It's spring now and you're probably missing powder. So are we. Here's a way to re-live the pow days from this past winter. Jackson Hole-based skier Tim Swartz, a Flylow and Fat-ypus Skis athlete, put out this edit of his season. Assuming you don't get dizzy from POV footage, it's well worth watching. It was originally posted over with our friends at EarlyUps.com.

Yep, you heard right. At the recent Freeskiing World Tour finale at Kirkwood, California, you may have noticed a certain Jake Sakson throwing down one of the best lines of the day ... and on telemark gear. Jake is a longtime Flylow athlete and he's stood on top of many telemark freeskiing podiums before, but this was his first top three finish with the big boys of the alpine comps. Jake also won the coveted Backcountry.com Sickbird Award for the most impressive line of the day. Said Jake afterward, "It feels so good to represent freeheel style. It took me four years to make it past the first day in an alpine competition. It's pretty incredible to find myself on the podium!"

Other Flylow athletes did us proud at the comp too, including Silas Chickering-Ayers, who took fifth in the men's field, and Rebecca Selig, who Powder Magazine recently called a "dark horse."

Two years after his older brother Lars won the Subaru Freeskiing World Tour stop at Snowbird, Utah, Silas Chickering-Ayers took the top spot in the men's finals at last weekend's big-mountain competition. Although Silas has been a top contender on the Tour since he bumped up from the junior league to the adult division last year, with a few podium finishes, this is his first win.

Silas and Lars, both Flylow-sponsored athletes, grew up skiing at Mad River Glen, Vermont. In his final run at Snowbird, he threw a big left-side 360 through the Fields of Glory. Lars was unable to compete due to injury.

"Despite the hard conditions I knew everyone would be skiing hard and that I had to send it and stay on my feet," said Silas Chickering-Ayers. "It couldn't have gone better."

Check out the full coverage of the event at Powder Magazine's website.

We have all been amazed by Drew Petersen's skiing and professionalism for a young freerider. He was recent awarded #12 amongst the top 20 skiers under 18 by Powder Magazine.

According to Drew:
"It is a great honor that Powder picked me for the article. There are hundreds of kids like me coming up that absolutely shred. I would like to thank Powder Magazine, Jason Anthony for his quote about me, and Tony Harrington for the two great pictures that he took of me."

To read more about this check out Drew's Blog here.

The world of bindings has changed a lot since the Marker Duke hit the ski scene a few years back. The result of which is that some of us have had to switch to softer skis to compensate for the stiff spot under our foot due to the Maker construction. On the other side are the Dynafit-type bindings, which have their own flaws (although I have never tried one due to price inhibitors). There are plenty of skiers that make either system work, but guys like Flylow's own Lars Chickering-Ayers have trouble with both of the systems and would rather lock into a race binding before dropping in but need to climb efficiently to be safe and fast in the backcountry. So, what does a crafty guy like Lars do? He built his own binding system. Enter the Send System, a binding plate system that he has made to climb and ski with efficiency and without ruining the flex of your stiff skis or pre-releasing. ESPN.com recently covered Lars' new binding -- see that story here.

Look for Lars' new binding system to take over in the next few years.

Paul Kimbrough’s 2011-2012 Winter Wish List

I plan on skiing over 120 days across western North America this winter/spring so I need versatile gear that will last.  Here is my list.

Flylow
M Baker Bibs Orange: solid bibs keep the snow/rain out while the large side/knee vents cool me off on the skin track.

L Quantum Black: super waterproof and breathable the Quantum is on the list to keep me warm and cozy in harsh mountain conditions everywhere from Baker to Revelstoke to Alaska.  Huge pit zips allow me to wear this shell on the skin track when it’s windy, snowy, or even sunny (a huge plus for quick turnovers and staying dry all day long).

M Swindler Black: I want this super light, packable mid-layer to back up my Quantum on cold lift rides or for lunchtime on a long tour.

L Ridge Glove: warm and durable these are hands down the best deal on the market!!!

L Oven Mitt: for snow camping and the few days a year when my Ridge Gloves are not warm enough.

Moment Josh Bibby Pro 190cm: My favorite do-everything ski.  Mustache rocker makes this ski perform as well on hardpack as it does in bottomless pow.  If you can only afford a one-ski quiver this is the ski.

22-Designs AXL tele binding: not only is the AXL the most solid free hinging tele binding on the market, but also they are the most adjustable, so dial them in to suit your style.

Scarpa T-Race: I love this powerful 4-buckle tele boot for everything from side country at Mt. Baker to touring 10K in the Wasatch.  The new liners fit great right out of the box and the Powerbloc options allows me to fix the walk-mode into permanent ski mode for even more solid performance.

climbingskinsdirect.com Twin-tip skins: these simple skins will work on almost any ski and come with a block of skin wax.  They are hand made in Wilson, WY and the price can’t be beat.

Event Director Rodrigo Vera diagrams the route...

FlyLow Athlete Claire Smallwood recently won for the women atAVALANCHA EN EL VOLCAN in Pucón, Chile, a race down an active volcano.

