The Winter X Games Blog
Jan 29 2007 / Aspen, COSunday 1.28.07
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5:15 PM
I know the event isn't quite over, but I'm calling it. I've spent enough time at Buttermilk for an entire season, got a sunburn, drank enough of the requisite Corona's in the lodge, and saw everyone I could ever want to see. So now I am back at the condo, where I will stay for the snowcross and superpipe finals tonight. After three days, I have decided that the best way to watch a made-for-tv event is on TV, and well, despite the antler-themed decor, our condo is the best VIP lounge in Aspen.
Today though I did watch some events live. The snowboarding best trick was kind of awesome, especially since Andreas Wiig won, and he is the nicest dude ever. Also, he hid the fact that he was hurt and almost didn't compete well. And you know, it didn't hurt that Travis Rice fell, twice. I also ran into Chanelle Sladics, who took a bronze in slopestyle yesterday. Apparently she was heading home to So Cal for some rest and relaxation, as she injured her back in practice, so bad, in fact, that her mom had to strap her into her bindings, and her dad had to unstrap her when she got to the bottom. The always wise Rob Campbell commented that it was like a Rocky fight: apparently you needed to get beat up bad right at first so you get that final burst of power to make it happen.
The Skier X was also today. I wish I could say it was fun to watch, but apparently there were magnets in one part of the fence cause people kept crashing through it and creating course holds. But if you missed Shaun White's run last night, they reran it plenty of times during the downtime. In the end Ophelie David and Casey Puckett took the wins.
My overall review of the event: The weather was awesome for the entire time, and the warm sun almost made up for the fact I lost my gloves immediately upon arriving at the event. I'm not happy that Winter X 11 is almost over (ok, yeah, I kind of am) but it was definitely an amazing experience and one of the most fun events of the year.
2:46 PM
Woooo Wheee! Talk about a whirlwind. Yesterdays schedule was boarderline insane. The majority of the day was spent at Buttermilk following Brooke around while she interviewed athletes, and I would grab some shots. Around 4pm I dashed back to the condo to upload the photos from the day, shower and get ready for a heavy night of photography and cocktails.
By 5:30 I was at home town hero Gretchen Bleiler's condo in Aspen, shooting shots for her "Crib" piece. I was comfortable shooting Gretch because she and I went to High School together here in Aspen and were buddies back in the day. We were both worked from the previous 3 days of Extreme Events, so we took our shots and then opened a bottle of champagne. We got to sit for about 20 minutes on her overstuffed couch sipping the bubbly and relaxing before we both headed over to the Oakley house for their soiree.
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At the Oakley house we dined on Sushi and Steak-on-a-stick while we were introduced to most of the Oakley Athletes here competing at the X games, with the exception of the men's halfpipe riders who were over at the venue competing in qualifiers. We watched the dude's halfpipe qual's on the boob tube at the Oakley House. Oakley hooked us up tight with party favors that consisted of a goggle case stuffed with gog's and dvd's. Stoked! Thanks Briana!
When the qualifications were over Brooke and I hightailed it over to Aspen Mountain where we caught the Gondola up to the lodge at the top of the mountain. Thanks to Monster Energy drink, we tore up the dance floor at the private party. Oldschool Hip Hopper Slick Rick rocked the stage, but even more impressive to me was Paul Wall's base booming set.
Thanks to a number of Monster and Vodka's I had enough energy to rock it over to the Smith Party after the show ontop of Aspen. Right next to the Smith House was the Vitamin Water house, so I spent the next few hours mingling back and forth between the two houses, mostly ordering drinks, setting them down and losing them, only to order another. Whoops. At some point I stumbled back to our lat34 crib and probably drunk dialed a few ex-boyfriends. Whoops again.
This morning has been rough but I got my photo editing done, bloggity blog blogged for y'all, and now I'm off to the Mountain for the Snowboard Best Trick Showdown and Men's Halfpipe Finals.
-Adryan Roane Ritter
Saturday 1.27.07
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11:30 pm: Another long, action packed day here in Aspen. I took it upon myself to actually go snowboarding this morning. I only took two runs, but Buttermilk runs are long cruisers, and my feet and legs were definitely burning. I also got to watch the SBX contest from above while riding the excessively long lift, and stop by and check out the slopestyle up close. Of course, I decided the jumbotrons were a way better way to watch both events, and soon ended up at the bottom to catch the action.
SBX proved to be always exciting, especially the ironic conclusion of the women's race. Lindsey Jacobellis, who earned infamy when she fell right before the finish line in Torino, blowing a certain Olympic gold medal, had a total repeat of the Olympics. In the lead, she caught the knuckle on the last jump, falling and allowing Joanie Anderson to pass her and take the gold. Jacobellis slid across the finish line on her back, and took the silver. The cameras caught the subsequent tears and great tv was made. But damn, it sucks for Lindsey.
