Big Mountain Telemark Skier

Posts tagged “year

Skiing My Butt Off!

I just tallied up all of the hours I’ve spent skiing so far this year, and I was shocked to see that I have skied over 150 hours already!!! I got an early start on my ski season this year with a two and a half week trip to Summit County, CO. Now I’m back home in Sun Valley, I’m feeling stronger than ever, and I’m antsy for winter to show up. Snow is in forecast this weekend but Sun Valley isn’t waiting. They have put snowmaking efforts on full throttle, and new terrain is opening every few days…

Snow Making Nov-Dec 09

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[img alt="" src="http://www.conordavis.com/wp-content/flagallery/snow-making-nov-dec-09/thumbs/thumbs_5.jpg"]Whales!!!
Greyhawk
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First Snow of the Season Revs up my Pre-season Stoke

With the skiing dreams really showing up in the last few months I have been so anxious to ski that I was thinking about driving all the way to the Breanu Sand Dunes to go sand skiing. When I awoke this morning to find snow pouring out of the clouds, I could hardly contain my excitement. I ran around the house waking up everyone, making sure that I wasn’t dreaming. After running outside and throwing some snowballs for Bailey, my dog, I went onto the Sun Valley website to check out the real time status of the snow on the mountain cams and the snow depth indicator read 9in! Update: it now reads 12inches one hour later

snowstake_full

I hope that this fresh blanket is a tell tale sign of a big winter to come. I have a bet with some friends going on about how many inches we’re going to get here in Sun Valley. How many inches do you think we are going to get here in Sun Valley? Leave a comment on this post, and if you’re the closest at the end of the year you will win the prize!

rrlodge_full
This is also the first snow the New Gondola has experienced


3000 miles later…

Two weeks, two comps, and 3000 miles later, I’m finically back home in Sun Valley, Idaho. It all started with the Subaru U.S. Extreme Freeskiing Championships in Crested Butte, Colorado. In typical ski bum style, North Parker, Bryce Newcomb, and I all mobbed over to the Comp in my mothers Big Blue Van. We were greeted with a much need blanked of fresh snow, followed by an amazing blue bird sunny weekend. With these ideal conditions I had the most fun I’ve ever had at Crested Butte. North kept his Jr. title for the second year in a row, and Bryce and I both fell which caused us to place further back than what we wanted(I ended up in 36th). I also skied the most burly line I think I have ever skies and aired a 50-footer at the bottom of the Dead End Chute. I got to meet lots of the alpine athletes and make friends outside of the SV-Possy. Then we were on the road again headed back to Sun Valley. After I dropped Bryce and North off, I only had time to Unpack, do laundry, Repack and get some food, before I was on the road again headed to California for the first extreme Telemark comp at Alpine Meadows.

The Alpine Comp was another great competition, and it felt good to be back in the company of so many rippin’ Telemark Skiers. The First day I skied well but I had an unfortunate bobble upon landing the bottom cliff out of the “Key Hole,” but I redeemed my self second run, with the highest total run score for the whole comp, which put me into 3rd place, right behind Jake Sakson, and JT Robinson. The next day in the Finals I was hoping to bypass JT and Jake by skiing the “money-line” faster and better than I had done the day before. I ended up being too aggressive and I lost my balance as I dropped into the keyhole and I fell in the “NO-FALL Zone.” Obviously my scores suffered, but I with the great run the day before, I was able to pull off a 8th place finish.

Now it feel like have time to breath, but im back to training, Crested Butte is coming up in a few weeks…
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Sun Valley Tele: All-Terrain Race

I bumped, jumped, GS-ed, hiked, and Slalomed my way into first place overall last Saturday in the first Sun Valley Tele race of the new year. I also won the “air” category as a was the only one to land a 360, gotta spin to win…


Summer Jib Sesh… DNA rail jam

As you can imagine, I was surprised to see posters up around town for a ski competition on August 18th this summer. Sure enough on August 18th, The DNA Evolution Tour set up their mobile rail park outside PK’s ski and sports for a summer jib-sesh. It was super fun to break out my ski equipment on one of the hottest summer days. The event was great, there was lots of music and it drew in a pretty good-sized spectator crowd. I had a great time, and I got a lot of respect from the other competitors for competing on tele-gear. I think I even invented some telemark specific rail slides, like my “tele-stance slide” which got a lot cheers from the spectators. At the end of the day, I even qualified for The DNA Evolution Tour Finals in Las Vegas, unfortunately I won’t be able to attend main event this year…


2008 Telemark World Championships “Telepalooza”

After competing in the 12th Annual Extreme Freeskiing Telemark Championsips in Crested Butte a weekend earlier, I knew that I was good enough to step up, and ski with the “big dogs,” the guys I had been idolizing in telemark movies just a few years ago. Guys like: Nick DeVore, Dylan Crossman, Will Cardemone, JT Robinson, etc… With the financial support of the Sun Valley Ski Patrol I was able to get a last second ticket to Alaska.

Alaska was amazing! I had only ever seen it in ski films. I had never imagined the vastness and the overwhelming scale of its beautiful and pristine mountains. I had never skied anything as steep and rewarding, and I cannot wait to do it again.