Last weekend was pretty busy. Unless you were completely clueless, you probably noticed the big jump on Elk Avenue with skiers and snowboarders getting towed into it Saturday evening. As usual, Big Air on Elk brought out the crowds as people packed the sidewalks between 2nd Street and 3rd Street to get a glimpse of the action. Twenty skiers and snowboarders put their lives in the hands of the snowmobile tow-in to have the chance to fly by the 2nd stories of local businesses.
Photos: Trent Bona
Grant Spear on his way to his first BAOE victory.
After the preliminary rounds, the field was whittled down to 6 skiers and 3 snowboarders in the finals. It was no easy task to just to hit the jump itself, and Colorado Freeskier employee Grant Spear took top honors, landing all his tricks, including a tail grab 900. Matt Evans, who earlier in the day competed in the IFSA Junior National Series big mountain freeride competition at Crested Butte Mountain Resort, also landed a 900 to take 2nd place. Jeremy Clark, a telemarker, earned 3rd place. More locals were on the snowboard podium, with Jeremy Clayton edging out CBMST coach Nick Catmur and Christian Squire.
The event is getting better and better every year with a larger crowd and a larger jump. Event organizer and Colorado Freeskier owner, Gabe Martin, was stoked they could pull of the event this year. “It’s really just a competition/exhibition to showcase how much fun we have in this town. The live stream has allowed us to expand our audience as well, allowing people who can’t make it out or even to Crested Butte to be a part of it.” We embedded the live stream recording below, the action kicks off at 27 minutes. the finals at 1:54:40.
There were a few scary moments, Pat Sullivan suffered a concussion and Joe Mirza overshot the landing in the preliminary round. Matt Evans, who has competed in his fair shares of BAOE, described the jump as “super-quick, but definitely better than any of the previous ones.” Fifteen year-old Patrick Curvin, who also competed in big mountain earlier that day, wore a lion suit to really get the point of his super man front flip across. Another IFSA junior rider, Isaac Freeland from Sugar Bowl, CA, was throwing dirty rodeo 9’s, but couldn’t clean up the landing in the finals to take the victory. Check out the gallery from Trent Bona below:
-
- Skylar Swedberg throwing down in front of Crested Butte.
-
- Grant Spear on his way to his first BAOE victory.
-
- These kids are pumped.
-
- Matt Evans on the tow-in.
-
- Alex Stevenson “surviving the jump” on Teles.
-
- Willis and Earl were running the sled tow.
-
- Matt Evans sticking the flat 3.
About the Author