In the men's event, the final heat was stacked, and Shaun Palmer was out for blood. He was relentless, but in the end, it wasn't enough for a medal. Instead, Nate Holland repeated his gold, and then opened a tab in the Inn at Aspen bar, which he was kind enough to share, even with me.
Slopestyle was exciting, especially because Shaun White was set to five-peat (that's win five times in a row for those who don't speak ESPN), but no one was really putting it together, including Shaun. The winning run didn't even score a 90 (last year's winning run was a 95 to give you an idea), and it wasn't thrown by Shaun. Andreas Wiig took the win, and Shaun got third. New daddy Jussi Oksanen took second, and was just excited he didn't injure himself.
I spent some time in the Inn at Aspen bar after all the competition was said and done, and got to watch the Park City video, which may have the best intro of any snowboard video, ever. But soon it was time to party, and you'll have to check out the nightlife blog to get all the details on that.
--Brooke Geery
Friday 1.26.07
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10PM
After a long day of playing paparazzi at Buttermilk Mountain yesterday, Brooke and I hopped on a shuttle back to our condo for a quick shower. We met up with Transworld Snowboarding Senior Photographer Christy Chaloux, and trucked it to downtown Aspen for a cocktail reception at the Billabong Store.
Greeting us at the front of the store was a life size cardboard cutout of pro shred Scotty Lago. Scotty seemed tripped out but stoked on the life size photo of him, and we snapped some Scotty with cardboard Scotty shots before we slid into the store for an Autograph signing with all the Billabong Athletes.
On hand to sign their posters were a plethora of the Winter X Athletes, including Jamie Anderson (who qualified first in Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle yesterday), Winter X gold medalist Tara Dakides, Antti Autti, Risto Mattila, Scotty Lago and big mountain rider Axel Puaporte. Fans who visit the Billabong store can sign up to win a trip to New Zealand through All Star Adventures, and the winner will be flown south this summer to ride with Scotty Lago at Snow Park. Pretty good score if you ask me.
Afterwards I headed over to the Wheeler Opera House with the Billabong dudes to check out a Big Mountain Snowboard Documentary made by Axel Puaporte titled “Lines”. Travis Rice made an appearance with his father and step mom to watch the movie, along with Circe Wallace. Both riders played major roles in the movie. “Lines” was an absolutely amazing, on-point documentary about the rise of Heli boarding in Alaska . Kudo’s to Axel Puaporte and his hard work on the movie.
-Adryan Roane Ritter <
Friday 1.26.07
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10:00 PM
Ok, so I was claiming that I was going to watch the finals at the finals tonight. But then I found out that the finals are skiing, ended up at a Billabong in-store signing, and then dinner. I had chicken fried steak. It was good. But I made it back in time to catch the last few runs of skiing, and oh my god, I blew it! Apparently, in skiing superpipe, it doesn't matter if there is some big dude in front of you, because those dudes go f-ing huge. They also do tons of flips, spins, and grab with poles (which honestly, is kind of weird.)
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The Billabong party was worth checking out though. They gave me wine and cheese and made me feel classy. Then some cool dudes showed up, like Scotty Lago, Tara Dakides, Antti Autti and Jamie. They were there to sign to autographs, which is good, because I was sitting behind the autograph table for a bit, and no one seemed interested in getting mine. Strange, I know.
I am kind of a lightweight and I really like sleep so I am home now, and will likely go to bed soon, but who knows if I will be able to get any sleep. Tomorrow is slopestyle and SBX finals, plus men's pipe qualifiers, so you know, it's almost like Christmas.
--Brooke Geery
Thursday 1.26.07
5:00 PM
X Games Mania! My job is rad. Lat34 is looking for lifestyle, so a large portion of my photography duty here is to basically kick it with all the pros and shoot them doing what they do when they aren't sliding snow. Whether it's Louie Vito taking a well deserved break in the athlete tent, or Dingo taking Danny Kass's new puppy out for poop patrol, I'm there to document it with my camera.
Red Bull has been awfully kind to us media types. The past two nights we got to sip champagne and munch on stinky cheese and crackers at their decked out Red Bull Illume Tent right at the base of Aspen Mountain, and convienently a couple blocks from our Lat34 condo. After a happy hour snack courtesy of Red Bull last night, we booked it down to "Belly Up" for Boarding For Breast Cancer's party. I was down to go to the Boarding For Breast Cancer party because, well, I love my boobs.
Hell's Belle's, an all girl AC/DC cover band rocked the sold out venue. The lead guitarist stormed the stage with her dreadlocks and school girl attire, and actually performed a strip tease. It was by far the best cover band I've ever seen. Any other Winter X Games party has some high expectations to live up to if they want to hold a candle to the Boarding For Breast Cancer party.
