freeskiing

The third FWQ and first of three Subaru Freeride Series events went down this weekend at Moonlight Basin, Montana. The clouds were thick and the snow was variable but the excitement was very high as competitors from across the world came to show their skills and acquire some much needed points. This was a 4* event meaning the highest level of competition on the qualifier tour.

We totaled the truck, trashed the sled, and had thousands of dollars de-frauded from a bank account.  But no-one was hurt, we were in Nelson amongst the friendliest of friends, and there was fresh snow up the road at Whitewater Resort.  Pretty good if you ask me.  So we rented a full-size moving truck, loaded the mangled snowmobile into the back, and headed up to the hill.

For those of you who don’t know Orea, she’s been quietly blowing minds in BC freeskiing comps, spinning off airs the boys don’t hit and dropping cliffs on big terrain. Get to know her...

Name: Meagan Orea Brown-Dahl (Orea Sunshine)

Age: 19

Birthplace: Grand Forks BC

The Smith Junior Freeskiing Open at Whitewater wrapped up this past Sunday. Whitewater, just outside of the gypsy paradise of Nelson, is known for its record snowfalls. Unlike last year, the conditions were hardpack moguls with rutted finish gates. Still somehow, this year’s level blew away what was thrown down on the powder day finals last year.

Children are monsters. They break things, flush your toothbrush down the toilet, run away, poop their pants, puke, and otherwise scare the hell out of you, and that’s if you’re blessed enough to have one. Before you become a teenager, you spend your life experimenting with how to terrorize your parents. By the time you’re a teenager, you’ve got it dialed.

If there is one girl who makes everything she does on skis look easy, it’s Izzy Lynch. With her aggressive style Izzy makes all the girls look up to here, and all the boys struggle to keep up. From Whistler, to Kyrgyzstan, to her home mountain in Revelstoke, Izzy is ripping up every mountain she lays her skis on.

After 2 months of awesomeness in Chamonix, France, I can now safely pretend I'm a total expert on the place. Right? It's a pretty sweet place with lots going for it, even if people raise their eyebrow when I tell them I left the powdery mecca of Whistler, BC for the big lines of Chamonix, France. Which begs the question... which one is better? Chamonix or Whistler? 

Something fishy was going on in Verbier during the last week of the season. There's was loads of pow to be skied, but nobody in sight to ski it? OK the main runs were tracked out, but the traverses and short bootpacks yielded some seriously sweet pow skiing action, and were just there for the taking.

In Early January 2012 a weather station west of Terrace in North Central British Columbia located in a station 5 meters above ground was lost. Buried by a storm. The station is at 700m elevation (that's 2300ft in American or 84 cubits if you're some other uncivilized non-metric country). At 1500m, the snowpack doubles. At 2000m the snowpack triples.

Alright folks, put down your pencils, time is up, the BC / Washington blog contest is over, and someone is going home with a pair of Salomon Shogun skis. Thanks for all the solid submissions that came in over the month.