new snow. I picked a line that I am psyched about, but I still get so nervous because my confidence has taken a hug dive since injuring myself. I just need to be confident and ski my line the way I know how to ski and not worry about the results. It should be a good show for the men and women! Live at 10 am freeskiingworldtour.com.

Powder day at Revelstoke day 1 postponed

2011-01-06T18:21:00.000-08:00

Today was an awesome powder day at Revelstoke! It snowed 15 inches overnight and it was the best day the locals have had in 2 years, I am glad I could be a part of it! I had a little relapse with my ribs yesterday, so I have been having a hard time mentally. I could hardly ski down yesterday. Today I taped them and felt a lot better, I was a least able to ski 80 percent. We have another day until we compete so hopefully the cartilage and muscle will calm down. I just need to get the confidence to be able to ski what I want to ski and not worry about the pain or getting hurt. I am just happy to be skiing and I am psyched to be in Revelstoke skiing powder and hopefully I can find a line that I can flash and ski well. The womens qualifiers went off today and all the women skied well, my Jackson girls team skied well, but both fell. Tomorrow will be an inspection day and then the event is set to kickoff on Saturday live at the Freeskiingworldtour.com.

Revelstoke here we come! January 7-9 2011

2011-01-02T08:32:00.000-08:00

Day 1 Venue

I am really excited to head up to Revelstoke, BC for the third stop on the Freeskiing World Tour. I have been injured for the last couple weeks, but am hoping I will be able to compete to my full potential by Friday. I love Canada and the Revelstoke area the people are so nice and so supportive of the tour. I am heading up with two other girls from Jackson, so hopefully we will have some good representation of Jackson girls. I am bummed my friend Jess will not be with us, but I am hoping here a speedy recovery so she can compete soon. I am excited to compete again and see all of my small family of the tour! The event should be live webcasted on January 8th, so tune if you have the chance. Freeskiingworldtour.com!!

Beautiful pow skiing In JH and a broken rib!

2010-12-18T10:24:00.000-08:00

Julie Weinberg Photo

Today I went out on an early tram with my photographer friend Julie Weinberg and got some beautiful powder shots. The temperature dropped to negative one which made for very nice and light powder skiing, what I like to call cowboy pow. We got some beautiful shots with the Jackson valley in the background. I felt so lucky to be up there skiing on such an awesome day with nobody around. Watching the tram go up and down from the valley floor through the fog. After I was done shooting photos I was really excited to go ski Cody Peak and hopefully No Name face. I was struggling to find anyone to go with, because not a lot of people were around. I called my friend Hadley and she said she was just going to work on going off small airs, a part of me now wishes that I would have went and helped her because now she has a broken back and I have broken ribs. I feel so bad for her, because she is a lot worse off than me, but will recover fast. Getting injured is never a good thing, it is so hard to come back strong and confident. I met up with my friend Alex and we decided to go do Twice is Nice, something I have skied a lot before. We got fresh tracks in Twice which was awesome but we had to deal with a little with slough management. I skied down the right fin and had some amazing pow shots but as I was cutting over to him in the safe zone the slough caused me to lose my balance and I landed right on my side on a huge boulder that somehow must have come down with the snow because it was right on top of the snow. Bad luck, I jumped right back up and thought I was fine, but I definitely was having a hard time breathing. I skied the rest of the technical chute with no problems and thought I could hike up to No Name face to ski. That was definitely was not going to happen, so I slowly tried to ski out. I was in so much pain every little bump brought on nausea and dizziness. The pain was pretty excruciating and at the end of the traverse I ran into my friends Griffin and Matt, I was so excited to see them! When you are injured it is so nice to be around people that are so supportive and helpful. (thanks Alex and Brian also!) I just need to rest for a few days and I am hoping to be skiing in no time, super painful and it is dumping. My good friend and fellow competitor Jess Mcmillan is also injured so we were able to go on a walk today which was the highlight of my day! I hope her and Hadley heal fast and we will all be abel to rip around together again. When you are injured you never realize how much you love to ski!!! I cant' wait to get back out there.

Twice is Nice

Beer Camp!

2010-12-10T17:10:00.000-08:00

We al traveled to Sierra Nevada to learn about the beer! Pretty impressive, they are great people to have sponsor the tour! Very sustainable and professional. Enjoy the video

http://sierrafreeski.com/videos.html

Jackson Hole open Wall to Wall in November!!!

2010-11-30T15:52:00.001-08:00

Brooke Edwards Photos!!

For the first time and history Jackson Hole Mountain Resort opened the entire mountain including the hobacks and lower faces on November 27th. This is the highest snowpack ever recorded in history this early in the year! It was definitely a memorable day and one I will never forget. I have skied Jackson Hole ever since I was 2 years old and never remember skiing so much powder so early in the year. Also the entire day on Saturday there were no lines, which was also really very special. Everyone that was out skiing was locals and the energy on the hill was amazing! With our amazing tram, it shuttles 100 people up the mountain so it spread people out quickly. Also a lot of people were done skiing by 12, because of being tired. They needed their ski fitness! Ha ha! I did a lot of fast laps with no lines, I could not remember the last time that I had skied so much in bounds and gotten so many powder runs, that were not getting tracked. I definitely slept well that night, I was glad I had been strength training for

skiing, but the long and fast runs were still hard. I think this winter is shaping up to be amazing and I can't wait to be a part of it!

A few good turns.

2010-11-19T11:07:00.000-08:00

Nov. 17th Skiing on Teton Pass, Wyoming from Brian Mulvihill on Vimeo.

Opening Day at the Village should be good!

Ski and Snowboard Fitness

2010-11-18T12:10:00.000-08:00

This year has been a really successful year for me with ski/snowboard fitness, I sold out my two classes for my first session which was shocking. I have a great mix of skiers that do not like to workout in your typical gym setting, so Mountain Athlete has been the perfect place for everyone. Thanks Rob!! I can not emphasize how important it is to become strong for your recreational sport and in this instance skiing/snowboarding. The more you can strengthen your muscles independently the stronger you will be as a whole and you will be less susceptible to injury. The other key element in ski/snowboard fitness is helping people recover from an injury, when you leave physical therapy that does not mean that you are ready to ski or snowboard. There are still a lot of strengthening exercises that need to be done in preparation to be physically and mentally strong to return to skiing/snowboarding. My class focuses on injury prevention and strength through balance, stabilization, agility and flexibility. Also it is really nice to have someone to push you so the class setting is really great.
Check out my training blog here

I have not felt this strong for skiing in a long time, my body just feels better and overall I feel more confident with skiing. I have learned so much working with different athletes from your ski bum to young freeriders to older ski enthusiasts. It has been a great learnning experience and I can not emphasize the importance. If you have a chance to prevent injury and feel stronger skiing/snowboarding why would you not want to try? I am really excited for the upcoming season and hopefully Jackson Hole has a great year! We are already off to a great start.

First Turns of the Season!!!

2010-10-30T11:27:00.001-07:00

Monday and Tuesday we had a huge storm sweep through Jackson depositing about 41 inches of snow! It was crazy because two days prior I was hiking Jackson peak and mountain biking. We hiked glory bowl and skied twin slides, which actually had really good coverage and I was able to ski more aggressively than I expected! We then skinned over and skied Avalanche Bowl, which was as good as it gets in my opinion, really light and fluffy snow! It felt great to get back on my skis again in Jackson Hole! I have been spending a lot of time at Mountain Athlete trying to get strong for the upcoming season. Doing a ton of strength and agility exercises. Also have been teaching about 4 ski fitness classes and hoping to get the rest of the ski bum community in shape for the season. I hope we have an amazing winter in Jackson!!!

No more women on the Freeride Tour!

2010-10-04T20:34:00.000-07:00

No more women on the Freeride World Tour! Very disappointing, but for some reason not hard for me to believe. Last year was my first and only year on the tour and I thought it was one of the most amazing competition experiences I had ever had. The only problem was the lack of support that I felt with the women especially compared to the Subaru Freeskiing Tour. When I won that tour in 2009 Julien Lopez who won for the guys and I had the exact same amount of press and exposure it was so awesome to be treated equal with the guys champion. My first competition in Chamonix was exciting, nerve racking and intimidating. I definitely never felt completely welcome as a female and I already thought it was a little ridiculous that the men and women were skiing the same venue spending the same amount of money and the men won $8,000 for first and the women only won $2500. I do not think we should be completely equal with prize money, because there is more of the guys , but I think we should be a lot closer in earnings.
The women had to go second in Chamonix which at first I did not mind because there was a lot of slough management because of the temperature changes. I had picked an aesthetic line that I knew I had to do, but knew by the time the ladies ran it would not be the best snow. I went for it anyway and landed in hardened avy debris, I was bummed but excited I had skied that line. When the guys were running there was a helicopter flying and filming. Approximately a hundred journalist supposedly were just there for the men. When the women started all the press and helicopter left! It felt so weird to me like I was not really competing. I know we do not ski like the guys, but we are all pushing ourselves and the level for women. In Squaw this year it was some of the most amazing women skiing I had ever seen. Everyone was throwing down on the same guys lines. The winning girls line was the same as the guys. The women had to go second again on a small venue that we should have at least been able to go first for one of the two runs. I crashed twice and the second run the air I had taken had been so bombed out by the men that I landed one leg in one of their bomb holes one out and knocked myself out for second and definitely could not walk for 3 days after. The point is this is regressing our sport as women when last year I thought our sport had taken such a huge step on both tours. The Subaru tour still has amazing amount of competition and I hope women will still continue to push themselves and want to try or continue competing!

Termas De Chillan Part 2!!!

