Andy Campbell's second installment. Best of luck in qualifiers today.

"I managed to get one run in today before the course opened and my GPS registered 77.5mph! Then the course was opened for us to inspect and it was my first chance to have a real look at it. G.N.A.R.L.Y. The start itself is maybe 60° for just 10ft or so and straight into a small kicker over a trench gap, then another 20ft to set up for a real wake-up kicker that gives serious air.

The biggest problem with jumps in a sitski is the landing, with just a shock absorber to suck up the impact. Get it right and it'll work well, get it wrong and the spring will just rebound you back into the air and all over the place. It gets pretty wild at times.

The course also has three sections of low rollers, sometimes eight at a time. These are the real killer in a sitski—land on the knuckle of one and you're launched by the rebound of the shock, probably onto the knuckle of the next to continue the rollercoster ride until you crash out.

I planned to go full speed all the way to the first section of whoopsie-doos, hitting all the jumps at race pace. Everything went well until I got caught by a little roller after one of the landings, which put me in the back seat and straight into the next jump with all my weight on the back of the ski. Once I was in the air I couldn’t do anything to correct and came slamming down straight onto my back, releasing the ski and sending it flying. It was without doubt the hardest, scariest and most painful wipeout I've had yet and for the first 5 or 10 seconds as I lay there screaming I thought I'd broken my back again. After a minute or so I was able to get up and get the ski clipped back in and try to run the rest of the course.

I set off towards the rollers and took them way too fast, getting launched from knuckle to knuckle until I was out of control from the rebound ride and in the back seat again wondering when I'd come to a stop. Back down on the tail of the ski again and this time the binding stayed in place but the ski was bent. I must have severely weakened it on the first wipeout and then finished the job on the second. So that was the end of my course inspection for the day as I headed into Aspen to get my standby 195 mounted for tomorrow’s qualifiers. My back is pretty bruised and swollen where I slammed but the ibuprofen and red bull is starting to kick in so I think it's going to be fine.

So I'm all set on my new BRO ski and ready for qualifying tomorrow. As long as I can stay on course and actually finish then I should make the semis after I crashed out the rest of the field went down and did the same or worse. One guy went completely off-course and through the safety netting after getting thrown by the whoopdie-doo’s too, one guy took one of the road gap jumps too slow and crashed into the wall (five stitches), last year’s champion took a really bad landing and broke a ski too, so it's not just me being crap, the course is crazy.

I really am enjoying living in the back of the van, I have all my stuff sorted out and I'm right by the hill so I don’t have to do anything in the morning but get up and ski."

- Andy Campbell/theandycampbell.com