Three Days in Taos

Ever since my firth grade state project on New Mexico, I have being dying to check out Taos. After three weeks of competition, 3 days of school we got back in the car for a little more traveling. This time we started at 4 am in the morning and arrived  in Taos, New Mexico just in time to load the athlete chair. Pulling up to Taos was different than I am use to. Maybe it was because Taos was having a bad snow season but it was crazy to see dry grass and desert for miles, then pull up to the mountain with snow. 

In the process of hiking Kachina

I was excited to check out the resort, but it was a direct path to the venue. Taking into account last weekends events, I decided to pick a line and stick with it. I think I got lucky in finding a way down the mountain that was within my ability level and that was a lot of fun at the same time. The Taos Freeride championships is a very fun event to watch and it made it even better that it was a beautiful sunny day out. 

Qualifying day one went really well. All of our athletes advanced on to the next day. The next day was more challenging going up against the pre-qualified athletes. I went out just to have fun. I picked a solid line and took my airs as big as I could. I was smiling at the end of the run and that was all I could ask for. I was pleasantly surprised that night when I was sitting in 7th at the end of day 2. A group of us inspected the finals day venue which was Kachina peak. The group was an awesome group of girls and we stopped at the top to take a picture. Such a fun group of girls. We started out to scope out a line, and I think we all ended up at the bottom a little disappointed which the snow conditions and the line we picked out. This meant we would all be doing the 45 minute hike to the top of Kachina the next day, twice. 

Relaxing in the hot tub

Just before I dropped in on finals day most of the guys team had made it to the top of the venue. It was awesome having them at the top for support. Again I got down to the bottom with a huge smile. I had for the first time put together 3 days of competition and making my way from qualifying day to finals. It was exciting. I finally could relax. Watching the rest of the girls come down and watching the guys was awesome. They all put down some awesome solid runs. 

Girls Podium

Guys Podium! Congrats Chris - Resolution Skis

Ending up forth was icing on the cake. It was an awesome experience meeting and competing against all the awesome girls that showed. Taos was a great resort, I can't wait to ski it again sometime with some powder!  

Cliffed Out: Nowhere To Go But Up.

We are quickly approaching closing day here at Crested Butte and I think its a good idea to give a quick recap of the past few weeks. Just like anyone's ski season, it has been all over the place. 

A few weeks back February 25th I headed to Aspen Snowmass with the team to compete in the Colorado Freeride Championships. A cold and windy weekend, the first day was a cancelled for weather day. Day 2 came around and it was even worse. As we were sitting in the warming hut at the top of the venue, we were all making bets as to how likely we would get the competition off. And so 2 pm rolled around and they decided to start the girls. There were two of us from Western State competing and Carly dropped in first. At the top you really only know how someone does if they send the next competitor shortly after. This means the person most likely didn't fall and there is no gear collection. So, I was pretty stoked for Carly when the next competitor was sent on her way about 2 minutes later. 

Pumped and ready for my turn I decided to take my more difficult line, a line which I had not inspected from the top of the venue. Note to self... never, never 'wing' a line. I assumed I was right on top of my line so I took a small pillow drop, pumped and thinking "Yeah, I got this." However, I was very, very wrong. Looking down I realized I was in a bit of a pickle. I found my self on top of a cliff quite out of my ability. From my view it look like a 20 foot cliff with the landing flat and the runout into trees. As I attempted to climb my way back out I realized it was not going to be easy. I remember the cinematographer below me saying "girl send it, I can't hold this camera any longer." After finally getting some help off the cliff with my dignity a little bruised I meet up with the team. There wasn't much to say. I laugh now because every experience leads to knowledge and now I know to carry neon pink zip-ties to tie to trees and mark my line. 

Carly did have an awesome run and finished 2nd. We had 6 male athletes in the top 20. Coach Jason Holton was 4th. It was a fun weekend and even though I left a little disappointed,  I met some unique people and had a great time watching our team put out some really great results. 

It has been a whirl-wind the past two weeks, and there is no slowing down for a few more weeks. 

Two weeks ago I headed to Winter Park on my own to check out the first ever Weekend Warrior Tour. I heard about the competition from Ben and Collin from Sick Stickz at SIA and I am so excited that I decided to go compete. I was a bit nervous headed there alone and not know what to expect. It was an early morning on Saturday as we waited for the athletes meeting. Guys started to walk into the room, but no girls. I was the only girl signed up. Being solo the hosts asked me if I would like to join in the boys league. Why not? So out we went to inspect the venue. The chutes were tucked away in an awesome part of WP and I was excited to get the chance to ski the area. I went in with the idea of jumping off anything and everything in front of me. I dropped in fifth and I had a fun run! It was such a fun environment at the bottom of the venue. We all went off to ski Winter Park. At the end of day one there were 13 guys, me included. I ended up tied for 2nd. 