2010-09-13T17:35:00.000-07:00

My last day at Termas was a little more of a challenge, but still a great adventure. I decided I wanted to skin up another volcano, this one was just to the right of the first one and opened up to a valley of more great terrain. I was told I could ski down and then be able to hike up the back side of another volcano and ski back into the resort. As I got to the top of Volcano Viejo the clouds started to come in with a thick fog. I waited for it to clear a bit and then had an awesome long run down the volcano proper. I decided to keep going into the valley hoping to be able to find my way out to the side. As I kept going further down, I knew I was on the backside of a lot of terrain called the fingers, I had skied in the resort, but I was not seeing how I could get out of the valley I was in! I followed some tracks (never a good idea) and found myself cliffed out by two canyons with a beautiful stream running through. I definitely was not getting across, so my only choice was to skin back out of the valley I had skied down, which was about 3,000 vertical feet. It was pretty socked in with fog at this point and I could see the track from the cat so started to head for that and followed the track up. 2 hours later I was back in the resort and had done about 3 hours of skinning so had gotten some good exercise for the day! I took a few more runs and then went and had a beer with my new friend at the Iglu, she likes dance music and speaks English so we bonded!! ha! ha! I then packed up and left Termas and took a 7 am bus to Santiago and then a night bus to Mendoza! I loved Termas and will definitely go back soon, hopefully I can learn some Spanish by then!

Termas De Chillan!!!

2010-09-09T06:22:00.000-07:00

So after Portillo I was not sure what to do, because my ski partners had to bail. I thought about going to Las Lenas anyways, but there was not lodging for me. My friend Claire Smallwood is working in Termas De Chillan a very cute small resort in southern Chile.Thanks Claire for everything!!! I had never heard of the place, but now I am stoked that I decided to give it a try! I hopped on a bus and went about 6 hours south of Santiago. I definitely need to brush up on my Spanish because I was the only American on the bus and had a horrible time trying to communicate. My wine also spilled in my backpack and started dripping on the Chileans, needless to say I was not a real popular person on the bus. I am a red head (so I get weird looks anyway), a wino and do not speak Spanish. I was the last person on the bus and they dropped me off at a nice little hostel called Chil'in. I was able to communicate to get a room and have been here the last four days. It is perfect spring skiing here, which is awesome! Any kind of skiing is fun this time of year.
Termas has one main lift and it takes 22 minutes to get to the top. Long runs, but wow is it a long chairlift ride when you are by yourself. I decided to do some touring, because the options are endless. The first day I skinned to the top of a volcano and it was such an eery feeling with it steaming all around me. Awesome corn skiing down with some really steep pitches one after another. Yesterday I saw an amazing face that looked like it was only an hour away as I started skinning I realized that it was a few canyons away! It took me two hours to get to the first sub peak and I decided that would be a good stopping point! I had a great adventure skiing down not knowing exactly where I was going. That was the story of my entire trip here just exploring and seeing new things and meeting some great people that I could not communicate with. I had some good alone time and skied some great snow! tomorrow I go to Santiago and then to Mendoza and then home!!! I am excited to get home and get back to work!

Portillo and Super-C!!!!!!!!

2010-09-02T18:25:00.000-07:00

My first couple days in Portillo did not start out like I wanted, I got some type of food poisoning or a flu. I was stuck in bed for 2 days, but the last two days have been so much fun that it has made up for the horrible days in bed! Yesterday Johnathan (selkophoto.com) and I went out and made some really amazing photos with not great snow conditions, but the scenery here is breathtaking so that definitely helps and of course my amazing Arcteryx colors also did their job! I also have met some great new people and five of us today decided to ski the Super- C Couloir, I had not heard much about this except that Chris Davenport has said that Is one of the best in the world! Coming from a person like Dav that goes a very long way so I was stoked. We started hiking around 10 am because it was definitely a little cloudy and snowy. My hiking and skiing partners include my friend Joni from SLC, my new friends Tucker and Axle from California and Gabe from Canada! We had a nurse, a ski patrol, a medical tech and a geologist on board and oh me a personal trainer/waitress/river guide/skier whatever I am. (ha ha). It was a pretty steep hike and I believe we all made it to the top in about 2 hours, we topped out at 13,100 and probably hiked about 2500 vertical feet. When we got to the top it was beautiful, even though we could not see much I knew we were surround by huge mountains. On a clear day you can see Aconcagua (22,841). I looked down and I could not wait to ski! The top part was probably about 50-55 degrees and some dust on crust. I made the first turns and totally fell in love with this couloir, because it was steep and just kept going and going! Huge beautiful volcanic walls on either side. The couloir I believe was about 3,500 vertical feet! We even got some amazing deep pow turns! In the last year I have skied some pretty amazing couloirs from the Tetons, to La Grave and Chamonix and this one definitely is very high on my list!!! I just love all couloirs!!! Can't wait to ski more!!!

Second Place!!! Las Lenas Argentina!!!

2010-08-29T15:30:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning pretty nervous about competing! I knew my line, but only skiing two day before a comp had my nerves a title higher than normal. There was not a lot to my line, besides a technical straitline about halfway down that had an ice bulge in the middle. I was excited to ski it, I knew it would get my blood pumping! There is not a lot of snow in Lenas so there were not a lot of opportunities for air.
I was happy with the line I chose and felt really strong the entire way down the venue. Because of the lack of snow we were only going to have a one run competition, which is really tough especially when there was not a lot on this venue to separate ourselves from anyone else. I skied and then watched the rest of the girls also ski very strong, there were only 12 women competing, but it was a pretty stacked field. I ended up second by .20 behind friend and competitor Angel Collinson, I could not believe how close we were. Overall I was very happy with my results and am glad to have the comp behind me. Las Lenas did a wonderful job with awards and had a great band for us to follow. It was a lot of fun to see all my competition friends after not seeing them for about 4 months, it is like a second family and it was fun to watch all the guys ski super strong. Now I am headed to Portillo, Chile to shoot photos with my friend Johnathan Selkowitz!

Las Lenas comp one run tomorrow!!!!

2010-08-26T15:54:00.000-07:00

So the comp was postponed until tomorrow, which was good and bad, a part of me was ready to compete today so we could have a full comp, but another part of me needed a little more time to ski to feel more physically and mentally prepared. I am excited about the venue because it is steep and long. There are not a lot of airs because Las Lenas does not have a lot of snow and the takeoffs are receded. I am just hoping the line I have chosen is strong enough. I do not really have a lot of features just some technical skiing. It is hard when it is only a one run comp because it is anyones game! I went and skied a long run that involved a 20 minute hike which was really fun and it was good to know that my body still remembers how to ski. I feel pretty strong thanks to Rob and Mountain Athlete! Hopefully the sun will shine for us tomorrow and the comp will be a great success! This is the first time that any of us have competed in Las Lenas! Also the first time there has been a comp since 1994! The terrain here looks endless when they have snow. I hope to be able to come back and ski. I am posting a photo of the venue and the surrounding areas. We have to walk down on dirt to get to the entrance, pretty crazy. Mt Eduardo here we come manana!!!

South America!!! Finally after crazy summer!

2010-08-24T17:11:00.000-07:00

I have finally arrived in Mendoza Argentina after flying for about 24 hours. I am waiting to catch a 2 am bus to Las Lenas and then will be competing on Thursday. I know I am pushing it a bit, but I was not able to get out of work any earlier and I really wanted to do my annual girls pack trip!! Cramming everything in at the last minute, but I am not regretting doing any of it. I arrived in Mendoza today around 100 pm. I am staying at a really hip hostel downtown called Damajuana. So far I love Argentina and the food. Mendoza is a great running city and I went for run around a large park. I probably saw about 100 runners in my 30 minute run. It is definitely a night area! All the bars are just starting to open and it is 9 pm, I am trying to go to sleep so I can wake up and catch a bus to Lenas at 2 am and ski all day tomorrow. I am really excited, I have never been here and I am already enjoying the culture and the food!! Here are a few photos of Mendoza, I will keep you updated with the competition, because it will be live webcasted.

Skiing in Alaska on Summer Solstice!

2010-06-26T17:48:00.000-07:00

I decided to do a spur of the moment to Alaska to see my good friends Brooke and Mike! I had no expectations, so it turned into one of the most amazing trips. On summer solstice a friend Jake and I decided to hike up a mountain behind cooper landing, it still had a nice strip of snow the entire way down. I borrowed Brooke's telemark setup, which was quite interesting because I am not a tele skier. I had her little race skis so just arced some alpine turns tried to drop a knee, but was not totally successful. Hiking up we had amazing views of Kenai Lake and the Kenai river. Mountains just went for days as far as the eye could see. Alaska is really beautiful in the summer time very green, but not super warm, which made for great skiing. On the way up we saw some pretty large grizzly bear tracks, which made me a little nervous. I was also informed that there was a bear kill in the drainage that we had to walk out, but it was a few weeks old. As we walked down the drainage we started to see pieces of a moose, this was not a small moose either. There was definitely not much left to him besides legs and bones. We made is safely past the kill and onto the road for the walk out! It was perfect spring skiing and made for a great summer solstice day. Nothing beats being in AK for the longest day of the year. It never really got dark that night, we ended the day with some fishing!!!

