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!