-Adryan Roane Ritter
Thursday, 1.25.07
2:00 PM
I now have my snowboard gear. It was a hard decision between wearing the inappropriately warm puffy and an all matching outfit, but I settled on the latter, and I have been warm and happy. I am also happy because being on site is kind of awesome. This morning I watched the halfpipe practice. And while that was entertaining enough, the women's slopestyle qualifiers was going on simultaneously, and I could check that out on the jumbo-tron.
Everyone, especially the women, are riding really well. In fact so well that it makes you realize how bad people really were just a few years back. But its amazing that the sport of snowboarding has grown so hard and so fast, and its fun to watch it happen in person. In fact, Silvia Mittermuller did attempt a 900 on the last jump. It ended up as more of an 875, but she will definitely nail it in finals tomorrow. Well, I am going back to watching the men's slopestyle qualifiers now. Until later...
--Brooke Geery
Thursday, 1.25.07
9:00 AM
I'm am just going to start this by saying, the last two days were rough. While Adryan was "living the life" I was a spastic ball of stress. First I got bumped from my flight into Aspen, and instead of spending the night in Salt Lake City, and taking the morning flight into no-so-nearby Grand Junction, I decided a good road trip was in order. So the nice people at Sky West rented me a cheezy Chevy Blazer and I set off on I-15 south for Aspen. In the tradition of Dumb and Dumber I did head in the wrong direction first, but not quite all the way to Kansas. There were also some issues with getting my iPod to work that required three separate trips to Walmart, but when all was said and done, I was cruising around 10:30 pm.
I made the executive decision to stay in Grand Junction for the night, and finally arrived in Aspen around 11 am. Of course, my bags supposedly had not been bumped from the flight and were supposed to be waiting for me at the airport. But why would that work out? My snowboard bag was no where to be found, and no one from Delta seemed to have any idea where it might be. But I am here on business (these blogs don't just appear you know), so I decided to tough out the snow in my skate shoes.
When the sun started going down, though, it became clear that no gloves, jeans and sneakers wasn't going to cut it outside at night. Luckily, the Winter X Games is broadcast live, so I headed back to the condo to watch the women's pipe competition on the small screen. I felt really guilty, and lame, being IN ASPEN and watching the event on TV, but you know, I had no one blocking my view, so that was cool.
The women's pipe competition was awesome. The level has definitely been pushed from last year, with Gretchen Bleiler throwing a 900 first hit! Torah Bright's solid grabs and super technical tricks were as fun to watch as any of the guys. Elena Hight tossed a backside 900 like it was nothing (and beleive me, as someone who used to try and ride pipe, that is really, really hard!) In the end, Torah took it, and her acceptance speech was just that much cuter in her Australian accent. The TV turned out to be a pretty good way to watch the event, but since I am here until the bitter end, and my bags showed up at 10 pm last night, I am going to make it a point to actually go to the events from here on out!
--Brooke Geery
Thursday 1.25.07
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12:00 PM
Ah, Livin’ the Life! Sweet, delectable, tasty Winter X Games Eleven. I feel officially official with my Photographer and Team Manager Credentials. I’m doubling up my duties here, as Lat34 photographer (official) and as Izzy Lalive’s Team Manager (non-official).
My Team Manager duties really don’t require much. An encouraging hug if needed, perhaps some advice on tuning her board, but really it just gives me all access to the “cool” spots. Like the Athlete’s Tent, and the VIP food court.
The Athlete’s Tent at the Winter X Games is really the “place to be seen”. Imagine sitting on one of the ultra plush couches, playing your favorite video game, with your favorite Winter X Athlete, who most likely stars in the video game you are playing. Free Massages? Yep, they got ‘em. Want a turkey sandwich at 9 in the morning? Yep, they can do that. Water, Red Bull, Gatorade, your favorite Pepsi product, no biggie. Oh, and free ski and board tuning.
Yes, they treat you kindly here at the Winter X games. The sun was out today, temperatures were warm, and all of the guys and gals had high spirits. The X course was a hit. Some of the snowboarder girls were having problems clearing the knuckles of the slope course, but Danny Kass was banging out Rodeo’s no prob. The pipe is in pristine condition, and rumored to be one of the best halfpipe’s Winter X has ever seen. We’re definitely living the life here in Aspen. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
-Adryan Roane Ritter
Wednesday 1.25.07
1AM Red Bull Ilume is a contest for photographers. Action Sports Photographers specifically, that spend every waking moment following around talented athlete individuals, directing them to pose for a shot, and then holding their breath to see if they can capture them in an all time, money-in-the-bank-action-shot.
So basically Red Bull put a lot of money into hosting a well deserved party on the mountain in
We were delivered royally in
Red Bull and Vodka’s were handed out liberally, and by the end of the Illume party the lat34 crew had a pretty wild snow-cat ride down the mountain to the after party at Sky Bar. The scene was hot at Sky Bar, and we went into true paparazzi mode, jumping into pictures with Shaun White, Travis Rice, and Sal Masakela. Of any party I’ve been to during the Winter X Games, this was by far the best.
Adryan Roane Ritter.
