Alaskan Reflection

It's that time of year. Storm clouds are overtaking the constant sunshine of summer. The night air cools to a crisp bite. Summer is ending. Winter is just around the corner. It's that time of year when skiing overwhelms my mind. Powder, Cliffs, Spines, the Backcountry and especially Alaska flood my thoughts. This is what I've been thinking of, what I've been dreaming of.

Freeski TV- Episode 3

For all y'all jib stickers out there.

Albuquerque

So part of The Ski Life involves supporting, promoting and being there for the sponsors that help me live this glorious lifestyle. Salomon has been my primary sponsor for 8 years now (4-racing and 4-freeskiing). Therefore they are the company that I go far out of my way to work for. This particular trip had me skipping out on some school to head down to Albuquerque for a huge winter sales event for Sport Systems. Elyse and I traveled down to Albuquerque together to meet up with Southwest Salomon Sales Rep- Rik Andresen. When we got there, lo and behold, the Plake-ster was there (yes that Plake). Glen Plake is the single most hardcore ski nut I've ever met in my life. The guy has never had a single job outside of being a professional skier and he acts like he just got his first sponsor last week. His life generally revolves around multi-day tours, pre-resort-opening hikes to the top of Mammoth to get first tracks and skiing solo in the gnarliest of the gnar in places like Chamonix and Peru. He's a nut. An inspirational nut at that. So Elyse, Plake and I hung out, talked to the amazingly supportive ski community of New Mexico, checked out the spectacle that is the Albuquerque Ballon Fest and had some Margs and Sopapillas with the coolest owners of any ski resort anywhere, Alejandro and Adriana Blake (of Taos) All in all, I hoped I spread the good word to many of how sick a few of the newest Salomon products are (Ghost boot, Czar Ski) and hung out with some of the coolest skiers in the world and had a great time. (I can't believe this is my job)


Sorry for pic quality. Although iPhones are amazing, they ain't the best for snapping photos.

Freeski TV- Episode 2

Now here we have an episode that is near and dear to my heart. A crushing performance from team Salomon that included my girlfriend winning both the World Title and the Verbier Extreme, along with Kaj Zackrisson's dominant win and myself rounding it out in 3rd place. Enjoy!

The Rocker

Here's a little vid of me talking about something I'm very passionate about. Skis. Check it out, I ain't trying to sell you on anything, just want to let you know why I have so much damn fun on the Rocker.

http://www.salomonfreeski.com/us/ski/skis/freeski/rocker.html

Freeride World Tour- 2009

Launch of the second Freeride World Tour
Sochi - Squaw Valley USA - Tignes - Verbier















Four locations around the world have been selected for the second edition of the Freeride World Tour. On top of it, qualification events have joined as Freeride World Qualifier events making the Tour even more attractive, with more events and more riders. The planet's top freeride skiers and snowboarders will start in Sochi with the Nissan Russian Adventure 2009 and then travel to the USA, France and Switzerland to prove their skills on some of the world's most challenging faces. The Freeride World Tour has a prize purse of $250,000, the highest sum ever to be paid in ski or snowboard freeride contests.

On March 15, 2008, the first ever edition of the Freeride World Tour (FWT) was completed after five successful events around the globe, finishing with the prestigious Nissan O'Neill Xtreme in Verbier, Switzerland. Elyse Saugstad (USA) and Henrik Windstedt (SWE) in skiing, Ruth Leisibach (SUI) and Xavier de le Rue (FRA) in snowboarding became the first Freeride World Champions in history.
The Freeride World Tour is on for the second edition. The world best professional freeriders are back on the Tour and have all confirmed their participation. A number of 40 male and female riders plus wild cards are invited to the first three contests: Nissan Russian Adventure in Sochi (Russia), Nissan Tram Face in Squaw Valley (USA), and Nissan Freeride in Tignes (France). The final contest will take place in Switzerland with the Nissan Xtreme - Verbier 09, on the gruelling north face of the Bec des Rosses, one of the most challenging descents in the world of freeriding.