Life is to short

2010-06-09T07:31:00.000-07:00

A week ago a friend and fellow competitor Arne Backstrom Died while skiing in Peru. This has hit our small close knit ski community very hard. I was not really close to Arne, but got to know him over the last two seasons of skiing on the freeskiing circuit and he had a great impact on me as a skier and a friend. The first time I met him, he skied up behind me and asked me my advice about a line. I was shocked because one of the best male skiers in the country was asking my advice. (ha ha) He was always soft spoken and very modest about his skiing, he also had more passion for skiing then anyone I had ever met. Last year after I won the Freeskiing World Tour he congratulated me and I told him next year you should win this thing. He gave a smug smile and said that would be his dream and that was what he was going to work toward the following season. This past season I watched him ski so well on the tour and barely win the tour by a point. That was the last time I saw him and he was so happy to have won the overall tour! I will always remember the big smile on his face after he accomplished the feat of winning the Freeskiing World Tour.
Some of my best friends I have met through the freeskiing tour and after just one season of us skiing together we become very close. It is hard to explain, but when you are competing in a sport that involves high level of adrenaline and risk you gain a connection with people. There is also so much support between the men and the women which I have never seen in any other sport. The women support other women and the men and men support us as well. I will never forget all the people I have met over the last four years of competing. I hope to continue to build more memories skiing with these friends. We have had a lot of deaths to the community over the last couple years, but it never makes me regret what I do. It just makes me realize how short life is and how I want to always enjoy it and continue to ski the way I love to ski!

Southwest Couloir on Moran done!!!!

2010-05-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

After my attempt about a week ago, I was ready to go back and ski the Southwest Couloir. I was hoping the snow would be a little more settled and this time I knew exactly where I was going. This time I was joined by three different guys Don, Patrick and Ben. These guys are some of my favorite ski buddies so I was stoked, they also are strong which is great for putting in boot packs. (ha ha.) We left the string lake parking lot around 4 am and started skinning toward the mountain. We were a little nervous about crossing Leigh lake, but we knew it would be faster and day was supposed to warm so we needed to get going. The lake seemed pretty frozen but the top layer was definitely weakening. We cruised across the lake with no major problems and jumped onto shore. We were hoping that the lake crossing was the crux of our trip. We started to skin up the canyon following Moran around. We passed quite a few bar tracks, a couple of them definitely belonging to a grizzly, this made me nervous. I really did not want to come face to face with a grizzly.
As we wove out of the trees and started to gain elevation the alpenglow on the mountains was so beautiful, there was no one in sight and the only tracks, besides the bears that we saw were the tracks from us the week before. We skinned as high as we could which was put us at 9500 feet only 3000 more to go! The snow was pretty frozen so we put on our crampons and started our boot pack up the gully that we had missed a week ago. We were able to move pretty quickly with the hard snow and continued switching off. We made it to the base of the couloir in about an hour and a half from when we had started boot packing, the base of couloir was at about 11,000 ft. We took a quick break and then started our ascent up the beautiful couloir with huge walls on either side and a mix of different types of rock. The snow was a little deeper in the couloir, which made for better skiing, but tough boot packing. The elevation also was starting to slow our pace we reached the top of the couloir at around 11 am and still had not seen any sun, but we knew as soon as we skied out of the couloir it would be really warm. We topped out at about 12,300 just about 300 feet from the summit, scrambling over rock and snow in an exposed area looked a little challenging so we opted out of trying to get to the summit. We clicked in and one at a time skied the long steep couloir. (about an average of 45 degrees entire way.) The snow was variable, but it was definitely high on my coolest couloir list. We skied out of the couloir and into the sun. The mountains around were starting to come alive with wet slides, so we boogied down the gully and out to a safe zone for a break. This time we had to go around the lake and do some bushwhacking, definitely took longer, but we were all glad that we had nothing to do with the lake. We made it back to the car right around 4 pm, made for a long day, but we were all psyched to have skied an aesthetic couloir on Moran!

Attempt of Southwest Couloir on Moran!

2010-05-10T13:41:00.000-07:00

It had snowed about three feet in the last week, which was making for some winter conditions. A group of four of us decided to go and checkout and hopefully ski the Southwest Couloir on Mt Moran. I was not feeling totally optimistic, because of all the snow that we had received in the past week, but I was really excited to go and check out a new area. We left the String Lake parking lot at 5 am, the skies were clear and it was below freezing. We skinned across Leigh lake, which was still very frozen. The sun rose up over the lake and made fore a gorgeous sunrise. We stopped for water and food at the mouth of Leigh canyon on the far side of the lake. We then started to ascend up the canyon, the skinning was pretty tough with all the new snow we were trudging in snow up to our knees. I was glad that we had four of us to break trail, because we continually switched off as we climbed about 3800 vertical feet. Somehow we missed our turn and ended up at the bottom of Hidden Couloir on Thor Peak. Dan and Mark were sure we were going the right way and Brian and I were not totally convince, we somehow had veered away from Moran. We decided since we had already come this far that we would just start making our way up Hidden Couloir and get some good turns. We were skinning up the bottom when a small slide came barreling down above us, which seemed to be in slow motion. We were all able to get out of the way, but that was enough excitement to turn us around. We skied back down the skin track and decided to at least see if we could see the Southwest Couloir. We boot packed up a protected saddle and there right in front of us was the couloir, it looked pretty awesome. We knew with the conditions and time of day that we were not going to attempt to ski it. We skied over the saddled and decided to ski down the gully that we were supposed to ascend up. The skiing was really good, with just a few sharks here and there. Since we had not come up this way we were not sure if we could ski the entire way down. The gully narrowed more as the four of us descended in elevation and we all skied to the side in a safer zone and Brian skied down to see if the we could ski through. He said it was a no go, we then strapped on our crampons and got out our ice axes and decided to try and down climb the small ice section. Mark descended first and was having some difficulties so we started to look for another route. We climbed up and to the right and were relieved to find a way out. We skied out and to the lake and were psyched to have made it safely down. After seeing the couloir I can not wait to get back up there to hopefully ski have another chance to ski the Southwest Couloir!!!

Static Peak

2010-05-01T10:42:00.000-07:00

My two good girlfriends and I decided to go and check out the conditions in Grand Teton National Park. We decided to ski Static Peak, which stands at 11,303 feet. It was a good start to the spring skiing in the Tetons. We started skinning around 730 am and reached the summit around 11 am. It was more of a trek than I had thought. I had been up there in the summer, but the winter approach is different. It was still pretty frozen at the top, which made for tough skiinning. The summit of Static is actually one of my favorite views in the park. You have a great view of Buck mountain and the Grand. It also drops off about 500 feet off the backside. it was still pretty cold when we reached the summit at 1120 am. We decided to just ski the main bowl back down to Stewarts draw. It was pretty nice corn and it was fun to rip big G.S. style turns the entire way down. I was pretty excited about skiing static it was a lot longer and steeper than I had thought. Now I think I am ready for something bigger!!!

The Desert Climbing and Biking

2010-04-25T08:58:00.001-07:00

This past week I put my skis away just for a little and went down to the desert to enjoy some warm weather and some climbing and mountain biking. We started out our trip in St George, Ut in Snow Canyon, which actually has some great climbing and biking. I have not done a lot of climbing on sandstone, but the stuff I have done I absolutely love. It is very grippy and I can use my feet and feel more confident. There was also some great technical biking that I was not expecting over sandstone through slots in the rocks. Really fun and a great way to start out biking again! We climbed and biked everyday which was really fun! We then headed down to Red Rocks, Las Vegas. Red rocks is a a beautiful area with canyons and amazing climbing just out of Vegas. When you are climbing you can see the strip. It is pretty crazy because the differences between the two are like night and day. We climbed the entire time in Black Velvet Canyon which is a beautiful canyon with water running through and huge walls for climbing. The first day we climbed a classic called Frogland, which was six pitches of about 5.8. The next day we climbed Yellow Brick road, which is on Black Velvet wall. This climb was 5.10a and 5.10b which was a lot more challenging for me. Very steep and exposed, but it was one of my favorite climbs I have ever done. It was 4 pitches and pretty sustained the entire way. I am beginning to become more confident with climbing and I hope to eventually be comfortable leading trad. We had great weather the entire time and it was hard to leave, it was a great break from skiing after a long and crazy winter. I am excited to still do some skiing in the Tetons.

Podium and No crashing!!!!! Finally!!!!

2010-03-25T13:04:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I competed in the Freeskiing World Tour Championships in Snowbird, Ut. I have been having a really rough and disappointing season so I really wanted to the end the season off on a positive note. I was really bummed about not qualifying for Verbier or even being able to have a judged run on the Freeride World Tour. I was excited to compete in Snowbird though, because it was the comp that I had won last year. I had hurt my knee in Kirkwood, so I was not sure how it would feel competing on hard pack in Snowbird. I wore a brace and my knee felt pretty good, I picked out a pretty mellow line on the day one venue but just really wanted to stay on my feet so I could ski my fun line on the finals venue. I did not score as well as I would have thought, but was only about 4 points out of first and 2 points out of the podium. I was in 8th place. Going into the finals I was so excited to ski my line on North Baldy, but my mindset was little different this year. I just wanted my confidence back and after my first run I had gotten it back. I moved from 8th to 2nd and was so excited for the superfinals to ski my line with more confidence and really charge. I won the superfinals run by 21/2 points, but it was not enough to move into first. I was just psyched because I skied like myself and ended my season with a solid second place finish!!!

if you want to see the top three runs go to http://www.freeskiingworldtour.com/video.html

Snowbird!!! Freeskiing World Tour Championships!!!

