I have always noticed that the snowboarders come further out of the pipe than the skiers. Just the same, let's do some quick math. The top of the pipe is 22' off the bottom. Those are 6' guys standing on the rim. The skier looks to be another 15 feet above them. That means he is about 40 feet above the base of the pipe.
A flyby. It looks so static, but they are in the middle of some number of twists and flips. Looks like they just stopped by for a visit.
Another view of how high they get. At least this guy is looking down.
But sometimes bad things happen, like landing on the rim instead of dropping down the steep wall. That means you stop suddenly and with a lot of force. Fortunately he was ok.
Patriotic.
The next day was the boarders. Kind of like the skiers not going as high as the boarders, the women don't go as high as the men.
Until 15 year old Chloe Kim comes along. She is the women's version of Shawn White. When she does her run, she seems to be doing a different sport than everyone else. Just amazing! And 15!
She had already won the event before she did her last run. Sometimes they will just do some little tricks to show off for the crowd on their "victory lap". Instead she did the first back-to-back 1080s ever done by a woman in competition, earning her the 2nd 100 score ever given.
For the boarding event, I was fortunate to get a Photo pass, which meant I was right on the lip of the pipe. It is a bit unsettling to be looking through a viewfinder as they come flying by. This is a wide lens, zoomed all the way out. Tough to make out the detail on anything but a full rez version of the photo, but I can see myself in her goggle reflection.
Just HUGE tricks and flying forever.
I love how the colorful boards pop against the sky.
One of the more stylish freeze frames. I don't know how to capture the energy and motion without video. I tried a few longer shutter speeds, but those looked like crap.
Quite the crowd for the event. People were packed in all down the pipe and then tons at the bottom.
Now for the odd shots I tend to end with. This guy looked like he was examining my camera as he flew by,
I normally would just toss this one. It is hard to make out the boarder with all the background noise. I liked it though, because with the flat perspective of the longer lens, he looks a bit like a giant about to squash all the little people.
And the cute prize goes to....
This little herd of munchkins. Not sure how they got to the top of the halfpipe. It is quite the steep hike. Lord knows they were having a blast getting down though! Some were sliding, others rolling. If any walked it was only for a few steps before they decided the alternatives were much better.
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