As predicted, blast of moisture from the California coast came in hot and heavy (literally), slowed down bustling Squaw Valley Village, and sent the city dwellers on their way. However, still lurking in the village bars, plush penthouse suites, and local makeshift hostels, is a diverse crew of the world’s best skiers and snowboarders from around the globe. They wait in hopes of being the first snowsliders ever to “legally” slaughter Squaw Valley USA’s infamous and looming Tram Face.

The Nissan Tram Face is the second stop of the 2009 Freeride World Tour and the only one in North America. This uniquely organized event allows the riders, organizers, and most importantly, Mother Nature, a seven-day window to ensure optimal conditions for some truly legitimate big mountain riding.

Day one of competition went down Friday under bluebird Sierra skies and on a semi-sun baked, but still impressive Silverado Bowl.

“It wasn’t two feet of blower, but it was predictable and safe,” said day one snowboard leader and local hero, Jeremy Jones.

The Silverado Face was crushed by an alternating start list of skier-snowboarder that allowed both sets of judges time between runs to calculate scores and produced a surprisingly fast-moving onslaught of creative and gnarly lines.

The Euro-dominated field of 53 shredders was topped by Swede Reine Barkered and Eylse Saugstad on the ski side, and Americans Jeremy Jones and Susan Moll for the snowboarders. Barkered’s risky huck out the bottom was enough to give him the pleasure of finally beating fellow countryman Henrik Windstedt and France’s Aurelien Ducroz who both took similar lines.

With one solid day under the belt, competitors are still not satisfied enough to walk away and give up hopes of making history on the Tram Face. The frustratingly warm Sierra storm has set in and everyone can only hope that the freezing level will be the first opponent to drop.

Check out the Tramface website for full results.

(February 24, 2009)
This arrived in The Ski Journal's inbox yesterday and is an important issue for anyone who uses the backcountry in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Please take the time to voice your opinion and help the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center secure funding moving forward.


"Dear Friend of NWAC,
We need your help! The Washington State legislature is currently debating Senate Bill 5596, a proposal to add a $2 surcharge to snowmobile licenses and Sno-Park permits, money which would directly support NWAC. This funding source could provide as much as $140,000 for NWAC and fill a large budget hole...without it NWAC may not be able to operate next season. Please take a few minutes and contact the members of the Transporation Commitee, which is currently evaluating the bill. Tell them that you support Senate Bill 5596 and emphasize the importance of making sure that NWAC can continue to provide the avalanche forecasts that keep us all safe.
E-mail addresses for the Transporation Committee members are below.
E-mail one of them or all of them...whatever you can do. If any of them represent your district, your comments will go even further.
Please take a few minutes and send some e-mails! Your effort could save NWAC!
















Thanks for your help!
The Friends of NWAC"

Earlier this month, Funny Feelings LLC celebrated the completion of its new offices—the Funny Feelworks 542 Facilities—with an open house. Some of the kind folks who help make The Ski Journal a reality showed up to check out the new space where it all happens. The Funny Feelings crew took a break from putting the stories and photos down on paper and up on the web and sat back and had a brew and some grub with contributing writers, photographers, sponsors, and good friends. Earlier in the week the mastermind behind the creation of the new offices—contractor, Baker Ski Patroller and Iron Maiden enthusiast Jeff Hambleton—put the finishing touches on the space he has resourcefully built using as much reclaimed building materials from The ReStore as possible. And the Funny Feelings crew polished the space all off with some custom art from Jamie Lynn and Spacecraft. Viva Area 542.

Baker local Zach Giffin has been running a helmet cam through some early season storms and put together an edit to share with all of us...just push play.

Points Of View Vol. 1

Unfortunately, Andy Campbell crashed during qualifying and broke his femur. Then he skied down. Here is his account of his last day at the X Games.
“I was first in the runnings for qualification and had to make some last minute repairs to my sitski. If I missed my slot I wasn't going to get bumped down the order because of the ESPN induced timeframe and would just have to wait for the second qualifying run.

Up in the gates and on my last ready-to-ski 195, this ski was tuned up and I wasn't having any problems in the warm, wet and sticky snow. I was crapping myself prior to the start, but as soon as the gate went down and I hit the first jump I was feeling great.

I hit the top of the course at full speed and knew I'd go slower through the rest of the course to ensure I'd qualify and not crash out. Everything was going well until I landed a jump and bent the ski. I didn't even wipe out but knew the ski was wrecked and pulled to the side, utterly gutted because I knew I was on a good run.

Then it hit home that I didn't have another ski. The running order was reversed for the second run so I was last and had a little time to try and sort everything out. First priority was getting a ski, any ski. I had a 192 but the binding was broken.Then I remembered seeing a girl in the same make of sitski as me, she was here spectating and pretty new to skiing sitting down. Someone ran off and grabbed her ski. Only problem was that it was a 155 slalom ski that looked as if it hadn't seen a tuning room since I last played football.

