Words and Photos by: Jamie Walter

Like all good things in life, there is a time where they must unfortunately come to an end. For all in attendance at the West Coast Session at Windells Camp and Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood this past week, Thursday and Friday marked the conclusion of a successful 7th year of the event.

Lyman Currier

Thursday started off with a quick briefing at breakfast to let the crew know what was in store for the day. Unlike the previous two days, there would be no shooting on the big jump that had been custom built for the event; instead, there was an open invite for everyone to attend the inaugural Tommy Ellingson Invitational. Ellingson, a Mt. Hood native and local hero, had built two massive features side-by-side out in the canyon above the parking lot.

Pressing the rails in Paintbrush

John Kutcher switch backflip

As people rolled up to the mountain after breakfast, most elected to do some casual park laps so the filmers involved in the Camtrol/Ion Session Showdown could log additional footage for their videos. Around 1pm, the park started to lose traffic as riders migrated across the mountain in search of the mysterious location of the event.

Just a few of the many people that helped prepare the jumps

Tim McChesney and Dale Talkington smooth out the hip

What greeted the 40+ people that showed up was stunning: a massive and tall tombstone hip jump stood up above the canyon windlip and an equally impressive 60 foot long step up sat next to it. “We’ve been out here for 8 days building this…” Ellingson tells some of the stunned crowd, “…we hit it the other evening, two at a time. Someone sends the hip and the other flies over them on the jump.”

Ben Moxham tweaks a safety flatspin

Jamie Crane-Mauzy sends a monster backflip over the step up

Eheath slips the jump

After 15+ people rebuilt, salted, and shaped the two features up to picture perfect standards (Under the oversight of Ethan Stone, park builder extraordinaire), the first of the skiers dropped in from the other side of the valley and launched the hip. It wasn’t long before things got crazy; Alex Bealieu-Marchand landed a double cork 7 and double cork 9 on the hip, Reid Lewis attempted two triple flips on the step up, and host Tommy Ellingson wowed everyone with his stylish cork 9’s.

Reed Lewis aka BMOS, mid triple backflip attempt...

...close, but no cigar

The man himself, Tommy Ellingson, showing how it's done

The killer afternoon session on the TEI jumps wrapped up around 6pm, and the group migrated back to camp to watch the photographers present some of their top photos they captured over the week, and hand out a few awards to the athletes. The results of the photo contest, which landed the winners $200 for each category, looked like this:

Photo Contest presented by Buff:

Lifestyle - Charlie Bolte

Creative - Charlie Bolte

Comedy - Rocky Maloney

Best Jump Photo: Ethan Stone

Best Rail Photo: Ethan Stone

Best #WCS7 Instagram: Tim Sargent photo of Pat Goodnough

Charlie Bolte shows off one of his two checks that he earned

Rider awards (The sweet wood engraved awards were hand made by the birthday boy, Jeff Curry. Thanks Jeff!)

Best Trick - Alex Beaulieu-Marchand - Dub Cork 7 on the TEI hip

Repeat Offender - Ben Moxham

All Day Syndrome - Alex Beaulieu-Marchand

King Meat - Jamie Crane-Mauzy

Rookie of the WCS - Niklas Eriksson

MVP - Steve Stepp

Niklas Eriksson shows off his prize

MVP Steve Stepp

The following day, Friday, was the rescheduled public day for the West Coast Session after Sunday's high winds caused the mountain to close. Some of the athletes had to take off, but a few stuck around with their filmers to gather any remaining footage they thought they needed for their videos. Free hotdogs were consumed and gear was raffled off at the bottom of the park to a large crowd. Overall, it was a great way to end a great week!

Author's note: after a considerable amount of peer pressure for me to hit the big jump from a certain thread, I did not bring my camera to the hill Friday, and instead practiced my jump game in hopes of hitting it. (Un)luckily for me, the jump never was opened and I am able to type this with my ankles still intact. This photo represents the fun that we had on Friday.

And that's a wrap for the 2013 West Coast Session #7! A huge thank you goes out to Ethan Stone, Brandon Pastucka, Windells Academy, Timberline Resort, Camtrol/Ion, Buff, and the rest of the sponsors for putting on such a fantastic event. Be sure to check back here on Newschoolers for a final recap of the whole week and the videos from the 6 Session Showdown film crews!