Big Air, Big Fun

They fly through the air with the greatest of ease

One of the biggest winter spectacles in Crested Butte is planned for this weekend. Big Air on Elk takes place Saturday. The set-up, which will close Elk Avenue starting Friday, will utilize trucks hauling tons of snow onto the town’s main street to be used to construct a big jump at Third and Elk. A portion of Elk will be closed Thursday morning as well while barricades are placed along the course.

The actual Big Air on Elk competition takes place Saturday, March 7, from 7 to 10-ish p.m., grooming Elk Ave. into a free party with a giant 55-foot gap jump constructed in the middle of downtown. High flyin’ snow athletes will be launched into the air by speedster snowmobiles screaming down the snow-packed street. On the sidelines will be thousands of cheering spectators, lively music and, of course, beer, as Big Air on Elk kicks off its eighth year. TwoPlank Productions hosts the event that will be broadcast through various media outlets this year.
If standing in a cheering crowd is not your thing, executive producer and event director Corey Tibljas, also of TwoPlank Productions, locked a 60-minute TV deal for the Big Air on Elk event, airing on the premium subscription Comcast Entertainment TV channel and Comcast Sports on-demand with Xfinity. There’s also a scheduled live webcast beginning at 7 p.m. as the action starts, as well as studio takes, athlete profiles, highs and lows, spills, and a look behind the scenes, with streaming featured on theskichannel.com, which will also be available in its entirety on the Action Sports Network as a replay, and the Ski Channel On-Demand.
The live streaming webcast will be broadcasting in all the bars and most of the restaurants as well, so you can catch the excitement of the moment cozied up on your favorite barstool. Kochevar’s is the official hosting pub and watch-party, but the watch-party also spills into the Secret Stash and Talk of the Town.
New this year is a staging area where the athletes will hang out between their runs at the finish line by Teocalli Tamale, and TwoPlank is adding jumbotron screens located at the staging area as well so spectators can see the entire event from the very thick of the crowd. This year, special VIP seating is available with premiere viewing in a heated tent with an open beer garden.
The competition is limited to between ten and 15 participants, but TwoPlank’s Tibljas says many of the athletes have been holding off on registration, waiting to see how much snow Crested Butte gets for the event. He notes that if there wasn’t enough snow, an accurate jump couldn’t be built with the appropriate trajectory to enable the correct amount of landing. However, the recent substantial dumpage this week now ensures a great event with enough white stuff, which will be pulled from snowbanks and storage areas throughout town.
Tibljas also points out that the crop of athletes is excellent, with many local competitors as well as those hailing from Summit County and Boulder and a lot of first-timers to the event who have proven themselves on various stages across the industry.
The limited number of competitors this year means less waiting for spectators between runs before the action continues. A number of increased safety measures were added as well to ensure the safety of the public, which Tibljas says is the main goal. Even more robust snow walls will line Elk Avenue with snowmobile-stopping barricades built in and an additional six feet of buffer space will be provided between athletes and spectators.
Immediately following the final jump around 9:30 p.m., the new and rising sensational electronic duo from Denver, Bass Physics, will perform a free show at the beer garden at Third Street and Elk Avenue. The beer garden is open to all ages this year but it’s 21-plus to drink the sponsoring beers from Bud, Bud Lite and 90 Shilling. There will also be winter-themed drinks featured by Fuegon Liqueur, a red licorice liqueur.
After the street party in the beer garden with Bass Physics, the festivities continue at Bonez, the hosts of the official after-party featuring Denver DJ Late Night Radio.
A portion of the proceeds from the beer garden, merchandise and raffle promotion will go to Crested Butte Fire and EMS Volunteer Fallen Firefighter Fund, which gives financial aid to the community emergency volunteers in times of financial hardship due to injury to themselves or dependents, or their immediate families.
The town of Crested Butte has been supportive and entirely behind the Big Air event facilitating in every way imaginable, Tibljas says, and adds that it’s one of the most viewed events in the county, and town bent over backwards to help the event take off and continue.
Originally started by Alan Bernholtz and Jayson Simons Jones in 2003 as a benefit for the Avalanche Center, the event went dormant for four years until Colorado Freeskier owner Gabe Martin stepped in to ramp it up over the past few years, with Corey Tibljas taking over the event this year. Tibljas has been involved in critical Big Air roles since its inception, running many of the significant elements, but now as TwoPlank and its new division TwoPlank EVENTS, Tibljas is running the entire event from A to Z and it’s bound to be phenomenal this year.
So, get yourself down to the live action on the streets, lean out of bar windows and dangle your legs over the rooftops to the roar of snowmobiles and the crowd, because this is a unique opportunity for people who don’t ski to get extremely close to this sport where snow athletes fly through the air—you really can’t get this close anywhere else. It’s an event that keeps Crested Butte unique.