Dylan Siggers – The Season is Ending

Last week BC ripper Dylan Siggers took some time away and sent over an update/re-cap his year of cliffs, pow, comps, tours and sledding. Enjoy the story from the man himself.

Well the ski season is drawing to a close for most of B.C. and one of my favorite times of the year is just beginning. Spring brings an exciting time filled with slushy jump laps, warm weather, goggle tans and a chance to reflect on another season passing.

As the leaves fell and the cast on my arm came off it became a daily excursion to take the van down to the arena and load the trailer with snow. This year we tried to do things differently rather than sticking to the casual back-yard rail. With access to a banshee bungee and some shoveling, the town became a playground.

Then once the snow began to fall, it gave no mercy. Within 72 hours over 40 centimeters of snow had fallen in town. Making driving impossible and skiing incredible!

Its always good when you can ski on the side of the road.

Then because of the early snowfall Fernie Alpine Resort was able to open the mountain prematurely to the eager public. Some of my favorite skiers came down from kimberly and I had the pleasure to ski with them.

The following weeks brought more and more snowfall allowing us to go nuts in the Knot Chutes during the christmas break.

Then as the first and last semester of my Grade Twelve year came to a close, I missed the very last day of high school in my life to attend the Canadian Open Jr.Freesking Championships in Rossland B.C. The venue was much burlier than I had anticipated but my new Influence 115s helped me ski the way I wanted to. After it was all said and done I had emerged in 4th place. It was an excellent weekend and I couldn’t have had a better group of people to spend it with.

Shortly after skiing in Rossland, my home mountain hosted the annual Fernie Jr.Freesking Competition. I was very excited for this weekend, being on my home mountain and somewhat of a veteran I was extremely comfortable skiing the venues. After 6 years of looking to the top of the podium I finally returned barely ahead of two of my good friends Jayden Starnino and Mitch Grahm. Its always a pleasure to be on the podium with friends.

However it was not all smiles. A fellow skier, Amanda Timm, had an unfortunate fall into a tree and was carried off the course via ski patrol with a severe back injury. But she is keeping her spirits high and is staying positive.

The final competition of the year was set at Castle Mountain Resort. They hosted their first Jr.Freesking competion this year and it was incredible. The weather was great, the venues were exciting and the usual crew of amazing skiers came for the contest. Enjoying the sunny skies I watched more of my good friends display some incredible skiing.

One of these people included Graham Trentholm. I watched Graham get lost in a cliff band, spot a very minimal landing 30 feet below him, and casually air to it with a grizzly STOMP. This move was a key ingredient to his first place finish. I was inched out of 1st place and into 3rd by a mere .1 points by Keegan Capel who demonstrated incredibly smooth skiing even when sending 20 foot airs.

Between contests Fernie was being plastered. With one storm cycle bringing over 100cms in a week my new friend Jimmy and I were having the most incredible days possible.

Now after saving my money throughout the winter it was finally time for the trip Jayden Starnino and I had been planning. We decided to take the week and travel through south eastern B.C with a loose time frame. We made stops in Golden, Revelstoke, Nelson and Rossland before making it back home. One of the key parts of the trip is that we planned to film everything. So with his contour HD and my GoPro and T2i we filmed almost every run.

Here is a compilation of the best footage put in chronological order

And here we are. With only two weekends left our ski hill will be closing with a base much greater than 4 meters. There will be plenty of ski touring for the months to come I’m sure. A huge thank you to LINE and SCOTT for treating me so well, it is an honor to represent both companies.

I hope you enjoyed reading this, have a great summer
Dylan Siggers

For more of Dylan’s perspective check his Skiers Union profile