Kalmia Big Air Session

On Sunday I made the drive to Beech Mountain to shoot some footage of the Edge of the World slopestyle and border cross events. When I got there at noon the place was already slammed, but I quickly found a parking spot, suited up, and went to the information booth to pick up my comp lift ticket (writing about snowsports and shooting video coverage of events has been a great way to score some free rides). Unfortunately, the folks in the office informed me that the events had been cancelled because the President's Day Weekend crowd was much larger than anticipated and the slopestyle and border cross events would be too dangerous with the large crowds. They offered me a free pass for coming out, and I took them up on the offer. I headed up the mountain on the super-quick quad lift and took some deep powder (for NC) runs. The conditions were the best that I have ever experienced at a North Carolina ski resort. Deep snow and bright blue skies make for my favorite type of day and there was plenty of both to go around. After about ten runs and increasingly long lift lines, I decided to call it a day. I headed back to Boone and got a call from Will Washam, a local shredder who has penchant for building big backcountry jumps out at Kalmia. He gave me the heads up that he and his crew were heading over to hit a huge jump that they built the day before in Kalmia Meadows. As I was talking to him on the phone I heard the whoops and hollers that typically associate backcountry big air, and he said his friend Alec had just thrown his first backflip. I arrived and the guys were out there throwing down. Here's a short vid of some of the big air...