With the sun poking in and out of the dark ominous sky, we were due for a crazy weather day. Thursday, February 25th, The Campus Rail Jam Tour made its annual stop through the University of Utah. I got over there around 11 to register, and was happy to see some familiar faces around, everyone was stoked, and I was pumped up too.Our heat started at 12:40 in the afternoon. I climbed up to the top drop-in, for the gap to down box.
Figuring, I have hit this setup multiple times already this year, I dropped first. Landed a nice little front board, and rode away in the slush. And we were off! The snow started falling and the sky clouded over, the hail was smacking us in the face, fortunately it didn't effect the speed too much for the take off. After 40 minutes of jamming they announced the finalists. I'm happy to say I was one of them, along with Midori, Lynn, Marley, and Kass. When finals came along, we were all in the same heat with the skiers, and the boys. This is where my competitive spirit kicks in. In the end I think the judges were looking for overall consistency, and landing tricks, which was hard to do in the slush. I walked away with 1st, Marley with 2nd, and Lynn with 3rd. Congrats Ladies! We all walked away with some awesome prizes too, after all of it, I did an interview with Fuel Tv which hopefully turned out pretty well! Thanks CRJT for the great event!
The next day I rested, and prepared for the King of the Wasatch Rail Jam at Park City Resort. Thanks to Lynn, I was able to get up there! We arrived right at 5pm for registration. After registering, we took a look at the set up. There were three options at the top; a down-flat-down rail, a down rail, and a down box, ending with a wall ride, and a log stall/jib. To say the least, we were excited, and couldn't wait to hit the features.
After practicing once on everything, I decided to conserve my energy until the jam started. At 6pm, the event started. We had about a 45 minute jam session with everyone, before they narrowed it down to some finalists. They took the top three girls, which included, myself, Marley, and Kirby. A short intermission, and some course maintenance, gave us a chance to catch our breath and get re-vamped for finals.
We were all together again, with the boys and skiers. It was a tough finals. By the end of the night, the landings were just a little icy, which made it hard to land some things, I must have tried front blunt 270s off that down rail 10 times and landed it maybe once. I did do a 180 on hard way 180 off the down box which I was excited about, cause I have never tried that before!
At the end of the night, I walked away with 1st, Marley with 2nd, and Kirby with 3rd. We all walked away with some great prizes and a little cash! Thank you PCSB and King of the Wasatch! They did a great job hosting their very first rail jam in addition to the slopestyle, and halfpipe disciplines offered in previous years. I hope they continue to do so! Tired after another long night, I didn't end up getting home until pretty late, and unfortunately we had to get up very early the next morning, because garrett had to be at work.
The alarm went off at 5am and it was hard to get up. We piled our stuff into the car and left the house at 6am. After dropping Garrett off at work at 6:35, I drove over to the canyons, grabbed some coffee, and hung out in the Grand Summit Hotel in one of their big comfy chairs, in front of the fireplace. When it was time to get ready my boots were nice and warm, and I was ready for another day! I walked over to Smokies Bar and Grill for registration. Dave March greeted me at registration, and I was stoked to see my friend Wiki was there too! I waited for Wiki to register, then we took off up the gondola. She is so much fun to ride with, she shreds hard with a huge smile on her face, just my style:)We had lots of fun playing around in the park, waiting for the competition to start. We had an hour long jam session, throughout which, the girls winner would be decided, which meant, NO finals! YAY! All the girls were doing really well and pushing themselves in the upper respect terrain park. Wiki and I took a couple of laps on the lift during the competition, to conserve energy, and it definitely paid off! I'm happy to say that Wiki walked away with 1st, I walked away with 2nd, and Kiri walked away with 3rd. Congrats WIKI you rock!! It was a very fun event, the Canyons always does a great job!
