Words by Ross Imburgia, Photos by Erik Olson

The Newschoolers Tell a Friend Tour kicked off the new year with back to back stops in Killington and Bolton Valley. Andy Parry, Khai Krepela, Ian Compton, Ross Imburgia, and a plethora of regional Line riders joined up with a strong local crowd for a weekend of on-and-off-hill fun.

It’s no secret that the Northeast has been off to a slow start this season, but both hosting resorts made the most out of the little snow they had and set up some unique features. The first stop was Killington, and their upper-mountain Reason park was stocked with jib features. Though the weather was blustery at times, the stoke was high for the first stop.

Ian Compton takes a gnarly fall on the up-flat feature at Killington.

The day started off with a session on the flat box with some of the younger skiers. Andy threw out prizes for tricks he called out, or just stuff that impressed him. As the day progressed, the crew moved from feature to feature, with impromptu jams and first-to-trick games for prizes on some of the bigger jibs. Things concluded when Ian took a gnarly crash on the flat-up tube, which just happened to be captured on film at the exact moment by Yoke CEO and TAFT media guru Erik Olson.

The Killington Crew at the end of the on-hill sessions.

The next day’s stop at Bolton Valley was graced with better weather, though snow still came down hard at times. Bolton had less snow to work with (being at a lower elevation) but the staff still managed to get a fun park built, with several rails and a chairlift cable jib. After a short session on the cable, Andy scraped together a small kicker and a mini jump jam went off, with some backies, flat threes, and even a couple sevens, with prizes being thrown out the whole time.

Ross Imburgia on the chairlift cable jib.

One of the best parts of the tour are the apres-ski pizza parties, which function as a meet-and-greet, free raffle (where almost everyone wins something), and a great way to refuel with some pizza after a day of skiing. Andy and the other skiers raffle off gear from the tour’s sponsors, but also throw in some interesting memorabilia, such as pieces of the TC van or even Will Wesson’s toaster. Both stops left everyone with full stomaches, stoked on skiing, and looking forward to the tour next year.

The group poses for a photo at Bolton Valley, VT.

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