Burton Winter Jam comes to Champlain
With $10,000 in cash prizes on the line, 足彩胜负14场¡¯s skiing and snowboarding community turned up on February 7 to throw down their best tricks at the highly anticipated Burton Winter Rail Jam, hosted at Champlain College. A true celebration of community and collaboration, the event brought Champlain¡¯s Ski & Ride Club together with big names in the snow business including Burton, Anon, Sugarbush, Jay Peak, Splinterz, and more.
Off the Rails
Hundreds of spectators and competitors rallied for Burton Winter Jam. Champlain¡¯s Ski & Ride Club hosts an annual rail jam on campus, but the size, scope, and success of this year¡¯s event tops anything like it before.
Burton also historically hosts a community rail jam. When Colby Sears ’13, a global events planner, reached out to club president Leo Chrapla ’27 on behalf of Burton to see if Champlain would be interested in hosting the event on campus, the second-year business student got right to work alongside College staff to mobilize and secure snow, rails, promotion, a DJ, emcee, and more.
What’s a rail jam?
A rail jam is a dynamic freestyle skiing and snowboarding competition where athletes perform tricks on rails, boxes, and tubes. Often held in terrain park¡ªor in this case a transformed Finney Quad¡ªrail jams challenge competitors to showcase their skills and style during a set amount of time, taking multiple runs to impress judges.
Not to mention, it’s a pretty awesome way to get the community together.
Top prize: $1,500
With a shot at $1,500 for first place, $700 for second place, and $300 for third place, skiers and snowboarders gave it their all on the snowy hill in Finney Quad. And while 130 competitors as young as 14-years-old threw down, only 12 participants took home cash prizes totalling $10,000 from Burton, broken down into four categories: men¡¯s skiing, men¡¯s snowboarding, women¡¯s skiing, and women¡¯s snowboarding.
And yes, those are indeed giant checks signed by Burton CEO Donna Carpenter (with a heart!). Spoiler alert: Those enormous checks aren¡¯t actually acceptable at the bank. Winners get their real money afterward. But the checks are still pretty cool.
Why Champlain? For me, it¡¯s my roots. It¡¯s where I fell in love with snowboarding, fell in love with the community up here, so when we were talking with Burton about finding placement for this event, my first instinct was to go to Champlain. And it was the right choice, just looking around today.
At his first rail jam ever, President Alex Hernandez was all smiles and all kinds of impressed with students like Leo Chrapla who put in the work to pull off the event. Decked out in his favorite hoodie (conveniently, Burton branded), President Hernandez spoke with media and attendees, praising the power of partnership.
“It¡¯s incredible. First and foremost, it¡¯s a celebration of our community here in Vermont, it¡¯s a celebration of Champlain College. We have high school students from across the state, we¡¯ve got professional skiers. That¡¯s awesome,¡± he said.
“And secondly, Burton¡¯s an incredible employer and leader. We¡¯ve got at least 50 Champlainers who work at Burton right now, so to be able to do this together is just part of what¡¯s been an amazing partnership all along.”
Rail Jam Judging Criteria
Execution
Judges assess how well the trick is performed, including the smoothness of the landing and overall control.
Difficulty
The technical complexity of the tricks is evaluated, with more challenging maneuvers receiving higher scores.
Variety
A diverse range of tricks is encouraged, including spins in both directions and different types of slides.
Style
The aesthetic appeal of the trick, including how it looks while being performed, plays a significant role in scoring.
The judging format varies rail jam to rail jam, but usually includes? an ¡°overall impression¡± approach, where judges score based on the quality, creativity, and quantity of tricks attempted by competitors.
Photos by Shem Roose, Kaylee Sullivan, and Thomas Rockett ¡¯27.
Video by Aiden Campbell ¡¯26.
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