Day two started off later in the morning. We took an inspection of an area we were unaware that was open. There was some awesome lines in the new area and boy the the guys throw down! We had a blast and ending up 4th after day two was exciting for me. Everyone was so supportive of each other and it was a great community of skiiers. The crew put on an awesome event I saw some awesome skiing and was so excited that I could be apart of the event. The 4 hour drive home went by quickly with all the energetic vibe I got from the competition. I can't wait for the next Weekend warriors on March 19th and 20th. 

Top 5 finishers at Weekend Warriors

Im headed off to Aspen Snowmass this weekend after a fun Weekend at Crested Butte. Qualifier day was hosted on headwall. After a day of snow and wind the venue was filled and looking the best conditions I have seen. I took a conservative line with the goal of staying on my feet. It was a success and I had such a fun time skiing my run. Headwall was more filled in than I have ever seen. Francesca moved fast through the venue and had a great finish. The boys had a good show as well. Mike Curran stomped a spin of box rock. The rest of the guys on the team had impressive runs making work of a big drop out of Pocket Air. Because of the weather day cuts were drastic. It was exciting to have two boys (Max Lindsey and Alex Mitchell) and two girls (Francesca and Ciera Glenn) and moving on to the big event on day 1. The venue Staircase showed some impressive runs. Unfortunately, Western had a bit of a disappointment on Day 1 and only Francesca moved on to the Finals day. Finals day was a powder day And there was some crazy style from the guys side of things. It was an awesome event thanks to all the supporters of Crested Butte including skiers, judges, ski patrol, and of course the fans! A big congratulations goes to Francesca Pavillard who had an impressive qualifier day, killer day 1 run, and an awesome final run to put her into 5th overall!

Qualifiers Venue- Headwall

The Finish on Day 1

Check back soon for a link to Crested Butte FWT edit by Sour Steezle's Film and editor Matt Clark. 

Wind power

I grew up praying for wind in the summer time and begging for calm days in the winter. This past Saturday, I think I may have changed this trend. Growing up in Hood River, Oregon with two parents involved in the windsurfing and kiteboarding community it was hard not to try the two sports. I would mainly consider myself a windsurfer, but I had multiple kiting adventures growing up as well. I am excited now to and kite-skiing to my list. This is a perfect combination of a wind and snow sport.
Saturday morning I got a call from my friend Scott Ryan asking if I wanted to get on a kite today, of course I jumped on the opportunity. The wind was going to pick up around noon so we met up and drove out to Blue Mesa Reservoir, the largest man made in Colorado. The Mesa is completely frozen over in the winter time and has higher winds than Gunnison, making it the prime location for kite skiing and snowboarding.
Scott set me up and I was off in no time. It took me a bit to get the hang of flying a kite again after 4 years but once I started to get more comfortable with it I began to have so much fun. I never reached this point of fun when I was kiteboarding on the river back home. I knew at this point this wouldn't be my last attempted at this sport.
About 20 minutes later I looked back behind me an realized I was pretty far away from the launch site; I figured I should start heading back up wind. This is when the panic mode hit me because I couldn't remember how to work my way back up wind. Minor detail I probably should have thought about 20 minutes prior. So there I was in the middle of the frozen lake, too far to walk back to the launch site and at a horrible pull out location. Finally Scotty made it down to me and began giving me instructions to get back up wind. However, the wind picked up and I was well over powered. I was having a blast going down wind, but there was not hope for me to get back up. We organized a shuttle plan and I continued down the lake. Luckily it was only a 10 minute detour for Scotty and he was back out kiting in no time. I decided the 9 meter was a little too big when the boys informed me they were full power on their kites. I played photographer for the rest of the day and enjoyed watching Scott catch some good air!

Scott Ryan and Lloyd Tucker

Scott 

Three days later and my upper body is still killing me from this skiing activity. I can't wait to get back out there soon. As for the mean time, I am watching the snow stack up on the pow cam at CB and so jealous of anyone who gets to ski tomorrow! Go make some turns for me!

Skiing the San Juans: An Overdue Post

About a month ago, elven of us backcountry enthusiasts met up for a hut trip in the San Juan's. We had four great days of skiing and 3 awesome nights with an unforgettable crew. 

The crew waiting for a ride after a great run down Cemetery.

The first day a group of us took a short skin from the top of Red Mountain Pass. The top was windy and hard packed but the path we took down was filled with light power. Will Marsh, organizer of the trip and normally a snowboarder, had a bit of a ski binding issue. We were lucky that Matt had a similar issue once before and knew exactly how to tape it up so Will could ski the rest of the way down. It was quite the disappointment of the first day, but we are lucky Will didn't have to boot-pack out. We had a short hitch hike back to the cars, then we loaded up and began the trek into our first mountain hut, Mountainbell. What a luxurious hut. We had a beautiful view of US basin and it was waiting for us to ski.

