Canyons and Park City With the Fam!

The Presidents Weekend tradition of skiing as a family at Park City continued this year, and Michael and I got to ski at The Canyons on Friday also.  It was so much fun to be able to shred with my lil broha again and he was killing it!  The best part of the day was hiking up above the 9990 chair lift and hitting a cornice Michael found.  I was amazed at how much he has progressed in his skiing (he started last year)!  I can't wait to see where he takes his skiing in the next few years.  

He isn't even scared.

Me doing a 360 off the cornice that Michael found.

Michael's first hit on the cornice.  Killing it!

Michael's first backflip off a natural wind lip. Nailed it!

Stomping a Legendary Road Gap 2013

2013 started off great for me, on January 1st I went up to Balde and did a few ski speedflights before going skiing with my family (a New Years tradition).  It was an amazing day of flying with the wind coming from the North.  On my first flight I came into the landing zone a little short and hit the top of an aspen tree.  I got slammed into the ground and was bleeding a bit but I continued up for some more flights.  On my second flight, I did my first 360 and it felt amazing!  I was so stoked to progress my speedflying and I can't wait to do barrel rolls!  Here is a video of that New Years Day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOYgvqc4cgQ

The Galena Gap is one of the most iconic road gaps around, a 40 foot cliff with an over 100 foot gap.  It has always been a dream of mine to do this, but I never imagined I would be hitting it this year.  On January 2nd, I convinced Adam Potts to come join me and I am so glad he did, because without him I would have never even gone.  So, after a great day of skiing The Burn with Michael, Adam, and Logan Johnston; Adam, Michael, and I drove north towards Galena Summit.  This was the first time we had ever seen an actual jump built over the road and we were pretty excited.  My mom and dad were up at Galena earlier that day and they checked out the landing and were encouraging us to go hit it, they said it was perfect.  

It hadn't snowed in a while, but with the spring conditions, the landing was a field of perfect corn snow.  Adam wanted to hit it first and he stomped his straight air.  My first hit was a little different; I got thrown weird by the jump and landed on my side, hurting my ankle pretty bad.  I was upset that I didn't even land it, so I limped back up and hit it again.  After a few minutes of thought, I sent one of the biggest backflips I have ever done and stomped it!!  Landing perfectly.  After that, my ankle couldn't really hold me anymore so I was done.

Adam was pumped and he sent a backflip also, but landed literally 12 inches from the guard rail, it was scary.  He crashed but was determined to land it and sent few more attempts.  He was able to clear the railing but kept landing on his back.  We were both so excited to have successfully hit such a big, high consequence gap.

Thanks to Michael for taking awesome pictures and videos! 

Adam and I checking out the gap before our first hits. 

 My backflip.

 Sequenced shot of my backflip.

 Awesome picture of Adam's backflip at sunset.

Video of My Backflip first, and then Adams. 

 Cool view of the jump from above.

I have decided to start a blog because I figure it is a good idea to showcase my skiing and everyday adventures.  To start if off, I wanted to show a great picture of what happens when you do a big cliff and land flat.  I took a knee straight to my face but still stomped my 3 off a 45 ft. cliff with a gap.  Here is a video of it, not the best style, but I was still happy I didn't get hurt even worse.