Tours are Combining in Revelstoke!

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!

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

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

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!

The Wind River Mountains

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

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!!!

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!!!

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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!!

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!

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!

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!

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!!

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

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

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!!

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!!

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!!

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

France_part2 from Brian Mulvihill on Vimeo.

Le Meije

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!!!