X games pics......for you viewing pleasure

[lloyd braun]

Complete mayhem around town with all of the "kids" visiting for the X Games. I made it out one day for Snocross practice/final and the Snowboard halfpipe qualifier. The sleds are bad ass and only 440cc.

Finish line:

Launching:

Another from the same jump as above:

A pic of the halfpipe scene:

all and all a great event for Aspen but too many punks!

 

[Marc]

Did you ask that hot chick in the last pic out for a drink?

 

[koreshot]

Did you ask that hot chick in the last pic out for a drink?

Dude, that "hot chick" is Simon Dumont...

 

[RIDEr]

I can't imagine how bad that traffic is. There is absolutely no way that Aspen alone can handle 70K+. The event is great and it is getting a lot more people on the mountain, but probably the future of these events will consist of grandstands and VIP Suites.... oh yea, they already have some of that.

 

[lloyd braun]

traffic isn't bad. You can not drive to the venue, no parking, so everyone uses the public free transportation. It works. I had to wait maybe 5 min for a bus back to town.

 

[koreshot]

I am not really into the flippy spinny stuff, but I would like to see some of these guys come 20 feet out of the superpipe. The level of skill and competition is getting pretty insane, these guys really are pushing it.

I haven't watched any of the coverage, but a buddy, diehard snowboarder, was telling me how amazed he was by how much bigger the skiers were going compared to the boarders. To think that 5 years ago people used to laugh at kids on twin tip skis.

 

[ski_resort_observer]

Figured there would be abit of a culture clash in Aspen during the event. Are all the rich folks hold up in their mansions till the masses leave or are they hanging tough and still making the scene albiet with a few extra bodyguards. :wink:

That half pipe looks so massive. Watched the other night, exciting stuff. Did the event just outgrow Mt Snow? Still surprised that a resort like Aspen is hosting the event despite the big money. Were there people in the community who were against hosting the event?

 

[drjeff]

That 106' back flip on the snowmobile last night was absolutely ridiculous!

 

[drjeff]

Figured there would be abit of a culture clash in Aspen during the event. Are all the rich folks hold up in their mansions till the masses leave or are they hanging tough and still making the scene albiet with a few extra bodyguards. :wink:

That half pipe looks so massive. Watched the other night, exciting stuff. Did the event just outgrow Mt Snow? Still surprised that a resort like Aspen is hosting the event despite the big money. Were there people in the community who were against hosting the event?

Mt Snow would love to have it back, its more of the question as to where ESPN wants to have it

 

[koreshot]

That half pipe looks so massive. Watched the other night, exciting stuff. Did the event just outgrow Mt Snow? Still surprised that a resort like Aspen is hosting the event despite the big money. Were there people in the community who were against hosting the event?

The event has got to bring a lot of income and advertising to the mountain. I think the days where park and pipe kids were treated like inner city skate boarders are over. Park and pipe and everything that goes along with it is a huge part of the ski business... rich people's kids don't ski down green slopes while wearing designer one piece suits like they did in the 80s and 90s, they hang out in the park.

X games skiers like Tanner Hall and Simon Dumont probably make way more money than accomplished, pioneering skiers like Shane McConkey or Seth Morrison do.

 

[Hawkshot99]

Mt Snow would love to have it back, its more of the question as to where ESPN wants to have it

At first it would rotate around the country going to different mountains(or citiies for the summer games), but Aspen payed ESPN to keep the games there for 10 years, and LA did the same to have the summer games for a while.

 

[lloyd braun]

Did the event just outgrow Mt Snow? Still surprised that a resort like Aspen is hosting the event despite the big money. Were there people in the community who were against hosting the event?

Aspen Ski Company provides an entire mountain for the event. They have invested a huge amount of money to make a state of the art venue. ASC has the premier half pipe in the world. Transportation is provided by the city.....It is a no brainer and we will continue to have the games......

 

[ski_resort_observer]

I only asked since this letter to the editor by a new resident indicated there might be a backlash from some members of the Aspen community.
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070126/LETTER/101260041

Unfortunately the link has archived out. The gist of the letter is that the writer advised of personal incidents where Aspen residents are not happy with Aspen hosting the X-games and were treated poorly simply cause they were snowboarders.