Feature: 60 Minutes Of Pain With Crystal Wright

October 24, 2011

— Brigid Mander

Fall is not the season to sit on the couch hungover, waiting for the snow. Fall is a time of preparation. It’s get-ready-for-go-time season, and there is only one place to be: Mountain Athlete in Jackson, Wyoming. Inside the warehouse turned gym, under the watchful eye of Freeskiing World Tour champion Crystal Wright, badass pros mingle with recreational athletes and everyone shares a common goal — to up their game.

Four days a week, with death metal cranking in the background, Wright strolls around her ski conditioning classes, observing and encouraging the athletes. Her meassage: “You think you are strong, but you are not strong. Not strong enough, and you need to train. Hard.” The death metal serves a dual purpose: to help motivate the struggling crew in front of her and to drown out the sounds of suffering.

Wright has won the FWT twice, made the podium plenty, and is just back from winning this season’s first FWT competition, the Red Bull Powder Disorder in Las Lenas, Argentina.  

To have gained such a large following among Jackson athletes after just a couple of seasons working as a personal trainer is no small feat. The core Jackson athletes are some of the toughest and cockiest around. But professional competitors, ski movie stars, and even those who make the ski movies are jumping when she says jump, faces contorted with effort.

“Her course is the real deal,” Teton Gravity Research’s supervising producer Greg Epstein said. “I'm worked after every [class]; it has definitely improved my overall core fitness levels.”

Anyone who gives Wright 60 minutes of their life receives an all-over body ache accompanied by a wake-up call. 

“So many people have the attitude that they don’t need to train, and they are strong enough, and then all these skiers come to class and try to keep up,” Wright said. “The big picture is injury prevention. For example, around 50 percent of ACL tears can be avoided by strength training — but it goes to a whole other level for us, in competing and skiing big lines. To be able to really land big airs strong, to ski out of lines looking strong, all day long, you have to train.”

It's something that Wright would like to see change across the board in the freeskiing world. 

“We’re doing this dangerous sport, and so few train for it," Wright said. "So many athletes out there could ski so much better.”

Wright, who raced for the University of Montana and has trained with the U.S. Ski Team, doesn’t cut herself any slack either. With a full big mountain competition season coming up, she does her own intense gym workouts four days a week, along with biking, hiking and climbing. It’s paid off for her throughout her ski career, so chances are she’s looking at another successful season — all while creating a few more skiers that can keep up with her on the snow.