The Rundown - May 28, 2021

After resurrecting snowboarding's Monday Mix earlier this week, today we're happy to be bringing the Freestyle & Freeski Rundown back to life for the 2021 off-season, where we'll be scouring the far reaches of the internets looking for the best ski content to hit come down the pipeline in the last seven(ish) days, every week. Fun, funny, or far out, we're looking for the good stuff that we like to see, and we hope you enjoy it, too.

Before we get further into it today we've got a little housekeeping to take care of, as we wrapped up our annual Spring Meetings last week in the virtual realm. While most of the major decisions discussed will be further discussed at the end of this Olympic season, there was still plenty of new ideas and concepts put on the table as we look to the post-Beijing 2022 future, and you can find recaps for the Freeski, Moguls & Aerials, and Ski Cross subcommittee meetings by clicking those links.

Now without further ado, let's take a little look at what's been going down in the wide world of shred over the past little while, beginning with Hunter Hess, who took advantage of some perfect springtime conditions at the USA's spring camp in Mammoth Mountain last week to drop an absolute bomb on the freeski world with one of the first halfpipe 1800s ever stomped...

Sheeeeesh.

More fun from Mammoth now, where Aaron Durlaster, Birk Irving, and the rest of the US Freeski squad have been getting together every morning and creating their own slush-a-lanche to whisk them down to the top of the park in slightly chaotic fashion. From what we understand, in these conditions this is, in fact, slow moving, very shallow, and quite safe. DO NOT try this on a powder day, however. Please.

Speaking of chaotic team fun, the Australian aerials and moguls squads joined forces for an epic christening of the water ramps at the official opening of the Geoff Henke Olympic Training Centre in Brisbane earlier this month. While the $6.5m facility has hosted testing and training since September, it wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that it recieved its official name and "all systems GO" stamp of approval. Read more about the world-class facility HERE.

Sticking with aerials for a second...peep this animated full-full courtesy of Karenna Elliott and Yinki Ying...

Some great news out of Switzerland this week, where slopestyle World Champion Andri Ragettli announced that he is back on two feet and heading full-speed towards recovery from the knee injury he suffered in the Aspen 2021 big air competition...

Like we said, "full speed," as Andri went from throwing away his crutches to getting back on skis and getting wild with the content pretty quick, as he and his brother Gian exhibited a new kind of diesel-powered rope-tow a couple days ago. Nice ski-in, ski-out real estate he's got there, but it might get expensive having to replace your sticks after every session...

These Swiss guys just CANNOT stay off their skis, no matter how little snow might be left on the ground, as illustrated by ski cross stud Ryan Regez...

In case you missed it, we ran a couple polls last weekend looking to get your vote on your favourite non-podium slopestyle runs from the Aspen 2021 World Championships. Great Britain's James Woods and Tess Ledeux of France were the winners, and we have both of their fourth-place runs from Aspen live now for your veiwing enjoyment...

Taking a little artistic break for a second, we look to the USA's Tyler Wallasch, who kept himself busy collecting some pretty unreal photos when he wasn't busy having his best-ever season on the Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup in 2020/21...

Alright, enough art...who wants to see some sweaty, shirtless Swedes?

🙋‍♀️🙋🙋‍♂️

Peep the Swedish moguls team goin' hard in the gym as they look towards making some noise heading into next season's Olympics in Beijing...🥵

Morgan Schild of the US moguls team, meanwhile, was keeping it breezy in Snowbird. Slushy bumps on a "private" resort? Yes please...

Giulia Tanno and Faction have been working hard on what's looking like one of the most intriguing projects of this past season, and last week they launched the first episode of The Journey. An in-depth six-part look at what it takes to be one of the world's very best that traces the ups and downs of life as a pro, The Journey is a must-watch for ANY ski fan...

Looking for a little more insight into life at the top of the freeski world? Tanno's teammate Sarah Hoefflin sat down with our friends at the Rum & Stoke podcast for a conversation a few weeks ago, and she is always good for a few laughs and some thoughtful observations on what this ski game is all about. Find the Rum & Stoke pod for Apple or Android HERE.

Wanna see 60 seconds of Colby Stevenson killing it in Mammoth? Sweet! Here ya go...

And we'll finish things off for this week with a little inspo from Canada's Max Moffat, who's been, um, maxing out his time on and off the slopes in Alberta...

A pretty good week, indeed.

Enjoy your weekend and we'll see ya back here in the Rundown in a few days!