TOP FIVE FRIDAYS: APRIL 14, 2023
Lead Image: One of many scenes from inspection this past week at the IFSA North American Junior Championships. The things I saw these kids do at this competition was mind blowing. The future of freeskiing couldn’t be in better hands. Athlete roll call, from left to right: Lynsey Nagle, Sophia Bisbee, unknown, unknown, our very own Emily Crofton, Ava Killian, and Robbie Burton.
#1: The 2023 IFSA North American Junior National Champsionships - A First Hand Account:
Staring down the 12-14 and 15-18 finals venue. In the background, Ozone, site of the 2023 Freeride World Tour stop in Kicking Horse, proving that the terrain these kids were competing on was no laughing matter.
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the April 14, 2023 edition! If you tuned in last week, you might’ve noticed two things: I was referred to as an “esteemed colleague” for the first (and likely last) time in my life, and also, I was missing. As Jeff explained in the video recap, I was drawn away from my desk, along with ski reviewer extraordinaire, Emily Crofton, as we traveled with our athletes from the Mad River Glen Freeski team who were competing in the 2023 IFSA North American Junior Championships (NorAms). As such, it only feels right to start this week with a recap of what went down between April 2 - 9th at Kicking Horse, British Columbia.
To get this highlight underway, let me first establish what exactly the IFSA is, as well as how the NorAms play into the bigger picture of freeskiing. Founded by the legendary Shane McConkey in 1996, the IFSA is the organization that runs and hosts freeride competitions here in North and South America. Working in conjunction with the Freeride World Tour (FWT), the IFSA provides a pathway for athletes to climb the rankings and find themselves on the FWT when the time comes. In other words, IFSA athletes often become the skiers and riders representing America, Canada, and South American countries on the Freeride World Tour.
This past week, at Kicking Horse, the IFSA hosted their 2023 NorAms event - an invite only competition in which athletes are selected based on points they earned from competing throughout the season. In addition to Mad River Glen’s 18(!) invited athletes, skiers and boarders from a plethora of other resorts converged on Kicking Horse to compete amongst the top athletes in their division. Amongst the resorts in attendance were names like Whistle, Palisades Tahoe, Aspen, Aleyska - you name it. All the big players were there.
Now, this was my first trip to NorAm’s, and while I knew the venues would be large, I wasn’t quite ready for the terrain or talent that I encountered. Across the week, there were a total of four venues to accommodate the different age and ability levels, and each one would rank amongst the steepest terrain I’ve ever skied. The finals venue, for example, was in the same bowl as the Freeride World Tour venue. This was serious terrain.
Prior to competing, athletes and coaches would inspect the venue, giving us the chance to identify lines, features, hazards, and landings in order to piece together a full run. During these inspection runs, there were countless moments where I’d be talking to an athlete whose plan sounded wildly ambitious, but as their coach, my job wasn’t necessarily to dissuade them, it was to talk them through it. As a result, myself and everyone else in attendance witnessed some absolutely mind blowing skiing. Big airs, high consequence landings, technical skiing- these athletes did it all. While it’s safe to say that at least a few of the skiers and riders in attendance last week will be on the Freeride World Tour someday, it’s impossible to say who it will be as there were countless athletes who showed clear potential.
On a closing note, while I’m clearly a bit biased, I do want to shout out a handful of Mad River athletes who showed up and showed out at the biggest event of the season, proving that the East Coast can hang with the absolute best on big mountain terrain. On the women’s side of the sport, shout out to Ava Killian for making finals in the 15-18 division, as well as Hazel Harris who qualified in first place thanks to what many coaches called the biggest air they’ve ever seen from a female athlete in competition. If you’ve never seen someone stomp a cliff so hard that their lenses fall out, I recommend checking it out on Instagram. Finally, huge congratulations are in order for Lynsey Nagle, who took home 4th place in finals, and who finished the season in 3rd place overall. From here, Lynsey will almost certainly be invited to Worlds where she’ll compete with the top athletes in her division on a global level.
On the men’s side, I want to congratulate Dylan Karpinski for making the cut to finals and skiing an excellent, technical line in finals, as well as Seamus O’Neill who also made finals in his first year competing. Remember what I was saying earlier about ambitious runs? Well, Seamus was on that list, and he stomped the hell out of it. Finally, credit is also due to Luke Miele, who finished in 7th at NorAms and 3rd overall on the season. Out of any athlete I watched last week, Luke exhibited some of the smoothest, most controlled skiing, making big maneuvers look easy. The way he finessed himself down gnarly terrain was simply jaw dropping. As a result of his efforts, Luke will also almost definitely be invited to Worlds.
With that, I just want to say, congratulations to all of the athletes who were invited, and a huge thank you to the team at the IFSA for making this event happen. Bearing witness to such an event was an amazing experience and has left me feeling confident that the future of freeskiing is in excellent hands. To see a full list of results from NorAm’s, check out the results on LiveHeats.
