Junior Freeskiing Tour - Crystal Mountain 1/26-27

The Junior Freeskiing Tour made a stop at Crystal Mountain this past weekend. Competing were kids age 15-17 both on skis and boards. The 1st day they ran the course down Northway Bowl and the 2nd day down the King.

It was amazing stuff. My son competed for the first time and really enjoyed himself. All the kids (about 17 total) were amazing, doing stuff that basically adults do.

The link below is for a video I made on my Iphone (so not great) of my son skiing down his second run on Saturday in Northway Bowl. Sorry it is not that clear and you all might want to turn down your speakers as I kind of yell loudly a few times (cheered on all the athletes doing sick shit).

sdrv.ms/WwAmBM

The start had a small cornice the he 3's off of, then hits the upper cliff for a 15 foot air, skis through the tight trees and sets up the last jump that was 45 feet (only one to hit that spot). Hard to see and tell with the flat light, but it was pretty darn cool. Highest scored run of that day and earned him the nomination for the Free Mountain award (you can hear the announcer). It also landed him in 1st place.

And this was just one of about 10 amazing runs that I saw that day including a number of other large hits (40+ feet) off of the last cliff. Serioulsy, a bunch of them jumped off of it. I was watching all this totally entertained. I highly recommend it from a viewers standpoint (better then X games!!).

Next day the ran the show down the King. Another amazing day of skiing by the kids. Son popped a ski that day trying to pull off a huge 3 on his last hit and ended up with a 0 for that run, but still came in 8th overall.

Better yet, he won the Free Mountain award. Which just so happens to come with a free pair of skis from Blizzard and boots from Technica (thank you sponsors!!!!!).

Great stuff. I thought this community, in light of what our PNW skier Drew Tabke is doing on the FWT, would be interested in this. Peace!

welcome to the club!

right on griff
must feel nuts watching your kid fly
thru the air. my kids friend e t loves it.
those crazy kids!

Awesome -- does Crystal get any video of the kids' runs? He stomped that last landing -- really smooth. Junior Tabke.

Thanks all.

Yes, it is an amazing feeling watching him do these things. But admittedly I have been watching him do this kind of stuff since he was 6 years old. I would go down below small cliffs and scope out the landing and then send him off at that age. He had that 6th sense about how to jump and clearly still does.

We eyed that line during our course inspection. And decided that he would hit it his second run. I txt'd up to him that no one had hit it, and that it's all his.

Then I sat there and thought...........did I really just say jump off of that cliff???? What kind of a dad am I????? LOL. Yet I know he has the ability.

And like I said, that was just one of a number of really great runs by the kids. They did have a video and still photographer on the hill, though the comments were that is was not that good due to the flat light. Though here's a link to the JFT site with some more pics:

juniorfreeridetour.com/2013/01/crystal-day-1-photos/

Great stuff.