The Desert Climbing and Biking

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!!!!

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!!!

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

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!!!!

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)

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

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....