From March 4th through the 8th, I attended the Red Bull Cold Rush. For my internship I will be writing a cover story for the Durango Herald about The Cold Rush. This means I was a part of the media crew while there. The Red Bull Cold Rush is a quite possibly the most unique professional ski events in the world. It takes the 2 complete opposite sides of free skiing and put it into one event. These events are slopestyle and big mountain, which is all went on in my backyard of Silverton Mountain. Every year I always tune in to keep up with this event. Naturally, I have always been excited about The Cold Rush. So having the privilege of attending it in person was a dream come true.
The first day of the Cold Rush was Monday March 5th, (best Monday I have ever had!) which was the Big Mountain day. So that morning I was snowmobiled into Velocity Basin to the bottom of the Big Mountain venue. Only a couple of minutes before I arrived, there was an avalanche that slid, taking out a third of the venue. Clearly this stirred the athletes and everyone there. Although after safety procedures were taken, the event went on! The athletes were then helied from the bottom to the top of Storm Peak by the Silverton helicopters. There was also a Red Bull heli filming along with the NBC heli. Once everyone was in line, the show began! It was absolutely unreal watching athletes I have idolize come ripping down the mountain in front of my very eyes. The whole day was quite the adventure. I met the main still photographers from Red Bull, writers and photographers from Powder and Freeskier Magazine. I also had a photographer from Outside mag take my portrait with my skis. On top of that I was able to not only meet my idols of the skiing world, but the honor to hang out with them at the event as well.
The first day of the Cold Rush was Monday March 5th, (best Monday I have ever had!) which was the Big Mountain day. So that morning I was snowmobiled into Velocity Basin to the bottom of the Big Mountain venue. Only a couple of minutes before I arrived, there was an avalanche that slid, taking out a third of the venue. Clearly this stirred the athletes and everyone there. Although after safety procedures were taken, the event went on! The athletes were then helied from the bottom to the top of Storm Peak by the Silverton helicopters. There was also a Red Bull heli filming along with the NBC heli. Once everyone was in line, the show began! It was absolutely unreal watching athletes I have idolize come ripping down the mountain in front of my very eyes. The whole day was quite the adventure. I met the main still photographers from Red Bull, writers and photographers from Powder and Freeskier Magazine. I also had a photographer from Outside mag take my portrait with my skis. On top of that I was able to not only meet my idols of the skiing world, but the honor to hang out with them at the event as well.
The next day was the slopestyle day. To get to this event, I simply just rode the chair lift up to the top and hiked about 10 mins over the ridge. There was only about 30 spectators that were there to watch. Most all the spectators were part of the media crew (including me). Sorta fun feeling so exclusive! Anyways, all of us were positioned on top to a cliff that was below the 'railroad rail' and the 'mando mine jump', and above the hip jump and castle cliff. Therefore I had front row seats. Once again the athletes had to deal with a really difficult course. The landings off the rail and Mando jumps looked like they were solid as a rock. Although, the athletes once again surprised everyone working through it all, and putting on a great show.
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photo credit REDBULL
Grete Eliassen and I at the slopestyle comp!
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If you look in the very back right, you can see me watching the judging! Photo credit REBULL
photo credit REDBULL men winners
Photo credit REDBULL Women winners!
| The final day of The Cold Rush was suppose to be the final event, although it had to be cancelled. Earlier that week the cliff venue also ended up sliding, (avalanche) making for a dangerous scenario, resulting in having to cancel the cliff event. So what they did instead was a 'Freeski' day at Silverton Mountain. They let all the athletes and media crew ski Silverton privately. Super crazy experience getting to ski with some of the athletes and other awesome people that made this event possible. Later that night was the athlete judging. Another unique element to this event is that fact that instead of a judging panel, the athletes are the judging panel. So the last night the athletes watched all the footage from both days and decided who ultimatly is the best all mountain skier in the world. Again since I was part of the media crew, I had the privilege of getting to sit in while they judged each other. After the judging came the awards. On the women's side: 1st- Rachel Burks 2nd Michelle Parker 3rd Jackie Paaso Men: 1st Dane Tudor 2nd Sage Cattabriga-alosa 3rd Pep Fujas I am still in dis-belief that I had the opportunity to experience this. I am still waiting to wake up from this dream. I was able to be involved in a huge event and TV production as well. I met extremely interesting people who work behind the scenes in the skiing industry. And not to mention hang out with pro skiers I have looked up to forever. I know that this experience has opened up doors for my future, and ones I probably don't even know about yet. After the first part of my internship, I cannot help but think "what a cool school I go to..". Thanks Animas High, I can't wait to see what else my internship has in store for me!! |
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