Into the Woods

It truly seems as though this ski season is going to be one to remember: epic trips to Park City and Tahoe seperated by the Winter Olympics and trips to Killington with a real fun ski house spread throughout. Ski days 30-32 were spent at Killington this past weekend. However, it wasn’t at all a normal weekend at Killington.

When I heard at the beginning of the season that Killington would be hosting the US National Freestyle Championships in late March, nobody seemed to share my excitement. Nobody really understood what that entailed. This event was the first in a long series events that will eventually determine which mogul skiers and aerialists go to Vancouver in 2010 on the US Olympic Team. As such, the competition was filled with both Olympians, US Ski Team members, and up and coming rippers who want to make it all the way.

Friday, March 24, 2006 - Single Moguls

I woke up at 6:15am on Friday morning in Boston and began my drive to Killington to make it in time to see the entire competition that was slated to begin at 10:00am. I was all booted-up and ready to ski easily by then. During the qualifying arounds I tooks some laps on Bear mountain, Outer Limits and the Wildfire Terrain Park. I wanted to enjoy what would certainaly be one of my last ski weekends and I also wanted to practice what I’d learned at Southshore Soldiers in Tahoe.

When the final round came, 16 Men, 16 Women, I found myself a place on the side of the course to watch. Seeing this stuff live blows away seeing it on TV. The skiers, go so fast down the moguls, faster than most people ski on the flats. We were able to line up right next to the course and see the skiers go by, not 10 meters away. The airs are also staggering. Guys were throwing Lincoln Loops (barrel rolls), Corked 720’s and even 1080’s. A local Vermonter David Babic took 1st and Olympian Travis Cabral took 2nd.

A real benefit of the weekend was that Natural Valley was sponsoring the event and giving away from granola bars. I’m sure some idiots still paid for them in the lodge.

It was a real empty house that weekend for some reason. I would have though it would be crowded given the event. However, people just didn’t seem to care about the freestyle competition or even realize what it was all about. How is our brand of skiing going to blow up?

Saturday, March 25, 2006 - Aerials

Saturday was an all-out blast at Bear Mountain. The entire bbq and outdoor bar area on the lodge deck was completely packed with people enjoying life all day long.

My new friend Scott who I met at Soldiers in Tahoe came up from Rhode Island to ski park with me all day. It was good to have somebody pushing me and to have someone to ski park with. We actually spent a good bit of the day in the superpipe. Since it was warm, the pipe wasn’t too bulletproof so we were able to throw down some decent runs where we were boosting a bit out of the pipe and hanging some grabs.

The aerial competition was amazing. Basically, they have 3 levels of jumps. Small, medium and large. The small jump induces a single flip, the medium a double, and the large a triple. The olympic caliber guys would hit the large jump. The men’s final was the most inspiring and the women’s was fantastic as well. We got to see two momentous things in the men’s competition. The first was the legend Eric Bergoust’s final competative jumps. He was through quad-twisting triples off the large jump and managed to grab third place in his last ever competition. The second, and one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen on skis, was Jarret Peterson sticking a Hurricaine in front of the roaring Killington crowd. The best thing about it was that he did not have to use that jump to win. He had a commanding lead going into the finals and needed only a basic air of the large jump to win. However, either he wanted to please the crowd, or prove something to the world, he threw the Hurricaine: 3 flips mixed with 5 360’s, 50-60 feet in the air. Absolutely amazing.

The party at Bear Mtn continued well after the lifts closed. I think Petterson really gave everybody a bit of inspiration with that jump, and I think everybody who saw it finally realized how special it was that Killington was hosting the event.

Sunday, March 26, 2006 - Dual Moguls

Before I get into Dual Mogul competiton, I’ll digress and describe a little victory of my own. Inspired by all that was going on around me, I was pushing myself in the park this weekend. I was spinning some comfortable grabbed 3’s on the large table at the top of Wildfire, a jump I had been having problems just straight-airing all season. I was also hitting the two large step downs in the middle section of the park. However, I had not yet hit the huge booter at the bottom of the park. It had been talking s**t to me all season long. Finally, that morning, I decided to suck it up and just point it. I smoothly cleared the jump before it and carried my speed, which had to be considerable to clear the 40-50 foot flat area before the landing. It wasn’t pretty put I just barely cleared it, landing on the back of the landing zone. I don’t think I’d be able to live with myself if I didn’t hit that jump this season. If I go back to Killington this spring, I’d like to try to spin that jump. I think I’m ready. On to the moguls..

In dual moguls, they run a long series of individual qualfying runs to determine the top 16 men and women to move on to the head-to-head tournament style final. The top 16 men and women comprised several olympians, US ski-teamers as well as several unknowns. In duals, anything can happen since they are pusing the limits of speed. The first upset was Travis Cabral getting knocked out in the first round of the final by Brian Wilson, an unknown. Bryon Wilson showed Killington what Freestyle Skiing is all about in his semi-final run against Sho Kashima. Bryon overshot the landing zone on the first air by just a bit, causing him to come back into the bumps just a bit too hot, and his binding ejected, eliminating him from the race. However, by this time, the newcomer was a crowd favorite, and we all started cheering for him to do something huge, not 10 yards away from me, I saw him put his skis back on, and continue down the course as we all cheered for a 1080. On the bottom air, he through a MONSTER 1080 and stuck in cleanly, finishing the course and earning himself a chance to compete for 3rd place in the consolation, which he would take.

Sho Kashima, from South Lake Tahoe, another unknown, won the event, blowing past David Babic in the bottom part of the course. He also threw lincoln loops off the top air which looked really sick from 10 meters away.

After the competition was over, I met up with some Killington mogullers and closed out the day on Outer Limits and Devil’s fidel. We were up on OL with the lift stopped on our last run. That’s always a fantastic feeling.

All-in-all, it was an inspiring weekend at Killington and I am not ready for the season to be over. That is up to Mother Nature to decide….