treat yo mamas with a lil love and respect, hands down, so lucky to have the most amazing mother and family ♥ (and although i cant spend it with you, at least this time i'm not halfway across the world!)

MAY 6 = officially done with college classes...4EVA!

ESCAPE: ASHLEY BATTERSBY

Ashley Battersby was born to ski. She grew up in Chicago, and she’s the second of four children who all enjoy the same passion. At 18-months-old, she was first to put on skis and continued to evolve with the sport of Freeskiing. Ashley was fortunate enough to leave the Windy City and surrounding Midwest ski resorts and move to Park City, Utah in 2002. During this time she was able to ski at least 50 or more days in the winter and later attended the Winter Sports School where the number of days on snow only increased. She had received her first sponsor at a Big Air at the Canyons Resort and from then on she started making a name for herself as a young female freerider. Ashley now resides in Park City Utah, living out of her suitcase nine months out of the year when she’s skiing. After winning the 2008 US Open slopestyle, Ashley Battersby was qualified for Winter X 2009 but could not attend after tearing her left ACL a month before the event, so she was pretty amped up to finally attend her first Winter X in 2010:

“I got the chance to go to Europe for the second time this year and it was by far the best trip of 2009-2010 season! We first headed to Laax, Switzerland for a week where I had placed 1st in the European Open. From there four girls and myself traveled to Tignes, France for the European X –Games. That was a drive I will never forget, all of us from different countries (America, France, New Zealand and Canada) stuffed with four bags the size of an average human, driving in a car with no working windshield wipers in the middle of winter, windows won’t roll down, eating nothing but Swiss chocolate and gas station ham and bread sammys in a five person car. It was supposed to take us only seven hours from point A to B but we had hit up closed roads and got stuck in Italy for a few hours. We had been through three different countries in a total of 14 hours (never rely on a outdated GPS)!
The morning we competed was epic, 9:30 am and completely slayed! After hitting the longest course in my entire six years of free riding (two rails six jumps), I ended up taking home the bronze from Euro X. I have never been so stoked in my life…I accomplished my dream. I have always wanted to be in X games and to be able to travel over seas to do it with some of the most inspiring men and women skiers, I couldn’t ask for anything more!
My brothers have always been my motivation for skiing, they pushed me out of wanting to be a racer to switch to free ride. They are also the most dedicated guys I have ever seen in the ski industry, they slay! We all grew up on a 200 foot vertical hill in Wisconsin and then our parents moved us to Utah so we could try and achieve our goals. Four years ago I tore my left ACL and last year I did the same thing to my right. Those injuries are very common in skiing, as well as being the most annoying thing that could happen. I had unfortunate luck, as I did it to mine in 2008 a month before the very first year they had ever put women slopestyle in X-Games. I was heartbroken that it had happened right before, although it lit a fire under my belt to get stronger for next season, to learn new tricks and achieve my goal! I have to give thanks to all my sponsors, Volkl, Tecnica, Marker, First Drop, Scott USA, Bendis, Kicker, McDavid, Bern for your continued support as well as my amazing brothers, parents and God.

“Third place went to the lil’ steezeball herself, Ashley Battersby. Ash-B was absolutely killing it all day, and like many of the girls today, was skiing better than ever. 5’s both ways, switch 7’s and a silky smooth 270 on 270 off the rail up top, proving that she is absolutely the most stylish girl in skiing, hands down.” -Jeff Schmuck

–-Via Jessica Bush