Park City Snowboarding Grand Prix

Shaun White before the competition.

For the first time since I moved to Park City one of the Snowboarding Grand Prix was held here. Not only did they have a Grand Prix at Park City Mountain Resort in January, but it was the last one before they named the Olympic team. That meant all the big names would be here, including Shaun White, Kelly Clark, Louie Vito, Gretchen Bleiler and Hannah Teter. Two days of halfpipe competition under the lights on January 22nd and 23rd!

The past couple of years I have been fortunate to work with some of our rookies. So it was especially exciting for me to see these rookies competing at the Grand Prix. I will admit that I do not know much about snowboarding, but I see a bright future for our team with these up and coming athletes.

My cousin Lindsey and her son Reilly had driven down from Montana to go to the event with me. The first night there was a crowd but we found a good spot that gave us a view of the whole pipe. Each athlete was more amazing than the one before. And of course Shaun White had qualified first for the men so he came down the pipe last. As high as most of the athletes can get, Shaun can get higher. It is hard to believe unless you see it. The snow was falling but that didn't stop the athletes or the fans from having a great time. After the competition Reilly and his friend were able to go down and get Shaun White to sign their jackets. What a special treat for the boys.

Saturday night it was still snowing but we were ready to go out and see more snowboarding. This time we had my sister and her roommates, my friends Courtney and TJ came with some of their friends and of course me, Lindsey and Reilly. The crowd was much bigger on Saturday night. We ended up on the hill above by the big screen. This gave us a completely different perspective than we'd had the night before. This view meant we could see them coming into the pipe and all the tricks, but missed seeing them when they were on the floor of the pipe. The guys were amazed to realize that the measurement above the pipe went to 20 feet and Shaun White went higher than that. I was really excited to see Kelly Clark, Hannah Teter and Gretchen Bleiler compete since they are all Olympic medalists. I cannot imagine doing what these athletes do. (Actually, it would be amazing if I could just reach the point where I spent more time upright on a snowboard than on my butt.) Over the course of two nights we saw some amazing athletes complete some awesome tricks. There were some falls and slips, but mostly it was unbelievable air. In the end they named Kelly Clark, Gretchen Bleiler, Hannah Teter, Elena Hight, Shaun White, Scotty Lago, Greg Bretz and Louie Vito to the 2010 Olympic team.