La Parva.
First stop on the Freeskiing World Tour: La Parva, Chile.
I finally arrived in La Parva, Chile after driving up 45 curvas from Santiago, where the cherry blossoms were blooming and the green grass was on the rise. I put on my skis and headed up the hill. The snow was nasty, cheese grater and bulletproof! It hadn’t snowed in a week or two and the temperatures had been in the 60s and now had dropped to freezing. A constant stream of competitors and old friends were moving in along with a storm.
The next few days were filled with many Piscolas at the local bar, freeskiers charging the mountain in masses, a bit of snow and a whole lot of wind. When the storms come into the La Parva area the wind is vicious. This makes for the most epic wind lips and cornices I had ever seen. You can imagine a whole group of competitive skiers raging together airing off every little hit they can find. Back flips, threes…you name it, it was a constant show of energy and happiness. All this was a great way for everyone to get into the competition vibe and mindset. All we had to do was hope for a break in the weather.
Waking up the next morning the wind was howling but the clouds were high. The competition was on. One inspection and one run, little did we know! I was feeling strong and focused going into the competition. The venue was my type of run, straightforward, open and fall line. Skiing McConkeys fast and fluid with a few airs in the mix, seemed to work out pretty well! Well enough to put me in the lead for day one. The next morning we all woke up to a no visibility day: foggy, windy and snowing. Impossible and dangerous for a competition. The judges called the event off and the day one results became final. The entire crew was bummed as we were all dying to ski a second day on the Face. I had just won my first World Tour Event. This has now put me in the lead for the overall standings. Revelstoke, BC will be hosting Stop 2 in January.
After a little trip down to winter I am more stoked on skiing than ever before! I cannot wait for this upcoming season…it feels like it will be a good one.
Windlips, piscolas, landslides….pow!
I just returned back home in Aspen from an incredible trip down in Chile. I have attached a few pictures for you all to see. Ciao for now!
Thanks yall!
Portillo Madness
Road To Portillo
Top of Super C...
Griffin, Jota, Dana and Chopo
The view from our apartment in La Parva.
Competition Venue.
Dana and the wind.
La Parva...blue b dube and pow!
Chopo at the top of the hike.
poma city
Sha blam
Sick Birds
Cold morning in Farellones. Epic last day!
Griff y Dana en la chimenea.
After a little summer time ski session down south I am more stoked than ever on skiing!!
Water Ramping with the BD Crew!
Thanks to Black Diamond, Will Cardamone, Mark Welgos, Nick DeVore and I were able to hit up the Olympic Park water ramps in Park City earlier this week. It was quite the show to have us hitting the ramps with all the park rats. But I gained some confidence in the air and am stoked for some skiing down in Chile at the end of August!
The Ramps. We stuck to the one on the right.
Front Flips…
Will’s threes. Always looking styley!
I got some back flips dialed!
The Beautiful sunset on the drive home.
Harvesting Honey!!
Yesterday my mom, sister and I harvested our first batch of honey from our bees!!
(My mom and I did get stung four times each..ouch! I think it was good for me though!
The bees were just letting us know their strength.)
Opening up the hive above….the bees are hard at work!
Picking and cleaning up some of the fallen comb from the bottom of the hive.
Some honeycomb full of honey capped cells.
Next we placed all the harvested honey into a 5 gallon bucket,
cleaned out the dead bees, sticks, etc.,……
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And then we stirred, squished and squashed the honey/honeycomb.
With the crushed up mixtured…we placed it into a piece of mesh
and let it sit until the honey strained out and separated from the
beeswax.
With the strained and cleaned out honey…this is what we got!!
Beautiful honey from all the flowers in the garden…a pure crystal white!
YUM!
