Park City, easily one of the most fun resorts to ride in the states. With a fast lap in the 3 Kings Park,  I had one of the most fun weeks of riding. Usually at a contest, you’ll do practice, then too tired, you’ll head back home. This was not the case in Park City. Each day either before or after practice was followed by many laps in the Park.

After the second day of practice, I ended up taking a bunch of laps with Willie Borm and John Brown. At first we were trying to get shots for a fun instagram edit, but then we started talking about taking photos instead. At first we wanted to get a photo of us all doing backflips on the jumps, but since the lips were slushed out, we decided that wouldn’t be a good idea. Thankfully, there was a fun little jump further down in the park, and Willie came up with the idea that we should do front flips. This resulted in many fun laps of trying to do synchronized superman front flips for the rest of the afternoon. A couple of close calls, along with a lot of laughs helped to produce of the favorite photos I’ve ever had the privilege of taking or being apart of. 

The next day we didn’t have practice, so we skied a bit in the morning, then went to the Center of Excellence to jump on the super tramp for a little. After hanging out there for a bit. Robby, Alex, and I decided to go to the gun range. It was sweet!

That night we took it very easy, since we had to compete the next day. I was in the 2nd heat, so for the first part of the 1st heat I was asked by the awesome DC to join him in the announcing booth, and call the tricks for the first run. Good times hanging out with DC on the mic. But I could only stay for the first run before having to go warm up myself. Unfortunately for us, bad weather rolled in, and started snowing hard for the second run of the first heat. This made it hard for anyone to even land a run. When it was time for the 2nd heat to begin practice, I wasn’t even able to make it to the first jump landing till practice was almost over. On the last lap of practice, I was able to at least land one full run through the course. Since it was so slow, I just went to land a clean run. Although I had to sit on my skis into pretty much every feature, I was able to land a run which gave me a score of 79.4. For my second run, I decided to step up my rails since it had stopped snowing. I was able to do my upgraded rail run, but a headwind came in, resulting in me coming short on both jumps. Very happy I was able to at least land a run, just sucks when you can’t control the weather. When it was all said and done, I finished 8th in my heat, and 15th overall for the contest.

The following day, I had an awesome time watching the finals. For those who didn’t get to watch, it was quite the show. Big ups to Joss Christensen taking 1st, McRae Williams for taking 2nd, and Gus Kenworthy for taking 3rd place. After taking a few fun laps at the end of the day, it was time to head back and start packing. Robby and I flew out of Salt Lake the following morning at 5:55 AM on our way back to Europe for the SFR Tour.

Big thanks to Heidi Hanley for letting us stay and making so much good food! Time for a fun Euro Trip.

Cheers,

-Noa