Two Up-and-Coming Skiers Throw Down at Kicking Horse In Must-Watch Game of SLVSH
What do you get when you combine flat light, not-so-great snow, two rippers, and one of North America’s gnarliest ski resorts? A big mountain SLVSH game worth watching.
Last winter, Ry Mann and Townsend Reed faced off at Kicking Horse in British Columbia, a steep skiing hotspot outside Golden that, at times, feels more like the backcountry than a ski resort.
The guys showed out, but not without taking some heavy slams. SLVSH games, traditionally, are held in the terrain park. Heading further up the mountain offers a fresh slew of cliffs and chutes that remix the original formula. It also makes for more opportunities to get tossed.
Check out the game below or watch it by following this link.
This video reaffirms what’s so interesting about the SLVSH format.
For the most part, high-end skiing is delivered in a finished, polished state. Ski movies have crash reels, sure, but 90% of movies are dedicated to the moments when things go right. Competitors also crash in the X Games or World Cup, but they’re largely executing well-rehearsed runs and tricks they’ve tried hundreds of times before.
Mann and Reed, on the other hand, probably know many of the features they hit in this game. They haven’t, though, hit them on that exact day with that exact trick and those exact conditions. There’s a big question mark looming over the entire video, adding an element of surprise and anticipation you can’t get anywhere else.
The numerous slams—I hope Mann and Reed weren’t too sore afterward—highlight how hard all this is. Behind those spit-shined reels is someone going out when the snow isn’t bottomless and, well, hucking themself because if they wait around for the conditions to line up, they’ll have too few opportunities to get better. Scenes just like this unfold at ski resorts around the world each winter. It’s fun getting an inside line on that progression, uncertainty, and excitement. Oftentimes, it happens when the cameras are off. Not here, though.
That’s all to say, fingers crossed we get a few more all mountain SLVSH games this fall. They’re a real treat.
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