Andrew Commander

This weekend was the best skiing of the season yet. Everywhere in Colorado was getting snow from the four corners to my hometown of Superior.

For my first powder day, I went to Vail on friday. The report claimed 5 inches, but in Blue Sky there was knee deep throughout. With minimal traffic on the way up, this was a great bluebird powder morning.

Friday night was spent in Carbondale before another day of tearing the slopes apart at Snowmass.

As we appraoched the summit of the first lift I was greeted by the report of 10 INCHES!!! The day couldn’t have gotten any better with cold flurries keeping the slopes fresh and crowd-less. Some of the deepest powder that my Rapid Transit fatty telemark skis have graced.

For lunch my friends and I stopped at Johnny’s Little Dill. If you ever ski Snowmass and fail to stop at the Dill, you haven’t experienced Snowmass.

These back-to-back powder excursions took it out of me. I could barely stay awake on Saturday night as I watched Apollo take bronze, his historic 7th medal. Screw NBC and their crappy coverage of the games, DVR and Tivo are the only way I like to watch. (But that will be a future post about how I love DVR….)

The high-country is expecting more snow so I hope I can go up next weekend, maybe even friday.

Imagine you go skiing on a powder day with only 8″ of new snow, but when you bend down to make a turn, the powder gets almost twice as deep. Snow will be up to your thighs and waist instead of at the top of your boots! The telemark turn, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful things in the world.

Carving through the fresh pow pow, bouncing from ski to ski, rooster tails coming from my G3 Rapid Transit Telemark skis is one of the best feelings ever. It is close to flying some might say; Telemark is the definition of bliss.

I first got into Telemark skiing because of the family connections. My Dad, and his two younger brothers all have telemarked for about 20+ years.

Crusing the slopes with these “three-pinners” all the time on my snowboard was fun, but they were always getting to the untouched stashes that I couldn’t access on a board!

At age 15 I decided that I had to try it. I got my uncles old equipment to see if I was really interested in skiing. After doing a half-season of skiing last year, I was ready to switch over fully and get myself a pair of new skis, My G3′s.

These fatty skis have proved to me why the telemark turn is superior to both snowboarding and downhill skiing.

Wow this years games were CRAZY!

So many new tricks were landed; but so many hard falls were taken.

The slopes of Buttermilk Mountain were not too forgiving to competitors. Shaun White’s face met the ice in a practice run while attempting a double Mctwist 1260 in the superpipe. It was hard to watch as an Ambulance took away US olympic team member Daron Rahlves, because of a crash causing his hip to dislocate. Ouch!

Aside from the crashes, the biggest tricks ever done on skis were landed time after time. Peter Olenick went almost 25 feet out of the 22 foot pipe! 47 feet from the flat bottom of the superpipe. During the Big Air competition, Bobby Brown among others stepped up the bar. If you havent seen the amazing twenty minute session, you have to watch.

The X-games also featured concerts from 50 cent and Ghostland Observatory. 50 Cent was the biggest joke ever; he came to perform at 1 pm and then only “rapped” for 30 minutes. He was booted from the stage after his alloted time, with no encore, come on…. Then he demanded some Chicken. No joke. But with Aspen being to glitzy glamourous, they have no KFC…fail.

BUT! The real fun was to be had at the Ghostland Observatory concert where it was packed with kids ranging from 15-30 all having a great time on Aspen Mountain dancing to the beats and laser show.

I had lots of fun during my time at the X Games along with Tyler Henderson and Matt Dawson. We met up with some other friends and enjoyed the festivities in the beautiful mountains of Colorado. The highlight of the trip was eating at a local sandwhich shop in downtown Aspen named Johnnys. Highly recommended.

We can only wait and watch where the sport of skiing will progress too. We can only wait until Vancouver!!!