What a fabulous week! My adventure here in Revelstoke is coming to a close. FWT is such an positive event all around. freerideworldtour.com
The people associated are very amazing from event coordinators, athletes, to media, and especially the Revelstoke community. The community embraced the tour athletes with open arms. Providing discounts all over town, donating lodging, and my favorite was a complementary massage session from a passionate therapist.
At Wildflower Wellness my therapist, Merissa, catered to every need and some. From hot-cold therapy, Thai stretching, healing stones strategically placed to stimulate my own healing, a soothing mask on my back to take away all my aches and pains, and to top it off let me take home the sesame bags which she used with compressions.
Merissa is the real deal. Has studied multiple modalities thoroughly to ensure a true therapeutic experience for her clients. She is a true healer and I felt 100% for my run in the contest the following day.
Thanks Merissa!
Revelstoke is a beautiful little town. Trains cruising by constantly, brick buildings, and the ski town vibe. I can't say enough about the mountain. The terrain was breath taking. Huge peaks, with faces littered with fun lines. It's not what us Californians are used to. Sustained steeps for several thousand feet. My endurance was truly tested. It was the perfect start in preparations for the remaining Freeride Tour stops.
It snowed from the day of arrival on the 4th until the 10th. This made for some epic pow shredding. My legs where toast at one point and I started to get anxiety about possibly being over worked. Thats when that massage came in and healed me. I took the day off before the contest, which was finally scheduled for the 11th. This was an absolutely unforgettable day for me.
I loaded the gondola at 7:30, and enjoyed a ride up in solitude. Said a little prayer for the coming event and enjoyed the sunrise. The air was so cold something like -20 c. The snow was glittering, one of my favorite things for sure! Girls love shinning things:)
The venue was a solid hour hike. I set off to the viewing spot where spectating and judging would take place. Just athletes and event organizers where around when I first arrived. It felt unreal having helicopters flying around. Bombs going off, finishing avalanche control work. The helicopter helped in the control work by fanning the Mac Daddy face, which would release slough slides. Pretty unreal to watch.
This face was insane! It looked like perfect pow, but because of the steep pitch, the fresh snow quickly sloughed off to a firm, but edgeable base. The snowboard men set it off with a bang throwing down dynamic lines. Of course the male skiers put on the best show, sending huge cliffs with fluidity which I can't really describe with words. Josh skied strong and fluid up top. He hit this insane air which sent him at least 40ft. He had some trouble on the landing but didn't get injured. Check out the POV footage from his run bellow. By the time female snowboarders where up, the fog started to creep in and the shadows from the surrounding faces had cast. The female skiers had it even worse for it almost looked like they were skiing in the dark.
I dropped in second for female snowboarders. When I first looked down this face I was shocked at the true angle of the top 1,000ft. It almost took all my anxiety of the contest away, cause I knew I was about to ride the most exposed line of my life. I rode very conservatively on the top but maintained fluidity. When I came to my bottom air I had a huge hesitation. I did not expect such a hairy take off. Because I didn't have the necessary speed to pop up, like I should have. I landed unbalanced and butt checked on my landing. The ride out was great, fresh pow turns to help calm the nerves.
Directly after my run I got to enjoy watching the bottom of Shannon Yates winning run. The heli came down and picked us four athletes up. Because of the fog we got to fly around for a bit, which was a huge highlight.
I was stoked to find that I had finished 4th overall, which proved that it was a challenge to shred this terrain for everyone. Only the top ladies maintained clean runs. Huge congrats to Shannon Yates for putting down another winning run! If you don't know her already please look her up and become a fan:)
Next stop Tahoe and then off to Chamonix, France!
Enjoy the pics:)