"It is great to see that the Tour will continue to its second year with all the top riders of last year’s edition present,” said Swedish skier Henrik Windstedt, the sensational Freeride World Tour Champion 2008. “With the high level of the athletes, the standard of the riding will if possible be even greater than last year. The Tour will also develop and grow to an even higher quality event, which is just great for the future of this sport", Windstedt further commented.

Founder and organiser Nicolas Hale-Woods (SUI) is very pleased with the progression of the Freeride World Tour to its second edition. “The fact that 100% of the top ranked riders from last year have confirmed their participation for this year is really a measurement of success for the Freeride World Tour. We feel that the progression of the sport is strong. With the extensive support of our main partner Nissan, new partners joining in and top resorts like Sochi, Squaw Valley USA, Tignes and Verbier hosting our contests, we are attracting more and more attention of the public, the media and the industry. ”

Jean-Pierre Diernaz, General Manager of Nissan’s Marketing Communications in Europe said, “As we prepare for the second year of Nissan’s commitment to the Freeride World Tour across Europe and North America, we are very excited by the addition of new Freeride World Qualifier events in countries including Italy, Slovakia and Norway. This will allow more athletes than ever before the opportunity to qualify for the four Nissan sponsored Tour events. Through these, we hope that the Freeride World Tour will uncover the next generation of male and female international skiers and snowboarders.”
In order to allow freeriders who are not qualified for the Freeride World Tour to participate and score points, the Pro Freeriders Board elected existing international events to be part of the Freeride World Qualifier (FWQ). The FWQ is a series of independently organised events around the world. Riders participating in those events collect points in the Freeride World Ranking (FWR), a unique ranking list for both FWT and FWQ events. Riders from the Freeride World Tour and the Qualifier will therefore climb up and down the ranking list throughout the season. Finally the three best results will count to score the 2009 Freeride World Champions who will be crowned in Verbier after the Xtreme.

Visit us at www.freerideworldtour.com

Bell's Palsy

So this probably ain't the type of thing to share on a blog, considering people take their medical history so personally. Yet, I figured I'd share it to let everyone know that even though it sounds really scary, Bell's Palsy ain't that bad. So what the hell is Bell's Palsy and how exactly did I contract this scarily named disease? Welp, here ya go:

As many of you have derived from the past updates, the skiing in South America was insanely phenomenal. Recockulous really. Anyways, I skied really hard. Hiked really hard. Then skied really hard some more. Then hiked some more. Then I got on an overfilled plane. Sat next to a fat lady and didn't sleep for 40+ hours. It sucked.

I got home. Was tired. Real tired. My body, immune system and everything was wasted. So I slept. Slept some more. Some more. Then I woke up and half my damn face wasn't moving. As I gazed into the mirror the panic was overwhelmed by the hilarity of my facial state. My right side would smile, while the left side of my mouth was deadlocked in sagging curtain state. I looked like half man-half blood hound. My left eye sagged like wax in a sauna. Yet the laughing ceased when I realized how actually scary this shit was. I rushed out to my local doc and soon he muttered the words "Bell's Palsy."
Yeah, Palsy. That word scared the bejeezus out of me. I nearly crapped myself in fright. Yet I soon learned that it was a temporary, one-time thing and in a long couple of weeks, my face should tighten back up and be back to normal. Doc said my exhaustion could have opened my body up to a dormant virus that flared up and subsequently pinched a nerve in my neck causing the facial paralysis. Crazy, huh?

Well, now I am back to normal thanks to the wonders of Western Medicine (predisone) combined with the wonders of Eastern Medicine (accupuncture).

So yeah, along with George Clooney, Eddie Money, Pierce Brosnan and the Mona Lisa (possibly according to the scientists), I've had Bell's Palsy.

There's needles in ma face!