Stop 6: Ski Roundtop, PA

The Stop:

Our annual event at Ski Roundtop is awesome for two reasons: it’s on the white and it’s under the lights. I got there early and took one or six joy laps through the park before the competitors started showing up. As the sun shrunk below the trees, the temp cooled down, but the contest was just starting to heat up. The park crew lugged out extra lights to spotlight some of the features for the night jam.

The Stuff: 

This weekend, we displayed brand new models of Scion swag, touting T’s and upgrades in fresh breathnology. Scion mints are turbo-charged social lube, helping you reach zero to sexy in seconds.

The Setup:

We ran an open jam for a half hour, then hand-picked a slew of riders to battle it out in the two-part finals session. The rail on the left was part I. The disaster gap on the right? Part II.

The Scenario:

Giving away a brand new Signal board, Signal outerwear & Celsius boots for Best in Snow, like we always do on the Tour, is like being fully sponsored for a whole season. As a sponsored rider and paid shred for almost six years, I have a pretty good idea of what it’s like. Sometimes you have to ride when it’s cold or icy. And sometimes you have to hit rails you don’t want to hit and do tricks you don’t want to do. So I decided to give the Tour competitors a taste of the sponsored life they’re all starving for. I chose two features: one to test riders’ tech savvy and another to push them to high stakes, high consequence glory.

 

Feature 1: Tech  

I called out tricks and competitors had to do or die. By the end of the session, I made it mandatory to spin on or off the rail. Things were heating up.

Feature 2: Power

Behind the wall ride is a 6 foot gap from the lip to a down rail. This is a horrible photo of it, but it’s the best one I could find on my phone. Between judging, commentating, photographing and spectating, I was juggling a lot already. And I can’t juggle, so I was dropping the ball, big time. But anyways, the session on this feature was all about muscle moves. Dudes were flying at this thing, throwing FS 270s, BS 270s and 450s. I even saw a skier try to cork onto it (the doctors say he’ll be fine…just kidding).

The event was totally awesome. We gave away a ton of great Scion stuff and other gear from our amazing sponsors to one of the most stoked group of riders we hung with all year.

Thanks to Ski Roundtop and its park crew for building an awesome setup for the event, all the riders who came out and nearly killed themselves for a free pair of socks (now when you lose, there’s no excuse for having cold feet), and our incredible sponsors: SCION, Signal, Celsius and A Graham of Glass for making the Tour possible.

Most of all, thanks to everyone who comes out to events and supports the Snow Tour year after year. You all make it more fun than we could ever expect.