Simon throws a big rodeo 7 into a fresh, powdery landing. You wish you could land where he's about to land.
How did my trip to Silverton, CO go? That depends on whether you're asking about the level of productivity, or the amount of fun had on the trip. Fun? Probably the funnest (why would anybody say "most fun" when "fun" is a one-syllable word and "funnest" makes perfect sense?) trip I've ever gone on. Productive? Um, maybe a little, in an act of desperation and will, right at the last minute.
Peter Olenick, Simon Dumont, Nate Abbott, Johnny DeCesare, Jake "Yard" Largess, and I — the crew couldn't have been more fun. And couldn't have been more abusive to one another either. For five straight days, we constantly vented our weather-related frustrations on each other by flaming any possible weakness, abnormality: Nate is a vegetarian; Peter is a shamefully bad storyteller; Johnny is a minority; Simon is short; Jake spends all his time texting a sorority girl from Boulder; and I am a wash-up who uses his blog on a major sports media outlet to hang onto a fading professional skiing career. Just imagine the insults we sent flying as we waited for the incoming storm that NOAA promised.
Jake, Simon, and Peter practice their menacing camera gestures just moments after Jake's epic 360.
The storm didn't really come. The Silverton area got about three inches of fresh snow while we were there. So with one day of sunshine forecasted to be followed up by another overcast, snowless week, we just forced it, like every terrain park rideaway since 2007. We got up at the crack of dawn to hit three jumps in our one sunny day. Who needs powder anyway? Not us. We all stomped several tricks that I'd talk more about if they had turned out to be the highlights of the trip. That honor went, instead, to Jake Largess, Simon's childhood friend from Maine, Empire TM, and cameraman fill-in for the recently injured Riley Poor.
Somewhere in the constant stream of [stuff]-talk that defined the trip, we got the idea that Jake ought to hit one of the jumps, preferably the biggest one, once we'd finished with it. After the session on the second jump of the day — a 70-foot booter with a tilted landing and a 90-degree turn in the in-run — Simon remembered that Jake had to hit it. And to Jake's slight dismay, he fit right into my skis. After a session that was largely characterized by decking, backslapping, tomahawking, washing machining, and all other forms of eating [stuff] (especially by me), Simon, Peter, and I beamed with excitement in anticipation of what we were sure would be the most brutal crash of the day. Peter even wagered that, if Jake landed a 360 on the jump, he'd stop insulting him for the remainder of the day.
We all cackled as Jake called out "3, 2, 1, DROPPING!" And I could barely steady myself enough to snap a photo of him in the air. His 360 started out all right, and proceeded to a small flail at 180. And then, to everybody's utter surprise, Jake finished the spin, landed in the sweet spot, STOMPED, and rode away like a G (which, of course, is short for "Good Skier," or something like that). Peter had to cease his smack-talk for the next eight hours, and we all had to acknowledge that, even though he types away on his BlackBerry 24/7 like a whipped little b!tch, Jake is the man. Here's to you, Jake, the Team Manager of Empire is officially batting 1000 in the backcountry.
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Contributors
John Symms
My friend is a pro. In fact, many of my friends are pros. How else do you think I got this job?
Tim Mutrie
Journalist and blog-a-neer, big mtn. correspondent Tim has a desk-sized condo in a little place called Aspen.
Seth Morrison
If you don't know who Seth is, just click out of this blog and walk away. (Seth is a big mtn. legend, you see.)
Sage Cattabriga-Alosa
Sage went from washing dishes professionally to freeskiing professionally — aka "professional growth."
Ingrid Backstrom
World traveler, prolific ripper, reader and smiler, Ingrid lives in a cabin at the base of Squaw Valley.
Nate Abbott
Driven by coffee, powder, music, laughing, books & possibilities, photographer Nate is a lurker with Leica.
Liam Downey
Vermonster, Level 1 vet and large animal veterinarian, Liam's 6'5" frame makes him a large animal himself.