Will's unfortunate event

Hulling in the necessary essentials

The next morning we started off early and headed out towards the basin. We took a short lap down the back side of MCminiamins, then trudged our way across the basin and up the other side. We had an incredible decent down the basin. Everyone was wanting more so we headed back up and dropped down cemetery on the back side of US basin. This was the best run of the day; an open tree field filed of perfect powder. It was so great that a group went out for seconds and ended up hiking back to the hut after dark. All reunited again, we had a gourmet dinner and had way too much fun the rest of the night.

Check out those mountain! -Riely 

As we were headed to the top of Red Mountain pass on the morning of day 3 we saw a CAT pushing around snow. Jokingly we asked if we could have a ride and unexpectedly they said yes. An hour later 3 of us were taking the first ever ride on Ouray Scenic Jeep Tours CAT rides owned. It was a wild ride at times I think we were all a bit nervous we might tip forward, backward, or sideways. luckily we didn't know until after the ride that it was the drivers first time maneuvering a CAT. We were dropped of about 2/3s of the way to Red Mountain 3 and began the final trek. The backside was tempting us and we decided to drop down a ridge line and ski into Silverton Mountain Resort. I have never been to Silverton, so I am proud to say for my first time, I skied into the resort. It couldn't have been a better day. We scoped out lines for the next day, we were coming back for sure.

First Cat Ride EVER! Matt Clark and Cody Beach

Cody making some turns

We had a fun time that night doing beacon searches in the pitch dark. This event lead to waking up to soaking wet socks, pants, gloves, and jackets. Being the last day, we all said our good byes and headed off in different directions. Five of us packed up to go ski some of the lines we had seen the day before. It was an interesting skin up in tight trees up a ridge line. One of our group members, Logan, was having some major skin issues because he made the mistake of leaving them on his skis the night before. He was building up snowballs the size of basket ball on the bottom of his skins. What a trouper. We made it to the top and took a good rest watching the helicopters drop people off in various spots on Silverton mountain. I can't wait to make it back and ski the resort some day. We skied down some incredible powder filled shoots. There was only four of us and it was a blast cruising hard with these guys. I was worked from keeping up with them. By the time we got to the bottom we were tired and hot. But the two boys managed to get a second burst of energy to hit a step down on the way to the town of Silverton. After some good shots we headed back to Gunnsion.

Cody Beach

As we took turns driving back we recalled the trip, it was an adventure. I feel very lucky to have been a part of the trip. We had a great group of people and made some incredible turns. The San Juan's of the Silverton area is definitely a place I would recommend for back country skier. I felt as if I was on top of the world! 

In the City

I just got back from a whirl wind of a weekend. I left Gunnsion on Thursday and headed up to Denver. I met with some friends that night and woke up early the next morning to head to SIA, the ski and snowboard trade show at the Denver Convention center. Everyone was on fast pace business mode and it was a little intimidating to say the least. The guys with Colorado Freeskier pointed me in the right direction and I was on my way. I saw gear for next year which I am very excited about. I also made some awesome connections and I am ecstatic to see where thing will go from here. You will know what I mean in the next couple months. Friday night was a lot of fun watching the X-games at the Smith Optics cocktail party. A fun time and great people, many of whom I saw on Saturday again at SIA. This show was incredible. Larger than a city block, the show encompassed every company, big and small, related to the snow world.  

I drove back to Gunnison late last night and woke up this morning to do some back country skiing. I went up to Axtel for my first time with Dan Armstrong, another member of WSC Freeride team, and his friend Stu. We had an awesome day. I tried out these new wind breaking gloves from Level Gloves. They were perfect for skinning, light but warm. They also have a pretty unique "rocker" style. 

We were a little nervous about our line we scoped out, but it ended up being epic! We skied an awesome shoot out to a wide open bowl. Despite a little wind-blown snow we were able to make some fun turns in some pretty decent snow. 

Dan and Stu Excited for lunch

Crested Butte in the background

I am ready for a good nights rest to start the week of right but, I'm not looking forward to the week of studying. I can't wait to get back out on skis this coming weekend. 

Setting Into My Ways

Raised in Hood River Oregon, I grew up rocking out to "Hyper Active Music" on the drive up to Cooper Spur, Meadows, Timberline, and Skibowl resorts. The weekends were always something to look forward to and when I began racing again in high school the love for the mountains were stronger than ever. After 3 years of racing in the Pacific Northwest I knew I was ready for more exploration. 

A week after my 18th birthday I found myself in Gunnison Colorado, home of Western State College in the mountains at 7,703 ft. Just 30 minutes from Crested Butte and amazing backcountry, skiing can easily become a lifestyle.

Currently, I am a junior at Western State and I have just begun to explore the surroundings I now call home. Last winter I joined the first ever college freeride ski team. We travel to competitions in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah showing promising results on the World Freeskiing Tour. With a ski racing background, falling in love with the adrenaline rush of big mountain skiing has been a natural progression for me. 

This change has been so worth it. I have been able to experience this area in a way I could never have imagined; on skis.