The Midwest Skier Open (also known as MSO) was an annual event that ran from 2002 until 2004. It took place at Spirit Mountain in Duluth, Minnesota. It quickly became the largest skiing event in the Midwest. We would have over 100 athletes in competition across the various events. Every edition had both a two day slope style event (open qualifier on Saturday, with the final on Sunday morning), and big air event under the lights on Saturday Night. In 2004 we introduced the downtown rail jam sponsored by Red Bull which took place in Bayfront Park. The hope was to host it in the park the first year, and the following year move it onto one of the hilly streets in downtown Duluth (which never came to pass). There were also nightly after parties with live music at Pizza Lucé in Duluth.
Longer term dreams never came to fruition to expand the event into a full on alternative culture festival in Duluth. Sport competitions, live music, film festivals, gallery exhibitions, and more. But life ended up taking me in a different direction.
Mental Break and Lost Time
It was the 2002 event. Friday Night registration was wrapping up, and the group of us running the event were talking about where to grab dinner when something snapped. All I remember was walking out of the chalet at Spirit Mountain and into the first car I saw. Next thing I knew I was waking up in a hotel room downtown somewhere. It turns out it was my dad’s car, and I blacked out after that. I woke up in the middle of the night very confused, with a ton of missed calls. My friends were great and met me at Spirit Mountain the next day.
In hindsight, I am a bit perplexed that my parents needed so much convincing I had some major mental health issues. I would go on to attempt suicide for the second time three months later on my 18th birthday.
Almost an X-Games Qualifier Event
After the 2003 event we had entered into early conversations with ESPN to make the event a qualifying event for the X- Games. Which ended up falling through when my contact at ABC called me during the school day, and one of my high school teachers heard my phone vibrate in my pocket. He made me give him the phone which he answered, and scolded the person on the other end assuming it was another student. In hindsight I should have just rejected the call before handing the phone to the teacher. But I was young.
2003 Edition in Review
This is a bit of a weird video. After release of Espionage in the fall of 2002 we decided to not do a film covering the 2002/2003 season. Instead we focused our efforts on the event. This film was created for a limited audiance – past and potential sponsors. It was included as a DVD (a first for us) in the sponsorship packet we sent. In addition to this cut, there a segment in the 2002 film Espionage highlighting the previous years event.
Website for the 2004 Event
Website for the 2003 Event
Unfortunatly the Way Back Machine doesn’t have any of the graphics from the 2003 website. It has long been lost somewhere so I don’t have and of it either.
Website for the 2002 Event