2010-03-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

This year has been a very different year for me as far as competing goes. I have been participating on two different tours which has made it difficult for me to competitive on either tour for the overall. I have also had some tough luck with crashing, which has been tough on my confidence and my body. I crashed very hard in Kirkwood and have been rehabing my knee since, today was my third day skiing since the crash and I am feeling almost 100%. Last year I placed first here in Snowbird and won my first Freesking World Tour event by ten points. I am not sitting anywhere in the overall standings so I do not have the pressure. I just want to come out and finish my season strong and confidently. I have very similar lines picked out as last year, which I am excited about. I just want to make sure that I make it past tomorrow, so I can ski my fun line on Baldy that won me the competition last year. Tomorrow we compete on Silverfox, the conditions are definitely a little chalky and challenging. I just need to be aware of the landings and that I will accelerate after taking any type of air. I am ready and am feeling confident about my skiing! The event will be live at freeskiingworldtour.com
(the picture on the top is Silverfox and the one on bottom is Baldy.)

Kirkwood California Freeskiing World Tour Stop # 4

2010-03-09T13:43:00.000-08:00

After Squaw I was pretty sore from crashing and had to take a few days off. I wanted to be ready for Kirkwood and be confident with my skiing. This has been a really tough year on me mentally and it has started to downward spiral my confidence. When you start to crash a lot it makes it hard to think about anything in the gate except crashing. Squaw was my 5th pretty large crash in a row. I arrived at Kirkwood feeling pretty confident but mentally a little off. I placed second there last year and wanted to just have a strong finish to make me feel confident about my skiing. The first day I I picked a pretty mellow line to just gain back confidence that I can ski and not crash. I did just that but did not feel that great about my run. I was sitting in 6th place going into the finals. Looking at the next days venue I picked out a little more rowdy of a line that I was really passionate about. The next morning I changed my mind and mellowed out my line again. My good friend Janina skied the line that I wanted to ski, I was so stoked for her, but it made me want to ski it on my superfinals run. I was sitting in 5th going into the superfinals so I figured I had nothing to lose. I went for the line, but as I was skiing into the chute I had a bad feeling. I needed more speed for where I wanted to ski and next thing I knew I was coming up short on the air and landing on some rocks and cartwheeling down the venue. I felt no pain at the moment, but as I started to hike up to get my ski I knew I had tweaked my knees pretty good. ( I think I have a slight tear in my MCL.) I ended up 5th, my friend Janina won and also won the coveted sickbird with the line I was so passionate about, I am so stoked for her, but wish my confidence would have been better to ski the line. The good news is I still ended up 5th out of 30 girls. I think I just need a little break from competing for a little while, I know I can ski but have had a tough year. I hope my knee will heal, so I can try to go defend my title in Snowbird next weekend.

Squaw Valley No Tram Face!!!!

2010-03-03T09:41:00.000-08:00

I woke up really early to go scope lines on the Tram Face, I was really excited about my line it was more of a technical ski line not as many airs. I felt confident about my line because I just wanted to have a solid run to get my confidence back. It was a beautiful day and people were filing in to watch the comp, I felt like I was at a football game with people tailgating. It was so awesome to see that many people out to watch our sport. Right before they were going to send the first forerunner about a one foot crown broke sending an avalanche over the venue. This was not why Tram Face was canceled but had something to do with it and how the snow conditions would progress. So this left us to ski two runs on Silverado, which was a very short venue and not as much technical skiing. I picked a line that had two good features in it starting with a 25 foot air at the top. I landed the top air with no problems and was so excited! I then went into my technical waterfall line at the bottom and underestimated the landing. It was so flat that I just planted strait into the snow. I was super bummed, because I had a great line going. I tried to not be to bummed because I had one more chance to redeem myself. I also had nothing to lose, because to qualify for Verbier I needed to get 1st or 2nd. I figured my top air was money because it had been so smooth on the first run. I picked out a very technical steep air at the bottom that I was really excited about. I felt very confident about my line choice and new if I stuck this I would be very high in the placings. I went into my top air and as I was flying through the air I saw that my landing area was a huge bomb hole. I landed super hard bringing my knees to my face and knocking my goggles off my helmut. This was one of the hardest crashes of the year and I was not able to finish my run. I was so bummed, because if I just would have been a foot to the left I would not have hit the bomb hole. I could not believe that I had crashed again. This year has been really tough on me because I feel that I am skiing really well, but have just had some bad luck with line choices and not being able to stay on my feet. Last year I had one of the best years of my career and this year I am having one of the worsts, but I am also upping my skiing ability so hopefully soon it will pay off. Headed to Kirkwood for the Freeskiing World Tour.

Freeride World Tour Stop # 3 Tram Face (hopefully)

2010-02-27T20:26:00.000-08:00

Squaw received 16 inches of heavy wet snow overnight last night, which made for some interesting but fun skiing conditions for today. I skied and then scoped Tram Face, I found a line that I am really excited about and just need to take into consideration that the conditions are not ideal. I feel that I have never skied a competition where the conditions are ideal so I feel that I am ready. At the meeting tonight they told us that we would not be skiing tram face tomorrow. This raised some concerns among the athletes. The tour has been trying to get a competition off on Tram Face for 3 years and everyone is psyched to try and get it done. I was bummed, I was really excited to ski the tram face and I knew this is probably the only chance that I will get. Jeremy Jones spoke up being a local and one of the best snowboarders in the world, he said this is as good as the face will get and why not ski it. Cody Townsend another local big mountain skier also felt the same. I was really glad that people were speaking up and the organizers were listening to the athletes. There is no final consensus that we will ski Tram Face, but it is looking pretty positive. I am planning on skiing my line tomorrow, but will be ready for whatever they throw at us. I just really would be excited to ski strong here and be able to build up some confidence with my skiing. My line that I am thinking about is pictured here and is more technical and not as many big airs. I am stoked to be able to ski such an awesome venue!!! Hope it happens.

The Sliver

2010-02-26T10:27:00.001-08:00

I was only back in Jackson for a week, but I was really excited to get up into Grand Teton Park and do some skiing. I had one full day off, so I decided to go ski the Sliver, which is a really narrow couloir on Nez Perce. I had attempted to ski it last year, but the snow was so warm that we were only able to get to the top of Shadow Peak. I have been on a roll with skiing couloirs especially after Europe, so I could not wait to ski another one. It took us about 3 hours to get to the top of Shadow and then we had to drop down so we could boot up the Sliver. Booting up the sliver was a little challenging because the snow had all funneled through and it was like swimming up a 50 degree slope. We finally made it to the top after about an hour of boot packing. I was so excited to ski another couloir! It definitely compared to the couloirs in Europe just a little shorter but it was definitely 800 feet of pure steep, so that was awesome. We then skied the rest of the way down getting some awesome light fluffy face shots! I always feel so awesome after spending a day in the Tetons and realize how lucky I am to live in such an amazing place! I now am getting ready for the Freeride World Tour Stop # 3 in Squaw Valley, Ca. I hope the snow stays good there so we can ski the Tram Face....

Fieberbrunn, Austria: Freeride World Tour Stop # 2

2010-02-14T00:27:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning feeling very confident about my line, but knew it was a little risky because it was a steep chute that funneled into a mandatory cliff area. It was a beautiful clear day and when we unloaded the gondola we had a great view of the entire face. I scoped my line once more and felt confident about where I was going, the venue was incredibly rocky, but there were ways around all the rocks. I headed up the to the bottom of the boot pack that took us to the top of the venue, it was about a 45 minute hike. It was a good time for me to calm my nerves, I was running 19th so I knew I had some time. I stood at the top and could see down on most of the venue and watched most of the girls ski trying not to become to nervous. I really wanted to do well in this competition, but I also wanted to push my skiing ability. I headed out of the start gate skiing pow into the top of my line. I then dropped strait fall line toward my chute and knew exactly where I was! I skied fast and fluid, dodging rocks the entire way down, I could not believe how many sharks were hiding under the surface. I was the first person to ski into my area and as I entered the tight chute the slough started to run. I looked down and I felt that I was in a river getting ready to go off a waterfall, the snow was running fast under me over rocks. I knew I just needed to point it, but with as many rocks as there were it was very intimidating. I finally did point it, but there were more rocks than I expected and I hooked a rock on my takeoff which sent me landing hard on my right side. I am still learning a lot about skiing with slough. I still had some of the venue to ski and my goggles were caked with snow and as I went into my next feature the helicopter was right above me stirring up so much snow that I could not even see my takeoff. I guess it was pretty cool to have a heli above my head!!! ha ha. I landed that air luckily and skied into the finish very disappointed, but really excited that I had skied a really neat line. I looked back up and my tracks were set out by themselves and that was my line. I was the only woman to ski that line, which was awesome. I have had a rough start to my year, but it has all been a great learning experience with my first time visual inspecting and being a rookie on a new tour. I am glad that I am challenging myself more and making myself a better skier. I am very excited to go home and ski Jackson!! I have missed my home. PICTURED HERE: Full view of where I skied and a close up view of the Chute that turned all to rocks!!!

La Grave!!!