#2: After Being Available for Just 10 Days, Indy Pass Puts Sales on Hold to Prevent Overselling:
Moving right along into more regular, less self congratulatory news, we caught a pretty eye popping headline from the Vail Daily this week: after just 10 days on the market, the Indy Pass has decided to suspend sales. The reason? Fears of overselling. Since its launch just two years ago, in the 2021-2022 season, the Indy Pass has experienced exponential growth by being the antithesis of ski resort conglomeration. Rather than play into the big mountain, high end ski vacation market, the Indy Pass wisely chose to cater to the massive crowd of skiers who prefer skiing more low key, independent mountains. In lieu of unlimited skiing at dozens of mega resorts, Indy Pass holders have two days of access to over 100 independent ski resorts across the world. While the ski industry tends to be enamored with the glitz and glam of large ski areas, as it turns out, there are a ton of skiers who prefer just the opposite. That point was recently driven home when the pass was purchased by their technology provider, Entabeni Systems, back in March. At that time, new owner Erik Mogensen made it clear that he intended to continue respecting the independent ski area experience, and expressed concerns with the Indy Pass leading to overcrowding. Along with those concerns, Mogensen indicated plans to cap pass sales this season.
This week, all parties involved were shocked to learn that the cap on pass sales would come just 10 days after opening renewals to current pass holders. In his words, Mogensen, “thought this would happen in the fall and not on April 10.” The quick decision was made after a record number of pass holders renewed for next year, and a surge of new buyers pushed Indy Pass sales into the stratosphere. Now, the pass has decided to tap the brakes, buying them time to analyze the data and speak with resorts about capacity concerns before potentially reopening sales.
From our viewpoint, there’s three takeaways from this story. First, the Indy Pass is clearly in good hands under its new owners who obviously understand the industry and have intentions to be the best stewards of it that they can be. Second, the spirit of skiing is alive and well. While many proclaim the heart and soul of skiing to have died long ago, the fact of the matter is, there’s still an incredibly large population of skiers who have a strong desire to ski at independent resorts. The numbers prove that. Finally, our third observation is simple: if you want an Indy Pass, you’d better get on it if they decide to reopen sales this summer. To learn more about this story, check in with the Vail Daily or visit the Indy Pass website.
#3: Little Cottonwood Canyon Closures Continue into the Second Straight Week:
It's not always a party when Alta and Snowbird are put on Interlodge. Often times, it means skiers and workers are stuck at the resort without much to do other than shovel. Photo by Chris Kane for Alta Ski Area
In other news this week, we have a bit of a continuation of a highlight that Jeff brought us last week: big trouble in Little Cottonwood Canyon. In last week’s report, Jeff and Bob shared insights from locals as well as from afar regarding the frustrations that have come hand in hand with one of the best snow years on record in the Wasatch range. In that report, Jeff shared stories of traffic nightmares, in-bounds avalanches hitting beginner areas of the resort, as well as avalanches hitting the canyon road itself. Most relevant to this week’s news was also talk of consistent interlodging, a scenario in which the road to Alta and Snowbird is closed and guests are forced to remain on premises for at least a night. While this can be a dream scenario at times for lucky skiers who get the mountain to themselves, it can also be an incredibly boring, almost tortuous experience if the resorts are unable to operate.
This week, we saw much, much more of these troubles as Little Cottonwood Canyon has been closed since Monday, marking a 4 day stretch with no end in sight as of the time of this writing. With temperatures shooting into the 50’s this week, following last week’s +60” of snow, there are both avalanches actively covering the roadway, and fears that more could come at any moment. As such, the ski resorts have sat dormant as conditions have rendered both Alta and Snowbird unable to operate. While Snowbird had voiced interest in opening in limited capacity on Thursday for guests stuck at the mountain, it appears as though they were unable to do so. Alta on the other hand, stated on Monday that they anticipated being closed until sometime on Friday (today). At the moment, there’s not much else to say about this story, as the road is closed indefinitely, with no known reopening scheduled as of the time of this writing. To learn more about this week’s situation, check out this write up from Powder regarding Alta, or the conditions report from Snowbird.
Editor's Note - Since publishing this update, Little Cottonwood Canyon has reopened and resort operations are reportedly back to normal.
#4: The Annual Swatch Nine’s Returns Next Week, With Public Welcomed Back Next Saturday:
Finally, for our last highlight this week, we simply want to preview an upcoming event: the 2023 Swatch Nine’s event. Formerly known as the Audi Nines, “The Nines,” is an annual freestyle skiing and snowboarding event where athletes take on the most inventive course of the year. You’ve probably seen features from this event before. Last year, one of the hits was a jump into a bowl, with a narrow tunnel exit. This year, as you’ll see in the course rendering video attached here, the ante will be upped once again. In attendance at this year’s event will be 13 of the top female skiers, and 20 of the top male skiers, as well as 20 snowboarders. On the roster are some of the sport’s biggest names, including Jesper Tjäder, Max Moffet, Andri Ragettli, Birk Rudd, Sarah Hoefflin, Tess Ledeux, and many, many more. While the event itself is technically a competition, it tends to manifest itself as more of a season ending celebration amongst some of the top athletes in the sport, as the combination of talent and mind boggling features lead to some of the most impressive and creative tricks of the year. Particularly of note this time around, is the fact that the Nine’s will be inviting back a public audience for the first time since Covid hit. So, if you happen to be in Schilthorn, Switzerland next weekend, we’d highly recommend swinging by the venue and watching the events unfold. You can learn more about the public day here, as well as the event itself here. That’s all for now, but we’ll be sure to check back in a few weeks once results and media is available!