Red Bull Ice Crashers–Thursday

Because I love crowds and the weather was so sunny and warm today, I went to see what all the commotion was with the Red Bull Ice Crashers in St. Paul. Red Bull is brilliant in their sponsorship of dangerous, outdoor events. Like this one. It was only the preliminaries – I think the finals are Saturday.

What an exciting event. Here’s a photo of one of their crew with crampons on stationed at the base of the steepest hill so he can pull skaters up the ice if they don’t make the hill.

Here’s a sequence of a skater starting up the steepest hill, turning the corner at the top, going down the other side over two big moguls and then pulling himself up and over the next hill because he lost so much speed slowing down for the moguls.

I saw one skater flying down that mogul hill, launch into the air and then fall face first onto the ice. He took a long time to get up. They got the stretcher out of the nearby ambulance to carry him away, but he eventually walked out on his own. Who doesn’t love to watch mayhem and possible death?

Here’s a short video of this part of the course.