2010-02-11T02:28:00.000-08:00

The girls and I decided to head to La Grave for a couple days after Chamonix. We had a hook-up from a friend with a couple of the guides there Keith and Joe. These guys soon became our new favorite people, because they took us to ski some of the coolest terrain and couloirs I have ever skied. I knew little of La Grave except it was a mecca for ski mountaineering and steep long couloirs. Also I knew that Doug Coombs had called this place home, so I knew it had to be pretty amazing! Driving to La Grave in a snow storm was pretty crazy, we knew we were in the mountains, but we could barely see two feet in front of us! As we arrived in La Grave all we could see was the town and I already wanted to move there. It is a very quaint little village in the middle of the mountains with cute little bakeries, restaurants and bars. Keith lended us is home, which turned into 4 nights which was very nice of him. Since it had been dumping we knew that the next day was going to be a good ski day! We got up early so we could make first gondola car. La grave has one lift to the top that has a mid station, but climbs 7,000 vertical feet to the top. This makes for an amazingly long run, the main run has awesome views of Le Meije and huge glaciers. There is five gondola cars that are connected and trek up the mountain. In the morning we were in line with the hard core locals, it was like a powder frenzy in Jackson, but with a bunch of hard core frenchmen. (not a lot of women in La grave.) We were three American women getting into line and we sure got some looks, it was pretty funny. People were in harnesses and had their climbing gear ready to go, this made for an intimidating ski line. It was then a race to make the first five gondola cars, which we did. It was still a little socked in so it was hard to see where we were going, all I knew is we were surrounded by some big mountains. Keith and Joe took us to our first couloir of La grave called Le Banan. We were able to get first tracks, which brought huge smiles to all of our faces. I have always been obsessed with couloirs so today my dreams were coming true. It started to clear a bit and you could see the massiveness of the mountains around us. The rest of the day were were greeted by powder and endless coloirs one that had an awesome rappel in the middle. We skied five pretty aesthetic couloirs that day! Our guides who became our friends were amazing and we had a great time and even got some pretty good photos.
Joe let Jess and I tag along the last day we were there, which was a beautiful bluebird day and we were able to see the mountains. We skied two long about 4,000 vertical foot couloirs to the road, got to rappel switch (backwards) with our skis on, and got some pretty amazing faceshots skiing to the couloirs. Thanks Joe and Keith for making are trip to La grave one we will never forget. I definitely can not wait to go back. I really want to improve my ski mountaineering skills and learn more about glacial travel. What a beautiful place!

Aguiille Du Midi (Vallee Blanche)

2010-02-02T11:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Jess, Angela and I headed up the Agui. Talk about one of the most exposed and beautiful places. It was a clear day and the views of Mont Blonc and the Chamonix valley were amazing. We got off the top tram and walked around the entire viewing area looking into Italy and possibly many other countries. Pretty amazing! We then put our skis on our packs and started the exposed walk down the rope to where we could put our skis on. It was probably about 15 below with the wind and it made the climb down even that more crazy. We then out our skis on and headed down the Valle Blanche which is the main place to ski down from the top of the Agui. The ski routes from there are endless and I would be really excited to go explore the ski mountaineering possibilities someday. We skied around glaciers and through ice, with amazing views of all the mountains. The top of the Agui is a 9,000 vertical foot climb from the valley floor, so we had a very long run down. We then skied to these really amazing ice caves that we were able to walk through. Ice and ski boots do not mix, but it made it exciting. We then climbed about 1000 steps and then took the train back to the valley floor! what a great day.

Chamonix Freeride World Tour Stop # 1

2010-02-01T10:07:00.000-08:00

The face that we were given to compete on received about two feet of snow the day before our competition. Normally this would be an amazing thing to have happen before a competition. The only problem was that the half of the venue was south facing which made for icy conditions under the snow. I woke up very nervous for my first Freeride World Tour event. It was a little different scene then the Freeskiing World Tour and I was definitely the rookie, a woman and an American. I watched the first 13 guys go and they were being sluffed all over the venue because of the steepness and the snows ability to bond to the icy under layer. I watched the whole face that I was going to ski slide away to the icy layer underneath. I also watched some of the best guy skiers in the world crashing on small airs. It was definitely hard for me to keep to my game plan about skiing the south side, but I wanted to ski the steep face and I had been looking at it for five days! The other side was bottomless powder, but I could not seem to find anything that really interested me. Jess found something she liked over there and at the last minute changed her line to that area (a good cliff as well.) and had a blast and in the end it payed off for her because she won the comp! (which is so awesome totally happy for her.)

I headed up to the start, which was a very steep boot pack with the most amazing views in the world. I left the starting gate so excited to ski one of the more cooler lines I have skied in competition. I came on the the 50 degree face and sure enough it sluffed on me a little at the top of the face as I was standing on very icy snow. I was able to hold onto myself as heavy snow tried to knock me off my feet. (would not have been a good place to fall, so exposed.) I skied into my first air off the ramp with good direction as my skis left the ground. I landed very hard in the debris that had setup throughout the day. I accelerated into the soft snow and it was like hitting a cement wall, I tumbled got up and continued to ski. As I entered into my bottom air once again the snow broke lose as I took off and I landed flat and sat down for a moment as my snow fell on top of me and then skied out. Overall not a great showing, but was excited about my line and glad I did not ski something easy. I just could not believe how much snow I played in on my way down! Pretty bummed, but not a lot I can do I am in Chamonix and had an amazing experience. Hopefully better luck in Austria.

Skiing some amazing Pow in Chamonix! Comp tomorrow...

2010-01-30T07:24:00.000-08:00

Today was one of the better days I have had all season! Only in Europe can you get onto the mountain at 12 and have untouched chest deep pow. I had some amazing faceshots today down into the village! The sun was just peaking through some clouds and as I was skiing I had amazing views of the Aguille du Midi and Mont Blanc. (pictured here) I do not know if you can beat that view and that steep of skiing anywhere.

Last night we had the bib draw for the competition in the middle of town, which was pretty awesome to be downtown Chamonix with you and your bib flashing up on the big screen. I drew bib 46. Girls go second and they alternate between snowboarder and skier. I hope the boys don't take all of our new snow! The face that we are skiing which is pictured here has received 2 feet of snow which is so exciting! Tomorrow is my first big mountain competition in europe. I am really excited about my line and just hope it goes well. It is supposed to be cold so I am excited I have my arcteryx clothing and warm hestra gloves. I also hope my legs are as strong as they feel, thanks to Rob at Mountain Athlete. Training at Jackson Hole hopefully has also given me some amazing confidence!

Chamonix and My First French Couloir!!!!

2010-01-27T12:27:00.000-08:00

Today I awoke for my first full day in Chamonix in bluebird conditions! I looked out my window and saw just one side of the valley and my jaw dropped! The mountains were unbelievable. Jess and I were still a little jetlagged, but so excited to go skiing. We walked up to the Brevent, which is one of the many resorts in the Chamonix valley. We loaded the gondola and rose up out of the valley and into the most amazing cirque of mountains I think I have ever seen. Glaciers and ice everywhere, I had seen photos, but nothing had done them justice until I saw them in person. Steep spires and rock walls. We went first to scope the competition venue, which looks pretty awesome, but the snow conditions are not as good as we hoped. I found a few lines that jumped at me so that was comforting. We then cruised around for a couple hours in the sun with amazing views and long runs.

When we had come up the Gondola and loaded the tram Jess and I spotted this couloir across the way that looked amazing. The only problem is we could not see the entrance, we decided to go check it out on our last run down. We skied over to it and it did not seem to bad, except the entrance involved a little two foot mini air into a strait line into a 45 degree slope that went for a while. (you did not want to fall.) I went in first and hesitated for a little and then went for it, I came in a little hot and was a little scared for a moment but was able to get myself stopped. (The picture here is where I finally stopped and just the top of the couloir.) The snow the rest of the way down was actually really nice! From the top of the couloir to the valley floor was about 4500 vertical feet. The couloir itself was about 1500 ft! Did I ever say how much I love couloirs!!!! What an awesome day! Can not wait for the next adventure....

Rogers Pass

2010-01-22T09:09:00.001-08:00

Rogers pass is one of the most amazing places I have ever been. After the competition five of us headed to the Wheeler hut on Rogers pass for three nights. The hut was only about a mile from the parking lot, but it felt like we were out in the middle of nowhere. We had the entire hut to ourselves, which was really fun. The avalanche danger was a little high, so I was not sure what we were going to be able to ski. The first day we skinned up through some really steep trees toward Glacier Crest. The temps had warmed up so much that there were tree bombs going off all around us, I have never seen anything like it. (just huge clumps of snow falling from the trees.) We decided for safety reasons to just ski back down in the vicinity of the skin track. It was the steepest tree skiing I had ever experienced. The snow was a little heavy, but I could only imagine how awesome it would be on a powder day. The next day we ventured into the Asulkan valley and had some clearer skies. I could not believe the terrain and amazing views of couloirs and mountains. Long runs that went for days. We skinned up to the Asulkan hut and skied the tree triangle, which was some nice powder! My goal is to hopefully go spend a week at the Asulkan hut, because the access to terrain is endless. We did not get to ski as much as I would have liked, but it was still and amazing time and great scouting mission. This couloir I have pictured is on my list for next time.

There is a first for everything.

2010-01-09T08:47:00.000-08:00

So today did not go exactly how I was expecting, but a lot of times it never does. I decided I wanted to push myself a little out of my comfort zone today. I picked a line that had a little higher risk than usual. The last five competitions I have podiumed which is awesome, but i felt like I was ready to step it up just a little. I picked out a line that had two pretty exposed airs, the first one was only about five feet, but I had to shut it down so that I could make it directly fall line below me to a 20 foot ramp. I came out a little to hot and shot past my entrance. I was then positioned above a 50 foot cliff and had to hike out of my line. I have never had to do this before, so it was a great learning experience. I am bummed that I did not get to ski what I wanted to ski, but am excited to watch and root on the rest of the field! Revelstoke is amazing and the people are so accommodating and friendly.

