18 Photos from Winter XGames That Will Make You Wish You Were There

I was invited by Skype to join their team of Moment Makers for their #SkypeXGames campaign. They flew me down to Aspen and put me up for four days during the XGames and all they asked was that I go share my experience on social media, along with their other Moment Makers, halfpipe ski legend Jen Hudak and former pro snowboarder Jesse Csincsak, using their #SkypeXGames hastag.

It was epic.

We spent the three days hanging out in the VIP lounge, meeting Jesse’s and Jen’s athlete friends, and going to the after concerts. You can read my story about the trip on the Skype blog here.

I also managed to get a media pass so I could get into all the best spots to take photos. Here are the 18 best that got during the event.

The snowmobile jumps were epic. I’d never seen the event before. Those guys are nuts.

The halfpipe was a thing of beauty. All of the athletes talked about how well it was built.

The halfpipe was Jen’s event when she was a skier (she has two XGames gold medals, and a whole bunch of others as well), so she was super stoked to watch her friends compete.

Jesse also used to compete in the halfpipe on his snowboard. That event was on the first night before I received my media pass, so I was only able to snap a few photos in the dark from our VIP suite overlooking the pipe.

I hiked up the hill to snap a few photos of the snowboard cross. I was able to get right up close. These guys were only about 10 feet in front of me.

Of course, being a snowboarder, the snowboard big air and slopestyle were my favorite competitions and I was excited to go out and shoot them.

It was also great to see Aspen for the first time. It was as gorgeous as I’d heard.

The Skype crew goofing off after taking a serious photo. On the left is Tom, who recruited us for the campaign. Awesome guy. Second from the left is me, then Jen, and Jesse on the right.

We spent a lot of time in the Skype suite watching the events. The view was perfect.

Overall, it was a fantastic experience. I hope we get the same team together next year to make some more ‘moments’.

Thank you Skype. As if all those free video calls you gave me weren’t enough 😉