Adventure Bardsley: ColdSmoke Freeride Competition at Lost Trail Powder Mountain

Alex dropping out of Chute to send it on cliff.

People often ask, "What is Freeride?"

Well it can get tricky to explain, but basically it is

ALL MOUNTAIN skiing or boarding.

Cliffs, Chutes, Drops, Powder, Trees, Jumps, ect.....

For this contest, the course was an entire Cliff Face.

Riders (skiers and snowboarders) have the option to choose the sickest line possible. In this comp, the riders were granted just 2 runs. The best line was judged. And none of the riders were able to ski course before the competition because the cliff area had been closed off for a week to accumulate inches for contest.

So your first run was blind. I didn't know what the landing was coming out of Chute to drop onto a jump. Will it kick me 10 or 20 ft? How is the landing? Does the lip buck? Eek!

You want to stomp it hard and ski with max speed and style - but it is little scary hitting a cliff area without any prior experience of the obstacles The best bet is to scope your landings from below and try to design a strong line to take without hurting yourself!

So what are the judges judging?

Is your line hard?

Did you slide instead of turn?

Did you pole plant?

Did you Send-it when you hit the jump or were you tenitive?

Did you have style or steeze while stomping it?

Did you back-slap or butt-slap when landing your jump?

Did you wreck?

Did you Straight Air or do a Trick on the jump?

Did you invert or spin?

How much Air did you get?

This can be intimating!