Armada Skis Maude Raymond Summer Edit 2011
Maude Raymond
Profile and significance
Maude Raymond—widely known as “MAAD Maude”—is a Canadian freeski standout from Montréal whose style-first approach helped define a generation of women’s park and street skiing. She grew up immersed in sport, competing in diving at a high level before moving to Whistler Blackcomb, where freeskiing became her focus. In 2013 she was named Female Skier of the Year by a leading North American ski magazine, recognition that reflected both her contest chops and the cultural pull of her edits. Beyond results, Raymond’s significance comes from the way she translated creativity into accessible media—her MAAD Maude web series and later projects showcased clean technique, expressive grabs, and rail precision that resonated with everyday park riders as much as with peers.
Raymond’s public profile also grew through brand collaborations and community initiatives that broadened the path for women in freeski. She partnered with O’Neill on a pro-model outerwear capsule, joined the athlete roster at SPY+, and became a long-time face of Armada. Her MAAD week coaching sessions in Whistler brought athletes and campers together in a supportive, progression-minded environment, reinforcing her role as both athlete and mentor.
Competitive arc and key venues
At the height of the slopestyle boom, Raymond earned a finals appearance at the Winter X Games in Aspen in 2011, finishing inside the top ten. She qualified strongly at Dew Tour stops and stacked appearances across North American contests, then balanced that pathway with rider-driven events and film travel. The breadth of her calendar—qualifier heat pressure one week, back-to-back park laps filmed the next—mirrors the era’s best freeskiers who refused to be defined by a single lane.
Her most formative venues map cleanly onto her skiing. Whistler’s glacier parks and winter builds gave her space to refine big-feature timing. The handrail-rich neighborhoods around the Laurentians and Sommet Saint-Sauveur sharpened approach speed and rail discipline. Seasons spent around Mammoth Mountain layered in wind management and XL spacing, while women’s shoots like Nine Queens and brand trips with Armada opened creative lines outside the start gate. In recent years, powder and travel pieces—Japan among them—have shown her range in natural terrain, including the Armada short “Ikigai.”
How they ski: what to watch for
Raymond’s skiing is built on patience, symmetry, and clear definitions of each movement. Into a takeoff she stays tall and neutral, sets rotation late, and locks grabs early—often with unmistakable tweaks that carry through the spin without scrambling her body position. Landings read centered and quiet; she absorbs impact with soft ankles and keeps the upper body still so the ski bases re-engage immediately.
On rails, her signatures are clean entries, long-held presses, and exits that look inevitable rather than reactive. Watch the shoulders: they remain square to the feature, which makes change-ups and switch exits look effortless and keeps the line flowing. Even in powder segments, the same economy shows up—measured speed, round turn shapes, and drops taken with commitment rather than over-correction in the air.
Resilience, filming, and influence
Raymond’s career includes serious injury hurdles, with multiple knee reconstructions and other setbacks that would have sidelined most athletes. Instead, she returned repeatedly, using filming to rebuild rhythm and confidence. The MAAD Maude web series crystallized her influence: short, replayable edits that brought high-level technique into a shareable format. Her Whistler MAAD week amplified that impact by giving developing riders real-time feedback and a community to push with. Interviews and long-form conversations have since illuminated the mental side of those comebacks—mindset, patience, and the discipline to rebuild fundamentals—which is why her story resonates far beyond podiums.
That balance of clips, camps, and candor helped normalize a wider definition of success for women in freeskiing. You could be a finals-level competitor, a film-first stylist, a mentor, or all three—Raymond showed how those roles reinforce one another.
Geography that built the toolkit
Montréal and the nearby Laurentians gave Raymond a technical base: short laps, dense rail gardens, and night skiing at Sommet Saint-Sauveur that reward precision over brute force. The move to Whistler Blackcomb added big-park speed control, long decks, and the patience required for XL features, while spring and summer glacier time layered in repetition without winter’s variables. Stints in California around Mammoth Mountain exposed her to consistent, high-end park builds and a deep film culture. Trips to Japan introduced blower snow and natural features that demanded a different kind of timing. Each place left a clear fingerprint on her style.
Equipment and partners: practical takeaways
Raymond’s long partnership with Armada reflects a preference for playful yet stable park/all-mountain platforms—skis that accept detuned contact points for rails but still hold shape on bigger kickers and in soft snow. Her outerwear work with O’Neill emphasized fit and function you can move in, and her eyewear with SPY+ speaks to the value of clear vision and flat-light contrast in park laps. For progressing skiers, her setup lessons are straightforward: pick a ski with a balanced flex you can press without folding, mount at a point that centers you for switch landings, and detune just enough to stay confident on rails. Off snow, she’s a proponent of structured strength and balance work—habits that make her patient takeoffs and quiet landings possible.
