By Jay Brooks
Explore Big Sky Contributor
COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. – Red Bull Slope Soakers is not the traditional pond skim you see at most resorts across North America. Held April 18 at Copper Mountain, Colo., this unique event fused a pond skim with a rail jam, and required competitors to be on their “A” game if they wanted to land on the podium.
The Montana State University Freeride club, with 15 members in its inaugural year, showed up to Copper and put forth a strong effort. Ian Nagel Brice made it to the finals round – out of 157 participants – but didn’t have quite enough to make it onto the podium.
“It’s the wettest I’ve been in months,” Brice said after the event.
Andrew Eggert dislocated both shoulders after a gnarly crash, but is now recovering back in Bozeman.
The 2015 Red Bull Slope Soakers set up was a wet-and-wild ride, with a two-tiered pond – competitors had to either slide over rails to get past the first pool, or make a “field goal” off the 20-foot jump.
As they landed on a steep transition, skiers would gain speed coming into the second huge pool, where they either had to launch off the jump, or try their luck on a giant diving board.
The weekend event was the first for MSU’s burgeoning ski club, though the group was formed during an unofficial trip to Lake Tahoe last year for the Red Bull Snow Wars slopestyle competition.
