Riding with PureBoarding in Aspen

Contributed by tom. March 2006.

Joerg from PureBoarding brought a group of nine Swiss riders for a USA tour. Lisa and I drove out to Aspen to ride with them for a few days -- we had a blast riding with Joerg and Eric at the World Carving Session in Febuary.

NEWSFLASH: (4 April 2006) Check photos from Richard Keller.

NEWSFLASH: (7 April 2006) Check out the pictures on the PureBoarding site.

Movie

Lisa and I shot some simple movies with our digital camera -- they're not high quality, but they should give an idea of this trip. I hoped to have all the Swiss riders on video, but did something wrong with the camera -- sorry! And I hope I spelled the names correctly.

Day 1: Sunday

Sunday we rode at Highlands, where an early morning storm deposited over 6" of fresh powder. We started the day in cloudy conditions, but soon the sun peeked out of the clouds and it was a typical Colorado blue-sky day. At lunch we connected with Joerg's group, very fun set of people. They made us feel immediately a part of their group, and from there on we rode together for the rest of the trip.

Lisa in the powder

In the afternoon Lisa switched out her board to try the new O-Sin 4807, a swallow-tail powder board. Although most of the powder got tracked up, there were still places for her to feel like she was floating high!

Dirch

Assessing the terrain

Day 2: Monday

Monday we met up at Aspen Mountain, a.k.a. Ajax. Fin, Michelle, and tele-Brian from Bomber Industries drove down the for day, and Bart and Ariel flew in from Miami. It was great to ride with so many fun people!

Joerg demonstrating front-side layout

It was my first time riding Ajax -- great riding, nice grooming and some fairly steep runs. Ruthie's was fun, but my favourite was Copper Gulch -- a natural bowl that's good for 20-30 (or more?) turns. It has a nice pitch, and the Swiss riders showed us how they "ride the train" -- many riders going down at the same time, a half turn apart. I went first on one of the pitches and Richard followed me, and it was exhilarating to hear him ripping through the snow just behind me.

Richard

In the afternoon we all went to Buttermilk, where we met up with Todd. He was teaching a young boy to carve on skis, but had his carving board on and joined us for a few runs. It was my first time riding with Fin, and I very much enjoyed our conversations on the lift and the turns on the snow. Mostly we rode Racer's Edge, but did a few runs down Buckskin too.

I must admit that I was somewhat taken aback by the attitude of the skiers on Ajax -- we've always been able to get along with riders. But at Ajax it seemed that many skiers felt a sense of entitlement to the whole slope. I had a skier call me an a**hole for ripping a carve across the hill (he was straightlining it down and I didn't see him), Lisa had quite a few people curse at her for leaving trenches, had another skier yell at her from uphill (!!!) telling her to get out of his way. I did not feel welcome there... but the riding was great!

Day 3: Tuesday

Tuesday was another Ajax day. Lisa and I missed the Swiss group at the gondola in the morning (parking issues), but met up with Bart and Ariel. We did a few great runs together, and Bart gave me tips on riding his style -- knees always bent, never coming up in the transitions, and ripping fast low turns. It was very fun, I love learning new things.

Joerg on Aztec

Later in the day we met the Swiss riders who spent most of the day on Aztec -- a very steep (45-50 degree pitch?) run that gets groomed every few weeks. It got groomed this morning, and Joerg was in heaven. We rode it a few times with them, and I found it intimidating -- it was necessary to get right over the lip to even see the slope! I did OK, didn't slide too much and carved most of the turns, but I kept laying out my body on the snow which unweighted the edge and skipped and chattered every so often. But it was fun!

Bart

After lunch at the Sundeck, on top of the mountain, Joerg left to take care of some business, a few of the Swiss riders left for a break, and the rest of us headed down to Copper Gulch for two or three runs. It was a blast!

Copper Gulch I

Copper Gulch II

Dirch and Marina matching turns

After a full day of riding, we all went together out for dinner -- an excellent meal at Genre Bistro, and then out for drinks at Sky bar. We got to the hotel around 1am, a bit sad to be leaving Aspen and the Swiss riders -- these three days were outstanding and we very much enjoyed riding with them. Now we'll have to wait a year, until the World Carving Session 2007!

Richard's Photos

Richard sent me some of the photos he took -- nice, high quality, very cool!

Joerg 1 (photo: Richard Keller)

Joerg 2 (photo: Richard Keller)

Leeeza (photo: Richard Keller)

Tom 1 (photo: Richard Keller)

Tom 2 (photo: Richard Keller)

Tom 3 (photo: Richard Keller)

Tom 4 (photo: Richard Keller)