I am very proud of the progress everyone has made and am excited to see what lies ahead for these guys. We all had such a good time andlearned new tricks, skiing sick parks on any given day of the trip. We hit up Woodard almost every day after skiing, which still seems like a dream/funhouse to me. If only these type places existed when I was 14! Finn never seems to get tired of the trampolines. But for good reason. He is nasty.

Gideon stuck his first 10 in the Pipe, and his 9's are looking better and better. New rail tricks too.

Finn landed Sw Cork 5, Rodeo 5, cork 7, and Flatspin's.

Nikita is stomping 3's and starting to spin off boxes.

I ate more sushi on this trip then I ever have in my life. Man those triceratops are good. Firecrackers too. Great company while sitting on those highchairs too. Yea fellas.

Summit County is so awesome, with so many great areas and good friends all within close range of each other. Can't wait to go back...

For now we shred Carinthia. Today itjust Nikita and myself, ripping around and saying hello to old friends. Tomorrow we head back for more...

Plenty of good skiing in the past few days. Gideon will be missed for these last few days out here in CO. Skiing today just wasn't the same.

Sunshine for tomorrow. It'll be another great day at Breck. Man, this is awesome.

Nikita killed it today landing his first ever 3's and getting 270's off of the flatbox. And so it begins....

Finn, today was just not your day my man. Tomorrow will be better.

Thanks to D Tait and D Shred for photo cred. Yessir!

Gideon landing as I look on.

Keystone!

Temps dipped to -16 this morning, making the short walk from our place over to Jack's pretty nippy. I'm pretty sure my eyes started to freeze. Stung a little.

After breakfast at Jacks we rallied over to Keystone to see what all the rumors about more jibs and bigger jumps was all about. We took the familiar trip from

Copper, thru Frisco, and hung a left on a very cool windy road taking us way above Dillon Reservoir, meeting up with rte 6 on the other side near Summit Cove. I would not want to take that way on during a storm.

A-51, Keystone's famous terrain park is pretty impressive, and they are just getting started. Compared to Breck's park, especially at this point in the season, they have so much more to hit on each lap. Plus the double servicing the park never really got too busy. The line was purely park enthusiasts, with either two boards on the feet, or just one.

Highlights for the day included Nikita working on getting sideways on rails and boxes. He's getting it and will be sliding the flat bars and triple barrels in no time.

Gideon floated some nice switch 5's and will soon be getting sw 7's. He did several 450's out, even off the elusive down flat rail. Finn nailed the shot of the day with a blind swap to 270 out of a downbar! Yes!

An awesome day despite the cold temps. Back for more tomorrow!

We spent the last two days training some Halfpipe here at Copper. The pipe was as good as it gets with 22ft walls and decent weather. Hats off to the park crew as they have done an amazing job maintaining a perfect cut.

Nikita had been making steady progress working on pumping the transition and keeping his line going from wall to wall.

Finn has been working on airing out and has been going bigger and bigger, mixing up grabs. He has been ending his runs with 5's and is really stepping up his Pipe skiing.

Gideon has been boosting out of this monster pipe with clean airs with solid grabs. His 5's are getting more and more stylish. We have been working on his set for his 9's, which he usually throws last hit. Yesterday he stuck his first 10, impressive by anyone's standards. Yea Gideon!

Going to check out Keystone tomorrow!

Another sick day @ Breck! No one seemed to be upset with the weather forecasters inaccuracies - it was sunny and we didn't see a snowflake fall all day.

Unfortunately, Nikita tweaked his knee a little on the trampolines at Woodward yesterday so he took today to rest up. Let's hope he's feeling better for tomorrow's day of Halfpipe training here at Copper.

Today we were blessed with the presence of the one and only Ben Smith, who joined up with us to shred. The name may sound common, but his skiing is not. A Rossignol / Tomahawk / Electric athlete, he recen

tly moved out to summit county to pursue his passion for skiing. What a great addition to our small crew today. Ben and I go back years to when I was coaching

him at Mount Snow Academy. Even as a little guy, Ben was already ripping, and, as you can imagine, has improved tremendously since. He will try to qualify for Dew Tour @

Breck in just over a week. Wish him luck!

Finn did lots more flatspins today, working on popping more off the takeoff, versus slinging the trick. He did some clean 3's and 5's with mute grabs, and even stuck his first upright 7 ever. After lunch Finn did more cork 7's and is cleaning them up and making them look better and b

etter.

Gideon was laying down pretty runs on the 3 jump line, linking tricks with style. He did switch left 5's to rightside 9's to switch 1's. On the rails Gideon did some nice 450's out of the downbar, also off the down flat down bar.

The dudes are ripping!

After another awesome day on the hill we went to Woodward and the guys bounced and worked on their tricks. We followed that up with a dinner trip to Frisco and had an awesome dinner at a little Himalayan restaurant.

Training some Halfpipe here @ Copper tomorrow!

SMS Freeskiing Fall Camp in Colorado

After a great Ramp Camp at Lake Placid in August followed by 3 months of rigorous dry-land training, we now found ourselves shredding out here in Colorado! Returning athletes Gideon LeGros, Finn Kennedy, along with new comer Nikita Shchemelev will be making up this years tight crew!

The trip out went well - smooth, on-time, direct flight followed by a very cool drive from Denver to Copper, with lots of cool scenery along the way. We arrived, checked in, and went straight to Woodward at Copper.

We were lucky enough to be able to go to Breckenridge yesterday, with great weather - sunny and relatively warm temps in the 30's.

Breck's set up is really mellow, with a fun little 3 jump line followed by some cool boxes and rails.

All 3 of the guys had fun on these features, practicing their spins and working on their grabs. Gideon came out firing with some 9's and some K-Feds on the rails. Nikita was mixing up his grabs on working towards getting a 270 off the down-flat box at the bottom of the park. Finn laid down some nice stuff on the down flat down box, landing a really sweet 2 on, to switch up, to pretzel 2 out! Sorry for the lingo but believe me when I say that this is huge progression on Finn's part.

Today we skied Breck again with the stoke factor being very high. Nikita looked more comfortable on the boxes and jumps, even doing a few switch 1's off the first jump in the 3 line. The 270 off is proving elusive for him, but I have a feeling he'll stick one tomorrow.

Gideon had a great day as well, doing more 9's, and some switch 5's. Probably his sickest trick of the day was greasing the flat/down/flat rail with a perfect K-Fed.

Finn starting working on his flatspins that he had been practicing all summer at Windells and Ramp Camp. He stuck a few and I'm pysched for him. Another sick day of training and we'll head back to Breck tomorrow!