Ashley Maxfield - FWT Stop 1 Revelstoke

Words and photos by Dan Curran

For the second year in a row I had the pleasure of traveling to Revelstoke Mountain Resort with Ashley Maxfield for the first stop of the Freeride World Tour. This year brought a lot of the same as it snowed for almost a week straight and created great skiing conditions at Revelstoke while we waited for a clearing in the weather.

We started the trip in Salt Lake City and headed towards Canada.  After a day of driving and a quick stop in Bozeman we decided to head to Kicking Horse Ski resort.  It hadn’t snowed in a few days but we still found some great turns all over the mountain.  After finding the best way to ski a resort we had never been to we were able to maximize the 2800 acres and the 4133 feet of vertical.  When the long day of skiing some great terrain was over we were off towards Revelstoke.  

As soon as we started to drive over Rogers pass it began to snow, so we knew the skiing was going to good again this year.  However we did not know that it would snow almost four feet in the next week.  While all the athletes waited for a clearing in the weather so they could ski of Mt. Mackenzie they had the unfortunate pleasure of skiing feet of fresh powder.  The skiing conditions at the resort were great all week with new snow most days and a fresh blanket every night.  It was a long an anxious week of good skiing for Ashley Maxfield and all the other athletes.  Ashley and all the other athletes had a lot of time to plan their line down the venue for the day of the competition.  Athletes tried to find the best way down the Mac Face to best showcase their talent.  After a long week of skiing, partying, and meetings the day finally came where the clouds parted just enough to be able to head up Mt. Mackenzie for the competition.  

The competition started with the men snowboarders and then the men skiers.  There were many great runs put down by the men and some spectacular crashes.  Up next on the venue were the women, and by the time they got to ski the sun had moved off the face and made conditions more difficult.   Also most of the big airs were all bombed out and most of the take offs were now rock filled from all the previous competitors.  But since the competitors are some of the best in the world they put on a great show for all who were watching.  

Ashley went skiers left off the top of the face and skied strong through the rock-riddled face.  She then headed left across the venue to get over to some of the events most popular cliffs and features lower on the mountain. Ashley skied through the trees and towards the cliffs but because of the now exposed rocks had to change her line.  She made a move to go just skiers left of the cliffs for a straight line through a chute.  Ashley made one turn above the chute and then on her second just as she was about to drop in caught a tree with her uphill ski and unfortunately fell.  She was a little sore but got up to ski strong and fast down to the bottom.  Ashley wasn’t the only woman to fall and after all the women were finished she had ended up in fifth place for the first stop of the FWT.