{"id":2455599,"date":"2020-03-10T13:04:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T19:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/avsc-skiers-shine-at-big-mountain-competition-in-snowmass\/"},"modified":"2020-03-10T13:04:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T19:04:00","slug":"young-avsc-skiers-shine-at-regional-big-mountain-competition-in-snowmass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/photos\/young-avsc-skiers-shine-at-regional-big-mountain-competition-in-snowmass\/","title":{"rendered":"Young AVSC skiers shine at regional big mountain competition in Snowmass"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.4479166666667\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-322350-327\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/freeride-svs-031120-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/freeride-svs-031120-1-1024x710.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times | AVSC skier Bodhi Yang competes in the 2020 Colorado Junior Freeride competition off of High Alpine lift at Snowmass on Sunday, March 8, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"0\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10.53738317757\">\n<p><strong>AVSC skier Bodhi Yang competes in the 2020 Colorado Junior Freeride competition off of High Alpine lift at Snowmass on Sunday, March 8, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong><br \/>Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<br \/><a class=\"buy-link\" href=\"http:\/\/aspentimes.mycapture.com\/mycapture\/remoteimage.asp?backtext=Return+to+AspenTimes.com&amp;backurl=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/avsc-skiers-shine-at-big-mountain-competition-in-snowmass\/&amp;image=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/freeride-svs-031120-1-1024x710.jpg&amp;notes=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/freeride-svs-031120-1.jpg\"><i class=\"fas fa-shopping-cart\"><\/i> Buy Photo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/freeride-svs-031120-1-1024x710.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"AVSC skier Bodhi Yang competes in the 2020 Colorado Junior Freeride competition off of High Alpine lift at Snowmass on Sunday, March 8, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/freeride-svs-031120-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/freeride-svs-031120-1-1-826x1024.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times | AVSC\u2019s Brody Fox competes in the 2020 Colorado Junior Freeride competition off of High Alpine lift at Snowmass on Sunday, March 8, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"0\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10.530805687204\">\n<p><strong>AVSC\u2019s Brody Fox competes in the 2020 Colorado Junior Freeride competition off of High Alpine lift at Snowmass on Sunday, March 8, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong><br \/>Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<br \/><a class=\"buy-link\" href=\"http:\/\/aspentimes.mycapture.com\/mycapture\/remoteimage.asp?backtext=Return+to+AspenTimes.com&amp;backurl=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/avsc-skiers-shine-at-big-mountain-competition-in-snowmass\/&amp;image=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/freeride-svs-031120-1-1-826x1024.jpg&amp;notes=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/freeride-svs-031120-1-1.jpg\"><i class=\"fas fa-shopping-cart\"><\/i> Buy Photo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/freeride-svs-031120-1-1-826x1024.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"AVSC\u2019s Brody Fox competes in the 2020 Colorado Junior Freeride competition off of High Alpine lift at Snowmass on Sunday, March 8, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/freeride-svs-031120-1-2-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/freeride-svs-031120-1-2-1024x682.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times | AVSC\u2019s Kai Walterscheid competes in the 2020 Colorado Junior Freeride competition off of High Alpine lift at Snowmass on Sunday, March 8, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"0\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10.545871559633\">\n<p><strong>AVSC\u2019s Kai Walterscheid competes in the 2020 Colorado Junior Freeride competition off of High Alpine lift at Snowmass on Sunday, March 8, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong><br \/>Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<br \/><a class=\"buy-link\" href=\"http:\/\/aspentimes.mycapture.com\/mycapture\/remoteimage.asp?backtext=Return+to+AspenTimes.com&amp;backurl=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/avsc-skiers-shine-at-big-mountain-competition-in-snowmass\/&amp;image=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/freeride-svs-031120-1-2-1024x682.jpg&amp;notes=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/freeride-svs-031120-1-2.jpg\"><i class=\"fas fa-shopping-cart\"><\/i> Buy Photo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/freeride-svs-031120-1-2-1024x682.