POWDER PROFILE: Kirkwood’s Craig Garbiel
Fresh off winning the 2005 IFSA World Tour Finals in Kirkwood and earning the highest scoring run of the tour, Craig Garbiel exudes all the right stuff.
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Every so often, a real hero worthy of admiration comes along in the world of skiing. After an IFSA Finals win, an eighth place finish in Verbier and a Sickbird Award from the U.S. Freesking Nationals at Snowbird, Craig Garbiel is just that guy.
I remember the night I met Craig. It was six years ago. He's not a big guy, so when he lept over the bar at the Battered Beaver Saloon in Kirkwood while I was bartending to KO a touron who was twice his size, I was a bit surprised. I was even more surprised when it took six to eight guys to haul him out the door. It was then I knew Craig Garbiel possessed superhuman strength and speed. He’s been pounding the slopes hard, recovering quickly from injuries and putting his inimitable talent on the snow to good use. Some say Garbiel would have cinched the overall title had he competed in Les Arcs. After his mind-blowing performance at Kirkwood on April 3, we took some time to talk with the 29-year-old phenom.
Where did you grow up?
Craig Garbiel: Vermont. I started skiing at Pico when I was eight years old.
Your job?
CG: I’m a stonemason in Tahoe.
Heard you’re getting married. When?
CG: July 23 to Adrienne.
Plan to have kids?
CG: Eventually, but not for a while.
What inspired you to go for it – to bust your ass working all summer and starving all winter to give your all for a shot at the title?
CG: The passion. And years of practice. Kirkwood has hosted the event for years and a buddy talked me into entering it. Some other buddies gave me the money to enter it. I just got hooked. The whole energy of competition and knowing everybody is watching you. It was re-experiencing that competitive edge I hadn’t felt in years and when I got into it I was totally hooked. My goal was to be in movies and the only way to get recognized is to compete.
So you raced?
CG: Yeah, I raced through high school, but I was never too into the gates and the training. I just wanted to ski bumps and freeski.
You know, if you get the overall title, there are an awful lot of people who would consider you the best skier in the world.
CG: It’s still unbelievable to me that I beat all those people. But I won’t get the title this year. I only did two of the three World Tour events. I missed the Les Arcs event. I couldn’t take the time off from work. So I don’t know where I stand. Except that I’ll be back next year.
You got 8th in the Verbier comp. What did you think of that venue compared to Kirkwood, your home hill? Any more challenging or technical?
CG: The neat thing about Kirkwood is that it has three technical areas with safety zones in between. It’s big and spread out. Mont Gele, where the Verbier event finals were held is real steep and the technical features are stacked on top of each other. Another big difference was the snowpack. Verbier only had a meter of snow on the deepest part of the venue. Kirkwood had a lot of snow and room to rip big turns in between features. Verbier was consistently steeper, but the steep parts of the Cirque are just as steep, for sure.
On your final run, you aired into the Meatgrinder at the top of the Cirque. Had you fallen, you certainly would have washed out the other end looking like hamburger. Does that kind of exposure faze you when you’re looking down at it, about to take the plunge?
CG: I don’t even think about it. I see what I can do, not what I can’t do. When I looked up into that area, I couldn’t believe nobody had taken it, especially when I was second to the last to go.
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