Photos: Tom Stillo
Warm and sunny spring season days coupled with late operating hours at Crested Butte Mountain Resort gave the Colorado FreeSkier Freeride Team a great chance to shoot some exclusive photos at Crested Butte’s Superpipe. The CFS team consisting of Alex Albers, Drew Van Gorder, Steve Florentine, Forrest Cole, Alex Else, Aaron Blunck, and myself, joined professional photographer Tom Stillo, armed with a boom cam at the halfpipe. And thus, the slaying began.
Albers was quick to jump in and show Stillo some amplitude...
Albers getting into thin air in Crested Butte
There's the HUGE cork 5 from AA
Albers messing around
That got the rest of the team pretty fired up, and with the remaining skiers at CBMR gathered around the Superpipe to check out what the CFS team had to offer, there was definitely some solid anticipation of what would happen next in Paradise.
Alex Else, not to ever be one-upped in the boosting department, dropped in and maxed out at 20+ feet all while still in his ski school uniform. Nice job perk Else.
Alex Else is high
10 year-old Aaron Blunck (yes, 10 years old!) has been impressing people all year and this kid was simply boosting today.
yep, he's 10. damn.
Aaron going bigger than most 5th graders...
Mini Blunck was struggling to gain speed, due to not
weighing much more than a soaked down jacket, but he was still catching huge
air for his size. This all while making
me feel old; really old.
Speaking of young kids making me feel like an old man - Forrest Cole has been a great addition to the team this year. Forrest spent most of this winter in the Crested Butte Backcountry but he stepped up to the shoot and threw some nice 5s and grabs during our one-hitter session. His bright green attire also ensured us that we weren’t going to lose Forrest in a snowstorm either.
Lil Forrest reppin' next year's Codas and pointing at the cam
Corking it out way above the lip
Bring on Florentine. We never know what we are going to see when Steve drops in, but all afternoon he was throwing huge cork 7s and flair true tails WAY above the lip. I know, so many kids these days say that the flair is played out, but I still think that it can be done right and look really good in a run - especially if you’re wearing your hunting jacket.
Steve Florentine's upside down
Boosting
Flat 7 Mute
Drew was a late edition to the team this winter, but he has shown that he belongs here, and has the arsenal to back it up. Truck-Driver-Everythings may be his forte, but Drew has a solid quiver of spins and grabs for every occasion.
Drew joins in on the tip-grab fun
Trying out a new spin to the mute grab
Jea!
As for me, I had a super fun day – threw some fun stuff and cheered on my boys all while repping CFS and Carmello.
getting tips like a waiter...
After the shoot the team packed up their CB show while Gabe put them (Albers, VanGorder, Else, and Jonny Scott) in the CFS wagon and headed to the Helly Hansen Shop Battle at Echo Mountain. The boys were barely edged out by the Boulder Helly Hansen store, and came in 2nd place. Nice work guys, not a bad first year at all! Hope you guys enjoyed the photos from Stillo and the update altogether. It’s a week or so away from summer, but that won’t let us stand in the way of us posting updates with tons of ski pics from all over the globe throughout the warm months… until next time!
~Ben Sac
The new Armadas look good, too.