I just returned from a couple of days at Kirkwood ski area, near South Lake Tahoe. I was there covering the Freeride World Tour for ESPN.com (that’s me, above, speaking with women’s winner Jackie Paaso). I first wrote about the Freeride World Tour as a feature for Skiing Magazine, around 2008 when the European tour first launched. Since then, the tour has evolved and merged with the Freeskiing World Tour. It’s still an incredible display of raw talent in the mountains. If you have time, please check out my story about Peter Hawks, the father of Ryan Hawks, who was killed at the FWT at Kirkwood in 2011. Peter is doing incredible things with the foundation he set up in his son’s honor, the Flyin’ Ryan Foundation.