But it was my only option and I decided to take the course extra slow, not getting any air at all, just qualify and get the new 195s sorted out for the next day. I got back up to the gates with 10 seconds to spare and hit the course straight away, took everything slow as hell, not getting any air, even off the first kicker. I felt like a complete pussy.

I got half way down, just coming up to the road gap and had to decide whether to hit it or take the safety option over the cat track to the right. I knew I had enough speed to clear the road gap, preferred going over it than hitting the rutted up cat track, knew that it didn't involve height but rather length and decided that it would be fine to hit.

I had a good approach and set up well for what I thought was going to be a very simple air, no kicker or anything. I'm not sure whether it was the short tail on the ski, or just me being in the back seat too much, but as soon as I left the snow I felt like I was doing a back flip (something the spectators later said it looked like I was going to complete). I'm sure it wasn't that far, but it felt like forever and I can remember being completely inverted, in complete silence, waiting for the impact to come.

I hit hard, coming down directly on my back. Once again the pain was immense, nausea flooded over me and I could do nothing but emit a low, Neanderthal-like growl. A medic was on me straight away but I couldn't do or say anything for at least 30 seconds. All I cared about was checking if I could move my hands still, and I could. I laid there for a couple minutes while I got my breath back and the pain died away and decided I was okay to ski down.

The impact had thrown the cover off my legs, so I gave them a quick check to see if there was any obvious signs of a break and everything looked good so I set off down to the bottom, lots of pain in my back, neck and head still but completely oblivious to any break in my leg.

I took my time getting down, any thoughts of qualifying long gone from my mind and talked to a few people at the bottom before I headed over to the wheelchair and started getting unstrapped.

I got myself unstrapped from the sitski but just felt too banged up, nauseous and weak to transfer into the wheelchair by myself so got a couple people to help lift me across. As it turned out I had one person grab my legs, and one person grab me under the shoulder and lift me straight across to the chair, still oblivious that I had broken my femur.

When I got in the chair I kind of stumbled forward, because the femur was no longer supporting me, and thought something was wrong. I could immediately see abnormal movement in my left femur and knew straight away what had happened.

I still couldn't feel any pain, which kinda makes it even more freaky. I could feel the vibrations and crunches of the bone on bone so knew it was a break, I didn't know if it was open or closed though. One of the other skiers wives held my lower leg in place to provide some support and I let everyone know what'd happened.

Once the ambulance arrived I got transferred and taken to the hospital. Three hours later I was in surgery and had a rod inserted at the knee, all the way up the full length of the femur. It's slightly ironic that the area that's broken is the only area of my legs I have any sensation very, very little sensation, but I'm still able to feel some things. It's very vague and I can’t pinpoint the area at all, or differentiate between a feather or a red hot steak knife but sometimes if I'm touched on that thigh I can feel it.

I'm sore and in pain pretty much everywhere, my broken leg hurts because it's broken and has a big metal rod in it, my unbroken leg hurts because it always does and I get phantom/nerve/neurological pain there (whatever you want to call it, it hurts) and my entire back, neck and head are aching, swollen and bruised from the last four days of crashes and wipeouts.

Apparently it's good to go pretty much straight away. Apart from the issue with pain, I've started the insurance ball rolling and should be getting repatriation flights sorted out for as soon as I'm ready. I'm in no rush whatsoever though, getting lifted on and off aircraft my baggage handlers is about as comfortable and enjoyable as it sounds without a broken femur.”

- Andy Campbell/theandycampbell.com

We at TSKJ wish Andy a speedy recovery and hope to see him charging it again soon.

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

ASPEN, CO - January 20, 2009 - SitSki athlete Andy Campbell isn't your typical X Games competitor. No hotel suite for this guy--he's sleeping in his truck all the way to the finals. With backing from PM Gear, Andy checks in from his first X Games.

"So I got into Aspen last night after picking up a rental minivan at denver and grabbing a couple sleeping bags en-route to keep my ass from freezing.

I'm posting this from the Athlete Lounge on one of the fancy big PC's they have set up. I just got off the hill from my first day of practice. We're not able go down the course yet as they're still building it, but it looks gnarly and I gotta say it's scaring the crap outta me already. I don't get to inspect and practice the course until Tursday then the semi-finals and finals are on Sunday, all of them live on ESPN.

This isn't just my first x-games, not even just my first skier-x competition, but whenever I do eventually get to go down the course, it'll be the very first time I've ever been on a skier-x course, nevermind raced on one. I'm f--ked.

I got my passes and swag bag last night (if anyone wants an x-games dressing gown then hit me up on a PM before I put it on ebay or throw it away) and things are starting to feel serious now, not least because I just found out that there's a $10,000 purse for the monoskier-x comp."

- Andy Campbell/theandycampbell.com