The guys at the Scottish resort The Lecht where we recently had one of our best skiing days of the winter are holding a Skier/Boarder X on the 20/21st of March and it's totally free of charge to enter. All you have to pay for is your lift pass which is £25 per day and £16 per day for juniors.

After the massive success of the Skier/Boarder X cross at the Olympics it's great to see events like this starting up and The Lecht will be an amazing place to hold an event like this! Scotland has had it's best snow conditions in over 20 years, some locals said it was the best in their life time.

For all the info and to find out more about the Lecht visit the link below.

For more information: The Lecht - skier/boarder X

So after a crazy week in Italy Bormio for the SIGB ski test, I have now headed back to my old home of Coruchevel france. I lived in Courchevel for over 12 years so it's a super special place for me and probably my favorite ski area on the planet. I think the reason It's my favorite area is that I know it so well and can always find the spots with good snow and no one around even on a busy week. My focus this week is to test some new salomon products and get some good photos and video footage. I have got a pair of next years skis called the Sentinels. These are not a freestyle or even a twin tip ski but they rock on the big mountain and all terrain go anywhere do anything type of skiing! This is going to be an important ski to Salomon next year when they are released as more skiers are exploring the off piste and wanting to attempt more challenging terrain and this will be the ski to do it on. I've also got some new boots im testing. They are called the Quest 12s. This is also a new product to Salomon and I had a day on them in Italy last week and I loved them. They go perfectly with the Sentinel ski as they are also a boot for exploring and have similar features on them as a touring boot only they ski like a full on expert ski boot. There are a few different models of the Quest which will suit all standards of skiers but the 12s are my favorite as there pretty stiff flex which I like when im skiing fast steep lines as they give me that extra control.

Thanks for reading.

Pat Sharples

So due to high winds they had to cancel the European open slopestyle event but held a rail Jam with all the worlds best. Im not going to go in to it too much as you can read the link below and find out all the gossip but in the end Katie Summerhayes came 2nd overall in the girls and Woodsy 4th in the mens. This really does put them up there with the greats of Freeskiing and I really could not fell prouder than I do right now! I know how hard they have both worked to get where they are and they truly deserve all the success they are getting!

Well done Katie & Woodsy.

Thanks for reading.

For more information: European open review

On Wednesday this week I go the best phone call ever. It was from Woodsy and Katie who rang me to tell me that Woodsy had qualified in 6th place while Katie Qualified in 3rd in the European open. That whole day I was so nervous to find out how they had done but these results were just incredible. The finals is today (Friday) and I so wish I could be there and normally would be but this event has clashed with the SIGB ski test in Italy Bormio which my bosses from Salomon need us all there on hand.

There are all the biggest names in the world attending the open again this year including Simon Dumont, Tom Wallisch,Jossi Wells, Kaya Turski and the UKs very own Paddy Graham who got pre qualified. There are also a few Brits competing like Murray Buchan, James Machon, Pete Speight and Joe Hides who also qualified for the finals in the halfpipe yesterday. So excited for British skiing right now and can't wait to hear the final results later on.

We will have the news and results up here as soon as we find out.

Thanks for reading

Pat

As many of you may know, one of our youngest regular Groms and former grom of the month Tomski Robinson was selected to compete in the Quicksilver Radar competition in La plagne France. Even though he had a bad crash and knocked himself out, he still carried on and rode freeride terrain and the big parks and is still within a chance of winning the competition but he needs your votes. Please click on to the link below to vote and find out all the info about the Quicksilver radar competition.

For more information: Vote for tomski

I work up this morning at 4am as im a super bad sleeper and I ended up on my computer. The first thing I saw when I turned facebook on was news of one of my favorite skiers of all time had passed away. Mr CR Johnson. He was only 26 years old.

I felt suddenly sick and couldn't get my head around it. This was an even bigger shock to me as CR had a close death encounter a few years ago when another skier accidentally landed on his head off a jump and CR was in a coma for 10 days, but he made one of the greatest recovery's ever and was back skiing less than a year later. Even though CR was very young, he had achieved more in skiing than anyone else I know. He had dominated the park scene and won many X Games medals, was crowned the US Open big air champion and he was one of the best big mountain skiers on the planet. He was probably best known for his movie segments which were in a different league to most of his peers as he was one of the first to start mixing backcountry tricks in to big mountain skiing and even after he had is life threatening injury, he still came back and worked super hard to be back where he was before he was injured! CR also recently came 3rd in the Backcountry freestyle event the Red bull line catcher where he was up against the worlds best. I was so stoked for him when I heard that as it proved he had really got back to his full form that he had worked so hard to get back to.

Now im not going to go into how CR died yesterday as I think it explains it much better in the press release below.

I have been lucky to have met CR a few times while he has been filming in Europe and I can honestly say he was one of the nicest chilled out guys you could ever meet!

CR- thanks for everything you have done for the sport and you will never be forgotten.

Thanks for reading.

Pat Sharples. x

For more information: CR Johnson

I know a lot of people who visit this site and attend the grom camps regularly are familiar with all the major freeski websites but for those of you are just getting into the sport and want to be kept updated with all the latest freeski gossip, videos, events, comp results and much more you should should check out Europe's no1 Freeski website www.downdays.eu

Downdays packs a massive punch in the freeski community and is the place to find out everything you need to know about whats going on in the world of Freeskiing. They have recently been involved with choosing a rookie to compete for team Europe in the world famous JOSS (Jon Olsson Super sessions) event.

Thanks for reading and be sure to check it out!

For more information: www.downdays.eu

Here is a video of some of the first ever Salomon Grom camps at Rossendale ski center where it all kicked off! When we watched it we couldn't stop smiling and laughing. You will see a few familiar faces in the video who have now gone on to be world class.

We will be heading back to Rosendale very soon for our first Grom Pro camp of 2010.

Enjoy

For more information: OLDEN DAY GROM CAMPS

So this thursday (25th Feb) will be the last camp before the British Championships in Laax Switzerland. We are going to be building a special kicker that will be bigger than normal. there will be the normal exclusive freestyle set up still which will include lots of features for all standards. We hope to see you there.

Thanks for reading.

Pat

So only a couple of months until the first ever Oakley Grom Games slopestyle event at the Chill Factore. Here is a sneaky look at the poster that has been designed for it.

The website is still in the making but we are hoping it will be all up and running by the end of this week and today the invitations were sent out to some big name pros who will be attending to battle it out in the evening knockout comp. Were hoping everyone who attends the Grom Games on the 17th April will get something out of it as this event is for skiers and snowboarders of all ages and will have prizes for all the different ages sections and the judges will also be picking riders to compete in the evening invitational knockout through out the day!

There are some of the biggest prizes ever to be given away at a UK snowsports event including Panasonic plasma TV and much more.

Registration for this event will be going live tomorrow and we strongly recommend you book straight away to avoid disapointment as there are limited spaces.

For more information: Grom Games