We’re Really Doing it, Harry!

Rolling down through Wyoming to X Games. Hit the jump for a schedule of the week's events...

Howdy everyone -

Just made it down to Aspen after a long haul through the dead backroads of Wyoming. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks trying to get all of my gear ready to go for this year’s Mono X at the 14th Winter X Games. For those who haven’t seen or heard about the Mono X – let me give you a quick rundown:

First, imagine an alpine racecourse with a collection of little gates that you turn around in order to make it to the bottom of the hill. Now take those little gates, and stick some massive jumps between them (sitting comfortably between 20 and 80 feet, depending on the launch). With me so far. Okay – so once you have your jumpy, yet gated course built – now you introduce the competitors. In most skier-cross competitions, it’s a bunch of bipeds racing down the course at the same time trying to be the first one through the finish line. With the Mono X, you have competitors still racing down the course at the same time – but these competitors are half-robot. When a biped blows up on the course, we worry for his safety. When a monoskier blows up on the course, we worry about shrapnel. Jumps, speed, traffic, and lots of machined aluminum – looks like it could be a fun week!