Aspen a photo essay

Michelle and I in the toasty warm Monster Energy Drink viewing suite. Catered, open bar and heated! So lovely.


The viewing suite overlooked the superpipe.


Early in the day, hardly any people.


Oops.


Escorted out.


Me standing at the base of Aspen mountain. Burr.


Michelle and I with the slope and style finish behind us.


View of our viewing suite from far away. Just below and to the left is the ESPN broadcast booth. The judges are above and to the left.


Smiling, happy camera man.






Gretchen is the local favorite. She fell 2 out of three times. Once really, really hard. She is super cute.




Pack them in!


Michelle and I getting ready to snowmobile! I'm terrified at this point.


Cold. Why didn't I bring a freaking scarf? I was cursing myself. It was fun to go snowmobiling. But I was nervous a lot of the time. It was hard to steer and the whole shear cliff drop off thing...


Michelle took a turn at driving along the flat mountain top.




Inside the warming booth drinking hot cocoa!


Up at the top!



Our breakfast, lunch and activity pals, Tom and Cheryl.


There was a group of Russians who also were snowmobiling. One of them was an Olympian who plays for the Detroit Red Wings. Pavel Datsyuk‏. Michelle and I are about as far away from sports as you can get so we didn't know who he was. He was just the handsome Russian in the Olympic snowsuit.

Sleds! Can you imagine?








The crowd watching the Next Big Trick on snowmobiles.


Levi LaVallee team preparing the top of the mound of snow for a soft landing. Completely futile in hindsight.


Levi after the DOUBLE BACK FLIP!!! video to follow at the end


The crowd assumed he hit it, but sadly he fell off on the landing. He over shot the landing by the entire mound of snow.

One of the most fun activities was handing out Monster Energy Drink swag while waiting in line for the shuttles. You would have thought we gave people $100. So freaking excited. Here some of our favs.





Michelle and I at the top of Aspen Mountain for the fancy Monster Energy Drink private party. It has been a long, long time since Michelle and I have been to a party like this. The last time was Hustler's 25th! We had a BLAST. Seriously so much fun.


We rode up and down the gondola to the top of Aspen Mountain a few times. It was gorgeous.








After every few runs on the superpipe a group of kid snowboarders or skiers take a run down the middle of the pipe. My new friend Chase, the next big snowboarder who is 14 and sponsored by Monster, told me that this clears away the slush created by the snowboard. We chatted for a long time and I learned a ton from him.

This boy is a local kid who lost his leg in an accident.




After each competitor this guy would follow filming from an on the ground angle in HD. They were able to get some amazing shots.


The crowd watching the pipe.


This is one of the guys who rides for Monster.


At the end of EVERY race the competitors take a few swigs off the signature monster drink container. Fantastic branding and marketing, so impressive.


Shaun White the winner of the superpipe.




Crappy video of Levi LaVallee doing a double back flip.