It was just one of those days at 12,000ft.

Being in Breckenridge Colorado was only my second time skiing the steep open terrain of the West. We had to hike to the top of the venue twice that morning…. I was winded from the thin air. My entrance to the venue was breath taking, steep, and a little scary: the drop of the cornice was 6ft, then 10ft of super steep snow, then a 20-foot drop of exposed rock. As the stater began to say dropping in 3-2-1, a nice kid that I know came over to wish me luck. My brain froze.

At this point my mental headspace was not where it needed to be; I could not envision my line and I was distracted. When I launched, I felt mentally and physically off. The drop in felt good but as soon as I hit the snow, I realized the snow was super weird, it had gotten sun baked and compacted into super hard golf balls since my earlier inspection. It was not the run I wanted to put down and I was not satisfied…but I realize that is a part of Freeride. At the finish corral I tried to stay calm and take big, deep,
slow breaths and I leaned into a few of my core values. “Be in the moment” helped me realize what is done is done. “Be grateful” helped me remember how fortunate
I am to be on the mountain doing the sport I love. “Set goals and work hard” helped me to find solutions for my next competition. Next time I’m going to not second guess my line choice. At the start I’m going to get into a mindset that is super focused and if someone comes up and says hi, I’m just going to give them a fist bump so I can stay in my competition mindset.

I really enjoyed my experience at The Junior Freeride Championships and skiing at Breckenridge. it was awesome to ski some bigger mountains, meet new friends and travel with my dad.

Levi Friedman
Age 13
IFSA 2024 U15
Rank # 23