Some of the best extreme skiers in the world recently gathered at a Colorado mountain for an event that might end up in the Winter Olympics someday.
Arapahoe Basin hosted the International Freeskiers & Snowboarders Association’s Challenger Series for three days last week. It took place on the ski area’s steep and difficult East Wall.
Among the dozens of competitors was Reid Litwiller, who lives in Blue River, Colorado.
“There are some, like, nerves going through your veins,” the 18-year-old said.
He described freeride skiing as “basically anything rocky, anything with snow on it, like way up high that looks really gnarly and sketchy? We’ll go and ski that.”
Not every competitor made it through the chutes and jumped over the rocks without crashing. A fair share of skiers and riders struggled on the technical slope. It’s a calculated risk each time down that balances pushing athletes to extremes while not pressuring them to get into trouble.
“You are not being given points to accept more risk or to have close calls. In fact, you actually get penalized and you’re not going to do well in the competitions,” said IFSA Sport Advisor Brennan Metzler.
It’s judged more like gymnastics or diving: how hard is the run and the tricks you did, and how well did you do it?
And things are heating up in the sport.
“Now we’re seeing a lot more tricks, meaning 360s, 720s, back flips. And yes, yesterday we saw a double back flip landed, and that’s what it takes,” Metzler said.
The winner of the competition gets crowned the best in the Americas and goes on to the World Championships, which could lead to another global stage.
“The big Olympic word is being dropped. So the sport is growing. It’s going to get a lot of attention. And so it’s really fun for us here in Summit County to be able to host one of the championship events,” Metzler said.
The event is a showcase for what makes some mountain-dweller Coloradans so special: their skills, their bravery and their guts.
“We started with that old mining culture in the past, and I feel like without these resorts, we would have turned into a ghost town,” Litwiller said.
Event organizers said they are hoping to bring the competition back to A Basin in future years.
