Covid has ravaged and changed the outdoor industry in ways we couldn’t have ever predicted this last year. From seasons ending early and limited pass sales to event cancellation/restrictions, this year has been one that will be remembered by all of us for decades to come. Luckily though during this year of cancellations and frustrations, I was lucky enough to experience a diamond in the rough, the ColdSmoke Freeride at Lost Trails ski resort.

When the stars align

It was late January when I got the call from RJ “the events director” at Lost Trails telling me that due to the recent release of the vaccine and strict social distancing guidelines, they would be able to host the ColdSmoke freeride and were wondering if we would want to sponsor it. Having had no events for the entire season I jumped at the opportunity, got as much gear together as possible, called up some filmers that could rally at short notice, and drove up the evening before the event started in the midst of a blizzard, car packed full of gear and fillers filled with Stoke.

“a skier throws a massive underflip to end his first run of the competition”

The following day we were up bright an early rearing and ready to go. It had snowed an extra 10 inches overnight and there was an excited buzz the entire car ride from Salmon “where we were staying” to Lost Trails. A sentiment that was reinforced when we got out of the car and saw a massive fenced off area with massive cliffs, perfectly sculpted kickers, and as we would come to soon find out from RJ, about 3 feet of fresh powder. You could feel the electrifying excitement surging through the contestants and crowd as the lift opened up that morning, and I knew as we got on the chairlift that this was going to be a day to remember. The preteen champagne powder we experienced on our way to get set up to film made it hard to resist just skiing the whole day, but with snow like that, we knew we were about to see some crazy s*!# go down.

This event blew our expectations out of the water. Over the next 2 days my crew and I witnessed some of the most insane skiing/snowboarding we had ever seen. People throwing 60ft double backflips was commonplace for the 13-15 year olds. There were guys hucking massive dub-cork10’s off of 40 ft drops. There was even an 11 year old girl dropping 25+foot cliffs. To say the competitors in this event were on another level is an understatement. I have truly never seen a brazier group of individuals in all my days and don’t know any other place you would find people like this. It was amazing. After everything we could possibly dream of and were heading back to Boise thoroughly exhausted from a seeking of being in the midst of such high intensity action, we decided to stop by a hot springs to wind down, a perfect ending to a perfect event honestly.

This was a fantastic event and if you ever find yourself near Salmon Idaho towards the end of February, this is a competition that would 1000% always be worth watching. I’m glad that even though we were only able to sponsor 1 major event this year, I’m glad it was this one, and if I had to choose one event to cover per year, I would hands down choose the ColdSmoke freeride.

Cheers, Garrett Klein