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"AVSC\u2019s Kai Walterscheid competes in the 2020 Colorado Junior Freeride competition off of High Alpine lift at Snowmass on Sunday, March 8, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/avsc-skiers-shine-at-big-mountain-competition-in-snowmass\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/avsc-skiers-shine-at-big-mountain-competition-in-snowmass\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">What Johnny Rossman wanted to point out more than anything else is how much freeriding has blossomed in recent years. It certainly remains a niche scene in skiing, behind that of Alpine and more traditional freestyle competitions like halfpipe and slopestyle, but big mountain skiing is certainly on an uptick here in the Rockies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt\u2019s like the return of freeride. We have not really had a great presence in Aspen for quite some time,\u201d Rossman said. \u201cWith us having success on the national level, other clubs are intrigued and want to come and check out what we got going on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Rossman coaches the big mountain skiers through the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club and spent a handful of years competing on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.freerideworldtour.com\/\">Freeride World Tour<\/a>, the sport\u2019s pinnacle. He\u2019s seen the ebbs and flows and can\u2019t help but feel ecstatic for where the AVSC freeride program is today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">This past Sunday, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rockymountainfreerideseries.com\/\">Colorado Junior Freeride<\/a> tour made its return to the area. The regional competition had been held at Aspen Highlands more often than not in recent years, but moved over to Snowmass and the Cirque Headwall and its gnarly cliffs this year. Actually, it was held in Snowmass last year, as well, but that competition was canceled due to heavy snowfall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">This year\u2019s competition was about picture perfect and included some impressive performances by AVSC athletes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt\u2019s a huge deal,\u201d Rossman said. \u201cWe had a really awesome weekend. It was great for the whole valley. We had a big showing from some other ski clubs as well, which was really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Aspen\u2019s Max Bass stole the show, winning the male 15-18 category behind his casual 360 over a 70-foot cliff, according to Rossman. Bass is one of the top-ranked skiers in the Rocky Mountain region this season and is knocking on the door of bigger competitions in coming years. His goal is to reach the FWT.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Rossman said freeriding competitions have changed a lot since his days \u2014 which wasn\u2019t but a handful of years ago \u2014 but all-around skiers like Bass have a chance to shine in today\u2019s big mountain world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThat was more of a pretty serious environment. It was kind of a go big or go home type of thing,\u201d Rossman said of the FWT when he competed. \u201cThere has been a change in mentality of just jumping off the biggest cliffs to now skiing very technical terrain, big airs, landing and incorporating tricks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Aspen\u2019s Isaac Wilder Musselman finished second behind Bass in Sunday\u2019s competition. AVSC swept the top three spots in the female 15-18 category, led by Annika Nichols. Chloe Ferraro was second and Selby Hall was third.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In the 12-14 age division, AVSC rising star Sheldon Sims took the boys\u2019 crown, followed in second by Bodhi Yang and in third by Nate Thomas for another Aspen podium sweep. AVSC skier Hanna Lamm was second on the girls\u2019 side, with Maia Cullwick coming in third. Gabrielle Leonardo, who competes as an independent athlete, won the contest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Next up, the AVSC freeriders head to Snowbird in Utah this week and then they have a final regional in Breckenridge before going to Crystal Mountain Resort in Washington for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.freeskiers.org\/events\/events-map\/event\/846-2019-ifsa-north-american-junior-freeride-championships-kicking-horse.html\">IFSA North American Junior Freeride Championships<\/a> beginning April 7. The season finale is by invite only, but Rossman said the Aspen club is sitting quite nicely to have at least a handful get the nod to compete.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt\u2019s been on all categories and genders, which is really sweet,\u201d Rossman said of AVSC\u2019s big mountain success. \u201cRight now we have like 10 kids who are ranked near the top in North America. We\u2019ve never had that before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:acolbert@aspentimes.com\">acolbert@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/avsc-skiers-shine-at-big-mountain-competition-in-snowmass\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AVSC skier Bodhi Yang competes in the 2020 Colorado Junior Freeride competition off of High Alpine lift at Snowmass on Sunday, March 8, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times Buy Photo AVSC\u2019s Brody Fox competes in the 2020 Colorado Junior Freeride competition off of High Alpine lift at Snowmass on Sunday, March 8, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2455599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news","7":"category-photos"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-08 08:53:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2455599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}