How strong are the human bones!

Growing up in Rossland B.C, home to Red Mountain, Colston got his start skiing the deep white stuff and sending big rocks. His urge to ski pow and drop cliffs never waivered. He has been able to steer clear of the bright tall tees and gang signs that suck so many into the park game. With his consistent hard work and an almost concerning never ending smile, Colston is now starting to make some noise in the big mountain scene, competing all over the coast and filming with the Voleurz family.

I took some time to talk to both of these young men and asked them the same set of questions to get an inside look at both sides of the ski world. This is what they wanted you to know.

Big mtn / park / pipe – what takes over?

CVB: I can see park skiing getting a little played out. Don’t get me wrong, right now I love the park stuff, I’m a fan, but now that pipe is in the Olympics and slope is being pushed to be an Olympic event I can see it getting too regulated. More judging doesn’t make it better.

In my mind, big mountain deserves more main stream respect. It brings out more in a skier; it takes a more creative skier to pick a sick line. To me the mountains are limitless and skis were created to access the mountains so that’s where they should be used.

MJ: I’m a little biased on this one due to the fact that being originally from the East coast, park is what I grew up shredding and continue to ride the most. The fact that you can always learn something new and push your limits never seems to get old to me, so in my mind park riding takes over… for now. But after spending a week in Retallack this winter and seeing what the bigger stuff is all about, I’d say big mountain takes over in terms of straight up gnarliness. I’d never really stood on top of a line and been like, “No idea where I’m going, ok let’s just survive… dropping!” until then and it gave me some serious respect for the mountains- definitely want to do more big mountain stuff. Then of course there’s pipe, which is going to take our sport to the next level. I have so much respect for the guys who slay pipe, some of the stuff they’re doing now is insane! With it now being a part of the Olympics, pipe skiing is going to take the sport right to the mainstream with guys like Dorey, Riddle, and Margetts leading the charge… and who better to do that than some awesome Canadian dudes, right?

What has to change with contests? Big mountain / Half-Pipe / Slopestyle…
CVB: Big Mountain contests are getting there, now there is a “style” category so doing tricks is now a big part of your score which I like. Still though, it seems to be who’s the gnarliest, not always who’s skiing the best. It is getting so hard to place well in them without totally risking your life because the level of gnar is so high. I would hate to be a judge for big mountain contests.

One thing that could be changed in my opinion is the on hill inspection. There is no reason why inspection can’t be done visually. We had a number of instances this year where it would snow over a foot but then due to heavy athlete inspection of the venues in the morning it would be hard pack by the time anyone got a chance to ski.

MJ: Honestly, I’d have to say that contest trends in both big mountain and slope are really cool and I like the direction things are going. In terms of big mountain, more events like Red Bull’s Linecatcher and Cold Rush would be good. Those contests are so cool to watch and must be a blast to be a part of… much more interesting that your typical big mountain events where the win goes to whoever is most extreme. In slope, the courses are getting much more creative with unique jibs and jumps that require more than your standard slope tricks, which makes it fun to watch everyone do things you’re not used to seeing rather and 38 doubles and a 270 disaster.

Maybe one thing that could change is the weighting of points on jumps vs. rails. Sometimes I find in slope contests that riders do the bare minimum on the rails in order to not ruin their run before the jumps, because they know that the jump line is where the high scores are earned. That may just be me, but it would be good to see people take more risks on the rail sections and actually be rewarded for it.

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