Local Rail Jam opens door to the X Games

Get your jib on

Calling all fledgling snowboarders and skiers looking for a shot at big-time exposure. Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) and the Crested Butte Mountain Sports team are hosting an open Rail Jam on Saturday, January 8 at the resort.
The Rail Jam is a one-hour open session, during which competitors can get as many runs as possible linking four features together.
The features will be a combination of boxes and rails upon which snowboarders and skiers can spin, slide, huck and grab as much as they want to prove themselves.
Each feature will be assigned a judge and each judge will decide who lays down the best runs on the specific feature and then combine with the other three judges to decide the overall winner for best male and female snowboarder and best male and female skier.
“It’s very open ended,” says Mountain Sports assistant director Christian Robertson. “We’re looking for the top male and top female both snowboarding and skiing.”
The event is open to all ages with no age class categories. It’s every man, woman, boy and girl for themselves.
The only requirement is that competitors be current USASA members. Sign-up for the USASA is available online at usasa.org.
The four winners of the Rail Jam will then automatically qualify for the USASA Rail Jam at the X Games in Aspen.
The USASA Rail Jam is not an official X Games event. Rather, it will be held in the vendor village at the X Games the night before the final day of the X Games in Aspen later this month, offering a chance to compete before the X Games crowd, participants and the snow sports industry big-wigs.
“There could be as many as 10,000 people around them watching while they compete,” says Robertson. “It’s a pretty cool opportunity for a kid to have a lot of eyes on them.”
Entry fee to the CBMR Rail Jam is $20 and registration will be held Saturday, January 8 in the Capital Room in the Elevation Hotel from 9 a.m. to noon.
Practice will be from noon to 1 p.m. and the Rail Jam will be from 1 to 2 p.m.
Robertson and the resort are still looking at which venue would work best for the Rail Jam and will announce it at registration the day of the event.