The Start of Ski Season in JH

2009-12-26T08:40:00.000-08:00

This year has been a rough start to the ski season in Jackson. We have just had warm and freezing cold temperatures since November. The mountain is open, but is the least amount of snow it has seen since for this time of year since 1976. We all keep hoping that it will start snowing soon, but in the mean time I am making the best of the snow that we do have. I have been skiing the pass, which has actually been really good you just need to be light on your feet. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is still a the best training grounds I think around and the conditions are challenging, but I feel make you a better skier. I am leaving for Revelstoke in about a week, so taking nonstop runs has helped me get back into skiing shape. Also I have been physically training at the gym doing lots of core and balance stabilization, which I think is so important for any recreational athlete. I also skied Targhee for a day with my good friends Mike Leake and Sarah Felton. That was probably one of the best ski days I have had beautiful views of the tetons and fast nonstop runs. I feel for the most part I am ready for the first competition in Canada which is part of the Freeskiing World Tour. I then head to Chamonix for the the first stop on the Freeride World Tour, which I am really stoked about.

Europa!!!

2009-10-19T11:40:00.000-07:00

I recently just went on a awesome trip to Germany, Austria and Italy. I have always wanted to travel to Europe just for fun and not the stress of competing in skiing. So for me this was a trip of a lifetime. We started in Munich, which is a beautiful city with great churches, lots of farmers markets and of course great beer. We then ventured to the beautiful city of Salzburg and received a great tour from a family friend and stayed with him and his wife a little south of Salzburg out in the country for three nights. We went to some amazing ice caves and just enjoyed time on the farm. The Dolomites were our next stop and definitely the highlight of the trip for me, I can not believe how easy it is to take trains all over europe and it is such a great way to see the countryside. The U.S. really needs a train system. We went to the beautiful town of Cortina, which is a ski town similar to Jackson. I definitely need to go back in the winter and ski, there are some amazing couloirs. We decided to do some Via Ferata, which means the iron way, I never realized how big this was in Europe. The main route we did was the Punta Ana, we started in the village and climbed 7,000 vertical feet up from the valley floor. The route was definitely exposed in spots, which made it very exciting. We did not have correct gear so just used our anchoring device which was connected to our harness an clipped and unclipped as we climbed. The best part about this was being able to take three trams down from the top. These trams were extremely exposed and the views were breathtaking. This area also has great hut system that we also took advantage of, these huts are up in the mountains and have some of the most breathtaking views, hot meals and cold beer. I can not wait to go back and explore more in the dolomites, there is still so much to see. Now I just have to wait for the snow to fall and dream of Europe.

Climbing Open Book and Do it For Doug

2009-07-23T14:07:00.000-07:00

This past weekend my boyfriend Brian and I went climbing in the Tetons. I always hope each time I go I am getting a little better. Climbing is one of those sports that you have to do a lot to actually get really good at it. I still enjoy being in the mountains and pushing myself. We went up to Garnet Canyon to do a classic route in the Tetons called Open Book. I have been up the climb before before, but I had taken a fall, so I needed to redeem myself. When we got to the pitch I was a little nervous but the as I started to climb it, I realized it was not a big deal and cruised through just fine. The next day we then headed to Rock Springs Buttress and climbed Do it for Doug. This route was really challenging for me and I really had to push myself and my strength because it was very sustained 5.10 and exposed, which always makes me nervous. Overall a great weekend of climbing I just wish I could climb more often, because I always feel like I am getting stronger and then I do not climb for two or three weeks. I just love being in the mountains, especially the Tetons!

Cowboy Christmas

2009-07-18T18:05:00.000-07:00

I have been competing in the sport of rodeo for almost twenty years. I still have never lost my love for the sport, but because I do like so many sports I have not had as much time to dedicate towards rodeo in the last couple years. This summer my rope horse Katie is in her prime so I decided to take advantage of her an try and ride and rope as much as possible. I love to barrel race as well and have done that longer than I have roped, but I had to put my barrel horse down this winter (RIP Dapples I love you!) I have been running my sisters young horse so that has been fun. This last week I decided to dedicate my week and weekend to rodeoing a bunch. The month of July starting around the fourth is what cowboys and cowgirls call Christmas, because there are so many rodeos and people try to compete in as many as possible. I do not have a ton of time to do so, but I decided to compete four nights in a row with the help of my loving parents I was able to make it work. I started with Wednesday night in Jackson and just competed in Breakaway, for those who have never heard of the sport you do not have to throw the calf down. We have a piece of grocery string tied to our saddle horns along with some type of flag, I use a bandana. When you catch the calf it then break lose from the saddle horn, sounds easy right? Not exactly you have to not leave the box to soon or you get a ten second penalty, also you have to take into consideration that the calf is not going to do exactly what you would like. They are very unpredictable, anyways the first night I caught my calf in 3.6 seconds and placed third which was a great start to my cowboy Christmas. The next night I was up in Pinedale, Wy for their annual Rendevous Rodeo. These calves were huge and slow, which made them hard to catch and easy to break out of the box to soon. I happened to time this one perfectly and roped the calf in 4.6 seconds which won me the night, I was stoked. Now all I had to do was go for the average, which was the combined of all three nights, it is kind of like a big mountain competition. The following night I missed my first loop, but because everybody is gunning after the average you can pack two loops. (you can see it tied onto my horse in the photo.) I caught the calf on my second loop which only dropped me to second in the average. The Championship round was the following night and I knew if I could just catch my calf I had a chance at the average money. I ended up getting that 10 second penalty, but was able to come out in second in the average and make myself some cash. Overall a very successful and fun weekend! I wish I had more time and money to do more because it is so much fun.,

Ellingwood Couloir Middle Teton

2009-05-31T13:47:00.000-07:00

I really wanted to get another big day of skiing before the summer kicked into full swing. I found two partners my photographer friend Johnathan (he took the pics) and Chris Kroeger a awesome ski mountaineer. We left the trailhead at 4 in the morning skis on our back and hiking shoes on our feet. I felt like I was going back packing not skiing due to the heavy pack, but I figured it was great training for climbing this summer. We hiked in our shoes for about 2 hours until we reached the mouth of Garnet Canyon we got a little lost because there was so much snow, it was hard to tell where the trail was. I had tried to put my skins on to early and the warm temperatures made it very difficult for my skins to stay on my skis, so I had to boot pack all the way to the bottom of the Ellingwood. It only took us about another hour to reach the bottom of the couloir. Looking up at it, it did not look great there was a huge runnel down the center of it from the warm temps. Skiers right looked skiable though, so we decided to give it a try. We put on our crampons and started up the right side of the couloir it definitely was a lot steeper than it looked. The couloir was probably about 1000 feet long and a consistent pitch of 55 degrees, most the way up it was soft ice which was perfect for crampons and a ice axe. It was definitely a hard climb because of the elevation and the continual pitch. I followed Kroeger up the entire way and we finally made it to the top in about an hour and thirty minutes. I was so excited to ski down, it was definitely the steepest and most consistent descent I have ever done. I went first and just took my time because there was a lot of slough which made it very challenging to ski. It was nice and soft and easy to carve turns, so fun. I made it to the bottom safe and sound and totally was stoked the climb up and the ski down were such a rush! I can't to ski more in the Tetons.

Attempting to ski in the Tetons

2009-05-09T10:12:00.000-07:00

The weather has been really funky lately, lots of rain and warm temps. There is still a ton of snow in the mountains, but the snow has not been setting up great for spring skiing. A couple of my friends and I attempted to ski the Sliver a sweet couloir on Nez Perce. We did not start early enough or the snow did not freeze, because as soon as we started to skin up the ridge of Shadow Peak snow started piling up on our skins. We tried to stop and put some wax so hopefully the snow would not stick. It only worked for about 10 minutes at a time. I felt like I was walking on stilts that weighed a 100 pounds. We finally made it to the top of Shadow after about 4 hours of skinning. We still had not gotten to the bottom of the Sliver and were exhausted from the first part of our skin. We decided to turn around because it was already 1230 and temperatures were only getting warmer. The views from the top of Shadow were still pretty amazing on one side you had the Grand Teton and Teewinot and on the other you had Buck and Wister. We had some pretty decent skiing half way down and then it became rotten wet snow. Not getting to the tope of the Sliver is frustrating, but now I want to go back and get it hopefully soon.
Two days later my friend hannah and I decided to get up early and go for Wimpys which is just a small sub peak, but is a great long run with a good pitch. It kind of reminds me of the Hobacks at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. We timed it perfectly and had no problems with snow sticking to our skins. We reached the top around 9:40 am it was so calm and quiet and we had amazing views of the Grand, Buck and Static Peak. We just took some time to enjoy the warm sunny day! We then skied awesome corn snow. I hope I will be able to have some bigger days in the Tetons soon!

Alaska and the Overall Title

2009-04-16T10:37:00.000-07:00

I went to Alaska feeling pretty great about my last competition. I had a pretty good buffer for the overall tour points and I was really excited to ski what I wanted to ski and not worry how I placed. We got up early on Friday to see that it had snowed over a foot and was continuing to snow. Friday became a weather and an amazingly wet powder day and we all enjoyed an awesome powder day at Alyeska. Saturday we awoke again to more snow, but the visibility was not nearly as bad. This day marked the year anniversary of John Nicolettas death. We all loaded the tram and had an amazing memorial service for him and then we hiked up a little ways and all skied some very deep powder in his honor. The competition then started finally, I was so excited to finally ski, I picked out a pretty mellow line which I kind of regretted later because there was so much snow and I could have easily hit some bigger airs. In the end I was judged pretty hard and went into the finals in 7th place.
The next day was Easter Sunday and we woke to clear skies but the weather deteriated pretty quickly so we were on the hurry up and wait schedule. We finally were allowed to go inspect around 330 in the afternoon and they pretty much called the competition for that day. I was so bummed because I really just wanted to ski and be done so I could enjoy Alaska. As we were hiking up for inspection it was hard to see a foot in front of you. As we neared the top all of a sudden the fog and the clouds decipated and you could see the entire venue. We were able to see really well during inspection and I had this hope that we would be able to still compete. I picked a line that I was pretty excited about that had about three airs. I knew I needed a strong line to move up from seventh. They decided to try and run us so we waited for the helicopter. I could not believe that I was going to take a heli to the top of my run. As we loaded the heli I snagged the front seat which was awesome because as we flew to the top I was able to get an amazing view of my line and also the ride of my life. I was pretty pumped up to ski after the fast ride to the top. I ran third and felt that I had a strong aggressive and fun run. I skied what I wanted to ski not what I thought the judges wanted to see. I placed second and was so excited that Rebecca had landed her first win. I also in turn took the overall title. I could not believe that I had landed on the podium in every one of the comps this year! I look forward to going home and skiing some fun peaks in the Tetons.

