3/20 Snowmass College Freeride HUCKFEST (vid)

The Sunday venue for the Collegiate Freeride Series event in Snowmass was called "Gowdy's". You will notice a steepish chute to the right in the video, which is the actual run. The rest was cliffs with somewhat nasty snow on top a hard pack.

vimeo.com/160042826

The lower apron was........well........heinous. Not one of us TAYers would purposefully ski that slope, moving to the sides where it was skied out and was much better. So the kids were going to land, then need to pull out of those landings (at 40+ mph) on that surface.

That made for an interesting day. Not many took the chance, but some did. Graham came close to pulling out his line (35+ footer), but did spin and tommie. That placed him 26th overall combined score two days.

Watch as a fellow competitor hits an bigger line that is easily 45+ feet. He immediately tommies but recovers. These kids are freaking amazing.

I had to leave for Denver to catch my flight out but missed what must have been absolutely MUST SEE stuff. So Graham calls just as I am pulling on to the highway out of town to let me know one competitor had just hit a double backflip off a smallish cliff (in their terms, not ours) going 100 feet down the hill. HUGE.

And just as he finishes that (while I am still listening on the other end), he and the crowd in his vicinity all scream as an athlete does a backflip off of the 35 footer G had just fallen on and STOMPED it. WOW.

The scene in Snowmass was cool. 2 great bands played a free concert on Saturday afternoon with a bunch of hippies (my favs) dancing both young and old. That included me of course as much as I don't look like one. LOL.

Pooches everywhere. Much better vibe than Vail or Breck or Keystone. More like CB and Telluride actually. I was pleasantly surprised.

The runs, very long. The vert, most impressive of all the CO areas I have been to but Telly. The terrain, massive. Nobody there. We skied fresh groomer tracks at 2:30 PM each day leaving the venues. Seriously. Given a true powder day it would be epic.

I have a bunch of regular POV vid that I will get together this week just to show you some of that. And, there is a new development just 18 miles away in Basalt, CO with nice but very reasonable stuff (lodging and food). Well worth the drive.