Rachel Croft Wins 4* FWQ Revelstoke Comp With A Broken Boot

Words by Rachel Croft:

"It was hard to feel nervous standing in the start gate on day one of the Revelstoke 4* FWQ event. I had clicked into my new Nomad 125's for my competition run, but their predecessor, the Gypsies, were waiting in my ski bag, freshly mounted with tech bindings, itching to take me on an adventure in the breathtaking British Columbia backcountry. If I didn't qualify for finals day, I had plans to go touring with friends. I was almost hoping I'd fall.

Photo by: Forrest Jillson

But the Nomads found a solid landing right out of the gate and railed turns through the chalky moguls as though they were a carving ski instead of the powder monsters that they are.

Photo by: Hywel Williams Photography

The results came in, I was sitting in 4th. The backcountry would have to wait. The morning of finals found me heading down the ridge of North Bowl for one last inspection of my line. As I turned to stop at the entrance to "Squirrel Murphy's," a hairball little chute that looks like a cheese grater to the face waiting to happen, my boot buckle popped open. I wrenched it back down and felt the metal lever split in two. Squirrel Murphy's was out, there's no room for the kind of error that could be caused by a loose boot. I needed a Plan B... or duct tape. Always carry duct tape. When I got back to the start, I fished my emergency roll out if my pack and laughed with the event staff as they held down buckle parts and I wrapped layers of tape around and around my boot.

Photo by: John Antoniuk Photography

Plan A was back in... One deep breath, two of the fastest turns of my life, three close encounters with rocks, and I found myself in North Bowl, Nomads still on my feet, rockered tips blasting through everything in front of me. The next few days were a blur of incredible backcountry skiing, and it was only as I prepared to say goodbye to Revelstoke that I realized my first place trophy had broken in the car, so I did the only thing that seemed fitting: repaired it with duct tape."