Alaska

2009-04-09T11:12:00.000-07:00

Coming back to Alaska is always such a great experience. As soon as I see the amazing mountains I realize why I was so excited to come back here. I am here for the "World Championships" of the Freeskiing World Tour. I am really excited to be back and have a safe and uneventful competition. Last year was really tough on all of the athletes so this year we are all very excited to come back and honor John Nicoletta. The competition starts tomorrow and will be broadcasted live both days at freeskiingworldtour.com. I am just really excited to be here with all my close friends, we have become family through the last couple of seasons and it is so fun to be able to come to Alaska and ski with everyone. The field is a lot smaller this year which I think will be better, but weird because some of the family of skiers were not able to make the trip. I am heading out to check out the venues now and am really excited to ski on my new skis.

World Tour Stop # 3 Kirkwood, CA

2009-03-31T10:37:00.000-07:00

Kirkwood was interesting to say the least. The conditions were not the most ideal for a big mountain competition but everyone skied really well and safe. Day One was 50 degrees and sunny and the venue got better as the day went on. I chose to run 18, which I thought was a good call so the conditions had a chance to soften a little. I picked a strait fall line run with four features, I was pretty happy with my run and ended the day tied for first with Karine. Being in first after the first day was great except I had to run last the next day and the weather was supposed to deteriorate as the day went on.
I inspected the next morning with my good friend and competitor Crystal-Rose Lee. We were both shocked with how bad the conditions were, I forgot to mention that we were skiing a permenately closed area called the Cirque. This is one of the most amazing venues on the tour if it had fresh snow and one of the worst without. I picked out a line that was steep and exposed and had very few airs, I was not really in to jumping onto hard pack. Two hours after waiting at the top it was finally my turn to go and they had moved the start down to a place I had not inspected. I was not sure where I was going but hoped I could find my way, just before I skied the weather came in and they sent me anyway. I could not see two feet in front of me but I just went for it and it seemed to work out okay. I am not sure how I was judged on the top half of my run but oh well I was ready to ski and be done with my run. Overall I had a solid run, nothing fancy, but was able to end up in second, which was still very exciting. My good friend Sonja Lercher won, which was awesome because she has worked so hard and had a great run. My second place helps me out for the overall and hopefully I can hold onto it if I ski solid in AK. I can't wait to go back to Alaska!

"7th TIME IS A CHARM" SNOWBIRD NATIONALS!

2009-03-18T20:28:00.000-07:00

Finally I was able to put three runs together and it happened in one of the most amazing venues on the world tour in Snowbird, Ut. I went down to Snowbird for the the second stop on the world tour trying not to have any expectations, but really wanting to ski well. To make a long story short I won my first stop on the tour since I started two years ago! Words can not describe how excited I am to have finally finished in the top spot. I have been in first six times and have never been able to hold on to my position. I skied the first day on Silver Fox fluid and fast. I started out tied for second with Emily Teague and behind Leah Evans. We were only a one tenth of a point behind her and then it was completely stacked behind us. I knew I had to ski well on North Baldy to move up. I had an air at the bottom that made me so nervous I had not been that nervous in a long time. I was just nervous because the snow was very hard and fast. The first run I hooked a rock on my takeoff, but was able to hold onto it and land comfortably, but fast. I had moved into the lead by 4 points I could not believe it, I decided to ski the same line on my second run and try and point it a little higher so that I would flow over the rocks and not clip a rock. I definitely had more speed, but I can not describe how fun it was to be solid in the air and have a good run. I was flooded by all of my girlfriends congratulating me which made my win that much more special. I also ended up winning by ten points which was that much more amazing. I am pumped about Kirkwood which is coming up this weekend!

Crested Butte Freeride World Tour Stop # 1

2009-03-02T10:37:00.000-08:00

Crested Butte is always a tough venue for me and always leave disliking the competition. This year I tried to have a better attitude and go into it knowing that I am a strong skier and I should be able to ski all the venues on the tour. Day one was in a place called Dead End and Body Bag. These runs are two really steep cliffed areas that are very rocky especially on the bottom half. I picked out a line in Body Bag and felt pretty good about my line. I convinced myself that I could ski this steep chute and do some strong hop turns, I definitely excel more when I am able to do wide open fast turns. I had a pretty strong run except I sat my butt down on one of my hop turns when the snow fell away underneath my skis. I was docked pretty hard for my butt down, but was only two points out of first. I knew I still had a chance at the podium if I skied strong the next day.
The finals were held in The Hourglass a permanently closed area that is only skied when our competition comes to the Butte or if people poach the area. It has only been used four times in the past 18 years so the ski patrol love to be able to let us use the venue. I was able to compete in the Hourglass last year and it definitely got the best of me so I had a little different approach this year. I decided to ski a place called Bed Bath and Beyond, which is full of pillows and steep shots. The problem with Hourglass is that it is not open so it does not get skied and therefore is very sugary and has no base. This makes it hard to ski fluid or fast, I picked out a line that had a few pillows and then moved into a mandatory air at the bottom of the venue.
I started fourth which was a good start position and just told myself to slow down so that my tips would not dig in and I would not fall over due to the variable conditions. I had one of the best runs I have ever had in Crested Butte and was stoked with my run, I moved from 9th place up to 1st. They decided only to take three of us up for the Superfinal run due to the large point spread between third and fourth place. I knew all I had to do was stay on my feet and I could have won my first world tour event. I watched the other two girls ski and heard their scores. I decided to stick with my same line because I knew the line well. The only problem with skiing my same line was that the snow had changed a lot since my first run. My fourth turn into my run my tips dug into the bad snow and I fell over. This fall obviously cost me my placing, but i ended up third which is still a good start to the season and also my best result I have ever had in the Butte.

Rogers Pass

2009-02-16T10:08:00.000-08:00

I have always heard great things about Rogers Pass, but it was more amazing than I had ever expected. We went to the hermit area which is just one of the many areas to ski. We skinned up through the trees for about 40 minutes and then it just opened up into a beautiful view of long powder fields and massive mountains for back drops. Angela who is our filmer was feeling a bit under the weather, so we decided to find the most accessible lines. We found three amazing lines so each of us three girls had our own lines. The snow was amazing and the light cast a perfect glow onto the snow. I was also feeling a little sick so I tried to regain my energy with one of my Probars and it did the trick. I was able to rally and get myself up the mountain and ski a couple fun lines. I just got a taste of Rogers so I am definitely going back soon.

Fourth Door and Mckenzie Couloirs

2009-02-14T17:43:00.000-08:00

Laura Booting Up Skiing Mckenzie Couloir

Mckenzie Peak and Couloir

I am finally in Canada and have spent the last two days at Revelstoke and all I can say is wow! This mountain has some unbelievable terrain and we were able to ski some awesome couloirs today. I am up here with Arcteryx clothing and three other amazing women one being our photgrapher/filmaker. Yesterday I was staring at Mckenzie couloir all day and I could not wait to have the opportunity to ski it today. It is about a 800 foot couloir that has about a 45 degree pitch, talk about my perfect run.

We hiked around the back of Mt. Mckenzie and walked past a bunch of different couloirs unitl we arrived at door four, which also was a very steep couloir probably about 50 degrees and 400 feet long. The entrance was located between two large cornices and we had to do a bit of a hop into the chute. After skiing this couloir it dumped us out right at the bottom of Mckenzie couloir. We then boot packed up the couloir Laura and I switching turns putting in the boot pack. The snow was very deep and sugary. The views from the top were amazing mountains for miles and miles. I skied the couloir first and had awesome powder up to the knee. Then Laura and Andrea both ripped down the couloir as well beautifully done I must say. We were all so pumped that we were able to ski both of these awesome couloirs. Tomorrow we head to Rogers Pass.

Time at Home

2009-02-06T14:32:00.000-08:00

There has not been a lot going on in Jackson since I returned from Red Mountain. I have just been trying to work and save money for my next adventure. I am heading to Canada with Arcteryx for a girls trip including Andrea Huskinson, Laura Ogden and Naheed Henderson. It should be a great trip we are starting in Vancouver and heading to Nelson. We will hopefully ski at Revelstoke, Kicking Horse, Fernie and possible some more amazing places in Canada. We are doing a promotional video for REI, You Tube and other people that may possibly be purchasing Arcteryx products. I will then head strait to Crested Butte for the first stop on the Freeride World Tour. The skiing has been okay in Jackson we have had some clear days, which has made it fun to be able to see where you are skiing. I have been skiing Cody Peak quite a lot which has been so fun. I have some photos from cody peak pictured here we skied pucker face and no name face which was awesome snow. I also was able to go paragliding off the top of the tram which was really amazing. We flew over all the skiers and over all my favorite lines it was really awesome and I even got to do a little flying.