Why fans and progressing skiers care
Fans care about Maude Raymond because she made high-level freeskiing look both beautiful and learnable. She proved that finals appearances and film segments can live side by side, that mentorship accelerates the whole scene, and that clean mechanics age better than trend chasing. For riders building their park toolkit, her edits are a study guide; for the broader community, her resilience and creative output set a durable standard. Whether the backdrop is a Laurentian handrail, a Whistler jump line, or a storm day in Japan, Raymond’s skiing reads the same: precise, expressive, and worth watching—again and again.
Mammoth Mountain
Overview and significance
Mammoth Mountain is the Eastern Sierra’s flagship and one of North America’s most influential freestyle venues, pairing a vast high-alpine footprint with a park-and-pipe program that has set industry standards for more than two decades. The resort’s official figures list 3,500+ acres, 25 lifts and a 3,100 ft vertical rise to an 11,053 ft summit, which helps extend the season into late spring in most years. That scale supports a daily rhythm where storm-chasing, groomer mileage and park progression all coexist, and it underpins Mammoth’s recurring role as a host for U.S. Grand Prix World Cups, Nor-Am Cups and the U.S. Revolution Tour. If you are building a California itinerary around modern freeskiing, Mammoth is the anchor. For context within our own network, see skipowd.tv/location/mammoth-mountain/ and the statewide overview at skipowd.tv/location/california/.
The mountain’s identity is equal parts dependable logistics and credible terrain. Multiple base areas funnel efficiently onto upper chairs and gondolas; treeline zones stay workable on whiteout days; and when the sky clears, long ridge lines and bowls hold chalk and soft snow by aspect. Overlay Unbound’s contest-grade setups and a hike-to freestyle zone on the backside, and you get a venue that converts time on snow into rapid progression for park riders and freeriders alike.
Terrain, snow, and seasons
Mammoth skis big, but it’s the way the terrain layers that matters. From Main Lodge, high-speed chairs and the summit gondola stack long fall lines, wind-buffed ridges and scooped bowls that ride well after storms. Canyon and Eagle add rolling groomers, side hits and quick access to mid-mountain benches that hold visibility and speed when clouds sit low. The backside opens to broader alpine panels and, when coverage allows, hike-to freestyle terrain in The Hemlocks—steep, natural features that the shape crew enhances with hand-built takeoffs during peak cycles.
Snowfall is both deep and durable by California standards thanks to elevation and exposure. During active periods you can expect dense, shapeable snow that smooths landings and lets lips rebuild quickly; between systems, leeward faces set into supportive chalk while north and east aspects preserve winter surfaces. The resort’s published norms include roughly 400 inches of annual snowfall and a typical season from November into May or June, with 300 sunny days a year also in the marketing mix. The net effect for freeskiers is reliable surface quality across a long window, with storm weeks for soft progression and blue spells for speed and filming.
Park infrastructure and events
Mammoth’s Unbound Terrain Parks remain a benchmark: the official brief cites 10 parks, 2 halfpipes, 100+ jibs and up to 40–50 jumps on more than 100 acres when fully built. Main Park is the pro-stage lap with a 22-foot superpipe and large jump lines accessed via Unbound Express; South Park offers long, flowing lines and a secondary pipe; Forest Trail and the playground parks at each base give beginners and intermediates a clean ladder for repetition. The Unbound park map and daily status updates are the control tower for which lines are open and how they’re riding.
Event pedigree is current and deep. Mammoth regularly hosts the U.S. Revolution Tour with freeski halfpipe, slopestyle and big air competitions staged in Unbound’s Main Park and the 22-foot pipe, and the mountain has closed World Cup calendars with Toyota U.S. Grand Prix stops in recent seasons. Nor-Am Cup starts appear frequently on the FIS calendar, and spring also brings Far West alpine series finals on the race network. The through-line is that Unbound builds to competition standards while keeping public flow workable—one of the reasons teams and film crews treat Mammoth as a repeat training base.
Access, logistics, and on-mountain flow
US-395 is the spine of any Eastern Sierra trip. In winter, chain controls and full closures are possible during major storms, so plan around Caltrans’ live tools and road information pages before you roll. Once you are in Mammoth Lakes, the free town and mountain shuttles simplify car-free days; the Red and Green lines connect Main, Canyon and Eagle pods on frequent winter schedules, with additional routes and evening service linking The Village and lodging zones. If you’re mixing days with June Mountain, note that Mammoth lift tickets are valid at June the same day (beginner tickets excluded), which makes pivoting for wind or crowds low-friction.
Flow tips are simple. On storm mornings, prioritize treeline off Canyon and Eagle to keep visibility and speed honest; as ceilings rise, step to the summit panels and backside bowls. For park volume, build a two- or three-feature circuit in Forest Trail or South Park to check speed and pop, then move to Main Park and the superpipe when temperatures stabilize and lips are crisp. When The Hemlocks are in condition and open, treat it like big-mountain freestyle: watch wind loading, manage group spacing and expect ungroomed landings.
Local culture, safety, and etiquette
Mammoth’s scene blends high-output park laps with serious mountain management. Inside the ropes, respect closures and staged openings—wind and snow transport can change hazard quickly on the ridges, and patrol will hold lines until they are safe. Beyond the ski area boundary or on touring days, start with the daily bulletin from the Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center, travel with beacon, shovel and probe, and move with partners who know companion rescue. Tree wells are a recurring risk in deep cycles, especially below storm snow in glades; keep partners visible and communicate during powder laps.
