I just got a lot more respect for pipe skiers

I went up to mt. Bachelor yesterday with my buddy, and after going through the trees looking for some fresh powder we ended up on top of the halfpipe. It looked super smooth from the top. I've never really been into skiing pipe before, but how difficult could it be? I wasn't going to try some crazy tricks or anything, just simply go down it and doing 1s and 3s.

My buddy hadn't really been in a pipe before, so he suggested i dropped in first. I remembered how all the pros were doing it in the x-games, so i thought i'd try that. I skied towards the top of the left wall and jumped into the pipe about half way up. I kept my eyes on the right wall, but holy hell, it had grown like 10 feet since i left the top!

I was thinking that with the speed i had, i would at least get a couple feet of air out of it, but i was far from right. as i went up the right wall, i barely got my tips to the edge. It was soo much bigger then it looked from the lift, the top, or anywhere else outside it. I poped off the wall a little to get a 180 around, and kept doing that for the next few turns. I was scared as hell of going out over the walls. The feeling of jumping straight up was way more different from normal jumping then what i expected.

Towards the bottom i decided to sack up and try to "get some air". I came towards the wall with a little more speed, poped off the wall and went for a 3. I pulled it around, but the thought of landing vertically didn't hitme until my tails hit the top of the wall, and i landed on my back and slid down to the middle of the pipe. It didn't hurt or anything, i just had no clue on how do ski that damn thing.

I used to think pipe skiing looked really easy on tv, all the did was ski from one side to another. I never realized how tall a 22 ft wall is. I have no idea how tall the walls in the pipe i skied are, but i bet they're not 22 ft. But it still felt freaking huge when i was going up them. Props to all the pros who are able to get 20 feet of air out of those things, and that kid who threw a 1620 in one! I look up to you guys!