The general idea of the competition came from years of Pucón locals hiking and skiing the 9,341 foot volcano Villarrica. It's often on the tick list of ski travelers from all over the world. It offers at least a 5000 foot descent from any of its aspects. Vera hopes that in the future the contest will offer categories of timed ascent/descent, as well as to include other "tour stops" with contests on Chile's other iconic volcanoes in the area: LLaima, Lonquimay, Osorno, and perhaps the crown jewel (not for the faint at heart), Lanín on the border between Argentina and Chile.

My whole role in the whole thing was quite rad, actually! I was asked by Vera to be the marketing director for the event. I learned a ton about CHILE in the process and my Spanish got a lot better. Here I am doing the athlete check-in the morning of the event.

The mass ascension up the volcano

The event was designed so that everyone would have a chance to see the course before racing down at mach 10. Some people boot-packed, others chose to skin. The idea was to take tons of time to let the snow warm up a bit and make sure no one was super fatigued for the race down.

The view into the crater...

The top of the volcano was sunny and stinky! The sulphuric fumes made everyone cough and my eyes even burned a little the next day. A bandana was pretty useful, but nonetheless, an incredible experience to be that close to MAGMA!

Above is me doing a  last-minute scrape on my skis to ensure the smooth ride down. I knew the snow at the finish line was going to be super sticky!

The first rider about to drop in...

And coming into a screaming stop at the finish!

Have you read your FlyLow tag lately? It says to drink cold beer. Check! 

Thanks to Newen Beer there was tons of cold ones waiting for the riders at the finish line. Federico Nekis won for the snowboaders, Chopo Diaz won for the male skiers, and I won for the ladies!

Super huge thanks to all the sponsors who made this event possible:
PATAGONIA - GRASSAU - ENJOY - HOSTEL ETNICO - Rossignol - Newen - Redbull - BCA - Aguaventura - Philippe Botueille (Director de Seguridad) Whiteworld Adventures - Mun. Pucón - Conaf - SheJumps.org

Flylow athlete Rebecca Selig just dropped this edit featuring new interview material and ski footage from last season. Selig is no stranger to the podium at Subaru Freeskiing World Tour stops and she'll be competing on the full tour again this season. She recently had stories written up about her in the Vail Daily and ESPN.com. Keep on on eye on this one -- you'll likely see her atop some more podiums this winter.

Ryan Hawks. Photo by Frank Shine

Ryan Hawks was one of us: a skier, a powder-lover, an all-around great guy. When he passed away on March 1, 2011, from injuries sustained during the Freeskiing World Tour at Kirkwood, California, his loss was felt throughout the ski community.

The Flyin’ Ryan Hawks Foundation was recently established to remember Ryan and to enrich the lives of young athletes like him. Money raised through the non-profit memorial fund will go to support individuals who demonstrate Ryan’s leadership and sense of adventure, and will support their journey in wilderness education, mountain exploration, or contributions to the freeskiing community.

For this coming winter, there will be seven Flyin’ Ryan Ambassador coaches—Lars Chickering-Ayers, Dylan Crossman, Angel Collinson, Louis Erickson, Ben Blakely, Rob Greener, and Chuck Mumford—and those athletes will help conduct 16 clinics (Flyin’ Ryan Days) at ski resorts around the country. The clinics will take place alongside the Subaru Freeskiing World Tour’s junior stops and at Ryan’s home mountain, Mad River Glen, Vermont.

The Flyin’ Ryan Hawks Foundation was formed by Ryan’s dad, Peter Hawks. “The purpose of the foundation is to honor Ryan’s humanity and to extend his principles for living (self proclaimed) in order that others might be inspired to elevate the quality of their lives by adopting Ryan’s ideas,” said Peter Hawks. “I think our Ambassador program has the potential to attract a significant number of participants who will, collectively, provide us with the ongoing capacity to place our scholarship dollars where they are most needed.”

Here at Flylow, we’d like to pay tribute to Ryan and all he did for us and the skiing community at large. Ryan helped us design our new Quantum jacket, a three-layer hardshell that, like Ryan, is as tough as it comes. So, starting now, we’re going to donate $2 from every Quantum jacket sold on Flylowgear.com to the Flyin’ Ryan Hawks Foundation.

“This is a small gesture but it has a large meaning,” says Flylow president Dan Abrams. “Ryan Hawks was a big part of Flylow and we want to do what we can to support his legacy.”

Flylow athlete Lars Chickering-Ayers has won yet another stop on the Subaru Freeskiing World Tour, this time it was at the Chilean Freeskiing Championships, held last weekend at Ski Arpa, Chile's only cat-skiing outfitter. Lars' winning run lasted six turns and 45 seconds and included a massive, 40-foot air and a 360 off the manmade jump at the end. “I like turning where the mountain makes you turn and when you’re on big mountain terrain, that’s how I ski,” Lars said afterward. Tahoe skiers Josh Daiek and Kevin O'Meara rounded out the men's podium.

In the women's field, Chile's own Sole Diaz took the top spot but Flylow had two athletes in the top 10: Ashley Maxfield took fifth and Rebecca Selig took sixth.

The venue was the same for both days of the two-day contest. "Conditions on the final face were too shallow and boney to provide a venue suitable for this level of competition," said head judge Jim Jack. "Safety being paramount, we opted to move back to Cornices. The athletes came together with the event organizers to put on one of the most exciting and spirited events we have ever seen. Relaxed and stoked, the skiers threw down dynamic runs. Today was a great celebration in the mountains and represented the full essence of our sport.”