Red Mountain Final Day

2009-01-19T11:19:00.001-08:00

This morning I woke up with a lot more energy and excitement than I had felt the previous two days. Today for me there was nothing to lose and I wanted to ski for myself. During inspection I looked at some new options for airs and a chance at improving my line. The lower lumbar, which was not included in Day one was in and there was an intimidating free fall line that I wanted to do. I tried it out in inspection and it worked great so I was ready for my line.

I had a lot motivation to ski today, which what I had been lacking for the last two days. I jumped into my line and felt my energy move into aggression as I scaled across a rock at the top of my line. I didn't exactly mean to be on the rock, but there I was so I had to move with it. I made it to my first air smooth and with no problems and then it was time to charge the rest of the venue. I was on the verge of out of control, but at least I was skiing aggressive and having a blast in the process. I got to my last air with so much adrenaline pumping through me, and then I just went and felt my leg hit something but came out on my feet, what a rush. I came into a group of my friends and we talked about our runs and watched the rest of the girls ski really awesome but some have some difficulties staying on their feet. Janina my good kiwi friend skied amazing all week and won the competition hands down. I moved up to second which was exciting and had the highest score I have ever had on the last day. I was just so happy that my skiing was still there and I had so much fun skiing the aggressive way.

Red Mountain Day 1 and Day 2

2009-01-16T14:09:00.000-08:00

I love Red Mountain Canada! Everytime I come here i get excited about exploring more of the mountain and of course competing. This is my third year here and I have done really well the last two years. Last year I won, which was very rewarding and still my only competition I have ever won. This year I feel like I have a lot of pressure to do well and I feel that the last couple days I have not been skiing like myself. I always forget how much mental and physical energy go into a competition. During this competition I have been skiing to not fall and I have completely lost my aggressive part of my skiing. I am sitting in 5th place going into tomorrow, so for me it is all or nothing. I want my aggressive skiing back and I am going to ski the way I want to ski.

Big Red is Back!

2008-12-28T08:12:00.000-08:00

On December 19th after two years of hard work and no tram for Jackson Hole Mountain Resort the new tram was unveiled with fireworks and Santa Clause repelling out the bottom. On Saturday the tram opened to the public after six VIP and media cars. I was lucky enough to be on the the third media car which was so exciting. I have been riding the tram since I was five years old so for me it was very exciting because I have always been so excited about riding the red box ever since I was that little kid. I always would beg my parents to take me up the tram every chance I could. I obviously then continued to love and ride the tram until present day so my first ride on the tram was exciting and I had a window seat which was even better. I could not believe how fast that it took 100 passengers up the mountain, it takes about nine minutes to go 4130 vertical feet.

Opening day was also a very windy cold day, but the wind did not seem to phase the big box. I could not believe how well it handled the weather coming into the dock. I have experienced mild lift lines with the tram running, it spreads people out more over the mountain you just need to be the first person down Rendevous Bowl. Thanks to everyone who brought back our amazing tram!

Skiing First Pow of the Year

2008-12-16T13:16:00.001-08:00

I have been going up on Teton Pass the last five days and have been skiing some great snow. I have also been kicking my butt into shape! I have hiked Glory Bowl five days in a row and have been hiking it in about 41-45 minutes depending on how aggressive I am feeling that day. The last two days have been amazing powder days but very cold. Cold weather makes for light fluffy powder though which is a great thing. The snowpack is setting up to be dangerous on November 29th we had freezing rain which set up a horrible crust layer underneath the top layer that we are all enjoying now, the frozen layer is a couple of inches thick. We all just need to be careful with what we ski especially after last year we had very stable conditions. The tram opens on Saturday so that is exciting!

The First Day of Skiing

2008-11-25T13:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I decided to head up to Teton Pass to see what I could find for some skiing. I have not skied since April so I was really excited to at least make a couple turns. My friend hannah and I decided to skin up edelweiss which is a low angle grassy run about an hour skin away from the car. There is absolutely no snow in the valley, but the temps have been pretty cold. I was shocked with how great the skiing was, there was about five inches of powder on a crusty layer. The crusty layer underneath worked nicely for a base, I never felt that I was going to punch through. The other positive thing about my run was that since there is not very much snow edelweiss felt like a lot steeper run and longer run. It was a great first day, but I hope it starts to snow soon!

Ski Conditioning

2008-11-19T13:05:00.000-08:00

As we are all waiting for the snow to fall we are also trying to get into the best shape possible to be ready for the skiing when it does finally start. I am teaching two different ski conditioning classes right now, one at the rec center and a smaller one at the Jackson Hole Athletic Club. I am also attempting to kick my own butt into ski shape as well. The normal ski conditioning class consists of lots of strength and agility training so that you can stay out there and ski hard all day and take nonstop runs. Ski Conditioning is great for all levels of skiers. Injury prevention is also another huge goal I have in mind when preparing my ski conditioning class. I feel that everybody that is participating is becoming stronger each class not just with strength but with balance and coordination as well.

As for myself I am trying to do three days of strictly strength training and 2 days of hard agility. On my strength days I do a lot of lower body and core exercises but also try and focus on my upper body as well. Skiing is an entire body workout. I am also trying to improve my anaerobic training, which means without oxygen. This is what I use mainly when I am competing, short quick bursts of energy. Aerobic is longer endurance type exercises such as skinning or hiking. So hopefully my first day of skiing I will feel like I have trained.

Morelia Mexico

2008-11-08T09:06:00.000-08:00

My boyfriend Brian and I are traveling through mexico mainly the beach areas but traveled inland on our way south. We spent the first week near Sayulita and now we are heading to Xtapo.

Along the way we stopped in an old colonial town of Morelia Mexico. Moralia is the capital of Michoacan state which is in the mountains of mexico. The elevation is around 6,000 feet.We caught a cab into the center of town and stayed at a tiny hotel right across from a 17th century church. This city has so much history, we walked around and went in about six different churches including the large cathedral which is in the middle of town. This cathedral began production in 1640 and continued until more than a century later. Everything is old stone and very intricately designed, the streets are cobblestone and lined with many shops. There are about 150 historical buildings in Morelia.

I really enjoyed visiting this town, i had always been to the beaches of mexico that are more modernized. I definitely stuck out like a sore thumb in this town with my red hair and wearing my pink Arcteryx hoody. I especially got a lot of looks when I decided to go for a run around the city, it was really fun running the streets of a very old city. The city was very clean and the people were very nice. I definitely need to brush up on my spanish though, but for the most part I have been able to communicate enough.

Crystal B. Wright

Top male and female runs!

Revelstoke Finals " The Mac Daddy! "

Finals set for Tuesday Heli drop!!

Day 1 Live tomorrow 11 am mountain time!

Kicking Horse and Revelstoke!!!

Tours are Combining in Revelstoke!

Day 1 Jackson Hole Mountain Resort!

Ski Fitness Article

Ski/Snowboard week 4

South America skiing!

The Wind River Mountains

Termas De Chillan

Second podium in South America, 20th podium of career psyched!!!

Bittersweet!!!

Red Bull Powder Disorder Day 1

Argentina

South America and Red Bull Powder Disorder

Middle Teton Glacier Route!

Southeast Face to lower Southeast Couloir on South Teton

East Face Teewinot Attempt

Peak 11,930 Wind River Mountains

Tram opens, my first real day skiing in 10 weeks!!

Icebreaker for skiing and rodeo!

Final day for 2011 Jackson Hole Mountain Resort!

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

Snowbird Finals!!

Ryan Hawks Memorial and Snowbird Day 1

Tough Love

Powder for day one tomorrow!!

So much snow! Day one set for Sunday!!

The tours come together in Kirkwood!!

Chamonix and a little La Grave

Le Meije

La Grave

The last two days in Chamonix Grand Montet and Agui du Midi

Ice climbing Chamonix near Argentiere Glacier

Freeskiing Comp, No Name, Gothic, Once and Twice!!

Jackson Hole Freeskiing Qualifier Video

I love second place!!

Jackson Hole Qualifier Freeskiing World Tour

Outdoor Retailer and Arcteryx

Awesome heli ride and 4th place with a fall.

Helicopter and powder competition!!!

Game on Revelstoke! Live Tomorrow at 10 am.

Powder day at Revelstoke day 1 postponed

Revelstoke here we come! January 7-9 2011

Beautiful pow skiing In JH and a broken rib!

Beer Camp!

Jackson Hole open Wall to Wall in November!!!

A few good turns.

Ski and Snowboard Fitness

First Turns of the Season!!!

No more women on the Freeride Tour!

Termas De Chillan Part 2!!!

Termas De Chillan!!!

Portillo and Super-C!!!!!!!!

Second Place!!! Las Lenas Argentina!!!

Las Lenas comp one run tomorrow!!!!

South America!!! Finally after crazy summer!

Skiing in Alaska on Summer Solstice!

Life is to short

Southwest Couloir on Moran done!!!!

Attempt of Southwest Couloir on Moran!

Static Peak

The Desert Climbing and Biking

Podium and No crashing!!!!! Finally!!!!

Snowbird!!! Freeskiing World Tour Championships!!!

Kirkwood California Freeskiing World Tour Stop # 4

Squaw Valley No Tram Face!!!!

Freeride World Tour Stop # 3 Tram Face (hopefully)

The Sliver

Fieberbrunn, Austria: Freeride World Tour Stop # 2

La Grave!!!

Aguiille Du Midi (Vallee Blanche)

Chamonix Freeride World Tour Stop # 1

Skiing some amazing Pow in Chamonix! Comp tomorrow...

Chamonix and My First French Couloir!!!!

Rogers Pass

There is a first for everything.