Aspen Open, Mt. Hood and Winterpark Open.

Time has gone by so fast! This winter has been so crazy it has gone by like a freight train! Well after my adventure in Mount. Snow at the Dew Tour, the Windells Academy skiers met up in Aspen Colorado for the Aspen Open. Aspen Open was a really fun competition. There was a lot of talent there from around the U.S. Aspen Open is a fairly big freeski competition and attracts a lot of talent from around.

The first day of training went really well. I landed my runs and did my double on the last jump. When qualifiers rolled around the next day it was a pretty sketchy. Weather all day was really snowy and windy and bad. Nobody was clearing the jumps that day. I was in the last heat and when my runs came up, it started snowing really hard. I took my first run and caught a gust of wind on the first jump in the course and came up short and crashed. My second run I came up short on the second jump but landed and since no one was making the jumps I was hoping i would get a good score so I could qualify. At the end of the day I ended up not qualifying but I wasnt to upset considering the conditions.


Following Aspen Open, Windells Academy headed back to Mt. Hood. We were at Mt. Hood for about 2 and a half weeks before we took off to Winterpark. I bruised my rib really bad in Aspen on the last day. That put me on hold for a while back at Mt. Hood. I couldnt ski I was in so much pain. After I got over my bruised rib I proceeded to get a really bad cold which put me out for even longer! As a result, training in Mt. Hood before Winterpark Open was minimal. I did get some in though. Here are some pictures of a good training day.




So after being at Mt. Hood for a couple weeks, we were off to the WinterPark Open in WinterPark Colorado. WinterPark was one of the neatest places I had been this year. The resort itself was super nice and the people there were really cool. The slopestyle course was what stood out! It consisted of 2 rail features and 5 jumps. Training day went really well for me except for a few spills I took trying new tricks but other than that I did really well. When qualifications came the next day I was feeling pretty good, but I didnt feel on top of my game. My first run I did really sloppy and didnt ski well through the course. Second run, I kicked myself in the butt and put it into overdrive and skied super well! I landed all my jumps and did a new trick and landed! I was really happy but I ended up not making finals but I was ok with that. I was just stoked on my run that I landed.

WinterPark is now just a competition in the past and we are headed back to Mt. Hood at the moment. I am currently writing this from my buddy Eric Hughes house in Park City Utah where we are staying for the night. Hopefully I ill be getting a digital camera soon so i will be able to publish a lot more pictures.