Freeride World Tour – Mammoth, CA

The Freeride World Tour kicked off in Mammoth CA, on January 22nd. I arrived a couple of days early to scope the venue, Mount McGee. Eric and I arrived in the parking lot of Mount McGee to be greeted by our friends Nick Greener and Drew Tabke. I was armed with my digital camera and prepared to take as many pictures as it took to find the winning line. Why a digital camera? The rules of the competition state that no competitor shall ski the venue one month prior to the competition. The boys came armed with a snowmobile which they towed in from Utah. They looked at my camera and then looked at their snowmobile and laughed. “Jess do you want a ride to the top?” “I thought we weren’t allowed to the ski the venue?” “I don’t see anyone around, do you?” I looked around and thought about this, “It would be pretty sweet to ski the venue. Are you sure you guys haven’t seen anyone?” “Nope! Come on, let’s go.”I quickly put all my gear on and the next thing I knew, I was hanging on to one handle of a snowmobile and heading up the face at about 40 mph. At the top of the mountain the wind was nuking. I started for the ridge and was blown over by a huge gust of wind. I decided I would find some place that was protected and wait for the wind to die down. After about an hour, the wind had only gotten stronger and I decided I better get myself off the ridge asap. I put my pack on and clicked into my skis. I couldn’t see anything and decided not to bother with scouting. At this point I just wanted to get off of the ridge before I was blown off the ridge. I started to ski down the ridge and all of the sudden I felt a huge shock in my hands. It was so strange. I couldn’t figure out where it had come from. I paused for a moment and then began skiing again. Again, another shock. This time I realized the electrical shock was coming from my ski poles. I thought, what the hell, is that possible? So of course, I had to try it again. I stuck both my poles in the snow and zap! Yep, I was being shocked by my poles. Did I mention that it was really windy up there. At this point I was a little spooked. The wind was so strong. I couldn’t see anything. And I was being electricuted by my poles. I decided not to ski the face and skied down the backside of the mountain. An hour later, I arrived in the parking lot, where the boys were losing it. During my windy descent, an avalanche had triggered down the face and the boys were concerned that I was caught in it. Luckily, I wasn’t and all of decided we better call it day.The next day, I returned to Mount McGee armed with only my camera and proceeded to create a line for the competition. I was psyched about my line, but concerned about the snow. After the 100mph winds and a natural slide, I wasn’t sure how great the snow would be. In fact, I was pretty sure it would be kind of gnarly. The competition started the next day. We arrived at 7:00 in the morning.

The scene was so cool. There were hundreds of people there to watch. Two helicopters buzzed around with guides checking the face for safety. The men were scheduled to ski first. At 7:30, the male competitors started to load the helis and were shuttled to the top of the ridge. Again, the wind began to pick up. An hour later, the wind was nuking and the helis were having a difficult time flying. The guides were the first to ski the face. They dropped in and imidiately radioed that the snow was bullet proof. Not the best conditions for a freeride competition, where hucking and sick lines are what is expected. Eventually the organizers decided to postpone the event due to heavy winds and bad snow conditions. All of the competitors gathered for a meeting at the base of Mammoth Mountain to discuss an alternate venue for the competition. Everyone agreed to hold the competition within the boundaries of the Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort. The next morning, I woke up to at least a foot of snow. We loaded the lift at 7:00 to look at the face. The comp was scheduled to start at 9:00. By the time 9:00 rolled around it was dumping. Once again, the organizers decided to postpone the event due to poor visibility. This started the waiting game.

The snow kept piling up and all the competitors went powder skiing. Not a bad alternative to competing. On friday a descision had to be made. There were only two possible competition days left and it was time to make it happen. A tough descision was made. It was decided to have the competition on “OH Shit” ridge due to massive amounts of snow and poor visibility. The ridge was not ideal for a freeskiing competition because it is extremely short withvery few features. The other alternative was not hold the competition whichwasn’t really an option.The competition began on Saturday morning at 9:00. I dropped in from the top of ridge, beginning with a straightline intodeep powder turns. I finishedmy run with another big straight line into a mandatory air. My run took a total of 15 seconds. My second run was about as quick. I started from the left side of the ridge and dropped a 15 foot cliff, skied some more powder and then dropped a 20 foot cliff. I think this run took about 20 seconds. To my surprise, this was enough to win the first stop of the freeride world tour.