Rare Earth

124 years ago

Last weekend I jumped in my Subaru to head to Kirkwood for the North American Freeskiing Championships. This was my second time competing on the Forbidden Cirque at Kirkwood, a permanently closed face that the patrol/ resort opens solely for this freeskiing contest.
A few words to describe it that Saturday: steep, lots of features, peppery, powder, volcanic rock, a privilege to ski!
Here is a shot of the looker's right side of the Cirque, the Day 1 venue:Day 2 is held on the looker's left side, which offers even bigger features. In order to preserve the snow, the competitors were allowed a mostly visual inspection. The event organizers held us to a set traverse track from which we could peer over features and scope landings.
After not much success in contests this year, I was nervous and hoping for a good one. A powder comp looked promising. I competed on my Prophet 130's! I was looking to have fun, ski fast, and hit a couple cliffs on the way down.
My inspection was not ideal, for a few reasons, but I was prepared to give it a go. My head has been in a different place each time i'm up in the starting gate. And even though I coach kids on how to compete in Big Mountain Freeskiing Competitions, I can't always seem to follow my own advice this year. My friend Robyn was a great source of encouragement up in the starting gate!
Well, I dropped in, realized I was slightly missing my line, and figured I had to send something. I came off a cliff into a flat landing, struggled to hang on, but quickly lost the battle, going over the handlebars and into a few somersaults.
Whenever I crash in a contest I always seem to be laughing a little bit and thinking "Hah! Woah, what the heck just happened? I just ate it big time!" The worst thing about this one was that I lost my skis, one of which shot pretty much ALL the way down the venue. So, I didn't even get to ski the pow! I one-skied down to my other ski, and was given a TDQ for exceeding the given time limit.
A few friends down in the finish corral pointed out that my helmet looked a little beat up. My head must have came down on something (my skis/ rock?) while tumbling. At that point I was feeling lucky I didn't get popped in the mouth or something… knock on wood. That really would have been icing on the cake!