Park etiquette is non-negotiable: inspect features, call your drop, hold a predictable line and clear landings and knuckles immediately. Give the shape crew and winch cats space during rebuilds; they adjust lips and takeoffs to protect speed, not to slow the session. Altitude also matters here. With a base around 7,953 ft and a summit at 11,053 ft, hydrate, manage sun exposure and pace early days if you are new to high elevation.
Best time to go and how to plan
For cold surfaces, stable jump speed and frequent refreshes, target mid-January through early March. That window typically yields the most repeatable park laps and forgiving landings. March into April adds longer light and classic spring cycles—corn on solar aspects by late morning and preserved winter on shaded, higher faces—while Unbound keeps rotating rebuilds so rail lines and jumps stay fresh. Build a flexible plan each morning: check the mountain’s lift and trail report for wind holds and staged terrain openings, confirm Unbound’s line status, then pick sectors by aspect and visibility.
Transit and tickets reward a little homework. If you intend to mix Mammoth and June, structure days by weather and crowds and use the same-day ticket validation to pivot midday if needed. If you are aiming for event weeks, book early and expect footprint changes around Main Park and the pipe during training blocks. For car-free trips, align lodging with shuttle stops on the Red and Green lines so uploads are simple even on busy days; if you drive, monitor Caltrans QuickMap for chain controls and rolling closures on US-395 during storm cycles. Mammoth’s official winter trail map and Unbound page are the daily baseline for what’s spinning and how to lap efficiently.
Why freeskiers care
Because Mammoth turns a long, high-quality season into repeatable progression. You get a massive, weather-resilient mountain with tree zones for storm days and chalky ridges for bluebirds, plus Unbound’s tiered park system and a superpipe that mirror competition standards. You can add big-mountain freestyle in The Hemlocks when conditions align, pivot to June on the same ticket if wind or crowds push you to change plans, and rely on a shuttle network that keeps the day moving. The combination—credible terrain, contest-grade shaping, and frictionless logistics—explains why Mammoth remains a global reference point for skiers who want to learn fast, film well, and ride real mountains all season long.
Armada
Brand overview and significance
Armada is widely recognized as skiing’s pioneering athlete-founded brand. Launched in 2002 by a crew of influential freeskiers and creatives, it set out to build equipment around how modern skiers actually ride—park, powder, streets, and big, natural terrain—rather than filtering innovation through traditional race heritage. The brand’s identity has remained anchored in rider input and film culture, with a product line that mirrors the creative, playful approach that reshaped freeskiing in the 2000s and beyond. In March 2017, Amer Sports acquired Armada, bringing the label into the same winter portfolio as other major ski manufacturers while preserving its athlete-led philosophy and distinct design language.
Armada operates from the Wasatch and the Alps, with day-to-day brand life connected to Park City Mountain in Utah and a European hub near Innsbruck. That cross-Atlantic footprint helps shape a catalog that feels at home in North American freeride zones and on the varied snowpacks and park scenes of the Tyrol. Culturally, Armada remains closely tied to athlete films, creative web series, and team projects—touchstones that communicate the skis’ intended feel as much as spec sheets do.
Product lines and key technologies
Armada’s lineup is organized by intent, not marketing buzzwords. The ARV/ARW family represents the brand’s all-mountain freestyle DNA; Declivity and Reliance (directional all-mountain) serve resort skiers who want confidence at speed and on edge; Locator targets fast-and-light touring; and signature freeride shapes such as the Whitewalker translate film-segment creativity to deep snow and mixed terrain. Within those families, Armada refines behavior with a set of in-house technologies that have become calling cards.
Two construction ideas stand out. First, rocker/camber profiles like AR Freestyle Rocker and EST Freeride Rocker blend long, forgiving rockered zones with positive camber underfoot to preserve edge hold. Second, base and sidewall details tune how the ski releases and smears: Smear Tech adds subtle 3D beveling in the tips and tails for drift, pivot, and catch-free butters, while AR75/AR100 sidewalls and tailored cores (including lightweight Caruba in touring models) balance mass reduction with damping and strength. Together these choices explain why Armada skis often feel both lively and composed—easy to pivot yet trustworthy when speed comes up or the snow gets choppy.
Ride feel: who it’s for (terrains & use-cases)
If you like your all-mountain laps to include side-hits, switch landings, and a bit of exploration off the groomer, Armada’s ARV/ARW models are designed for you. They’re energetic, smearable, and predictable in variable resort snow, with enough camber to carve cleanly back to the lift. Resort chargers who prioritize directional stability and precise edge feel will gravitate toward Declivity and Reliance: more metal and more length options yield a calmer ride on hardpack, while still keeping the Armada “surf” in soft conditions. For backcountry skiers who want to keep the uphill efficient without giving up fun on the way down, the Locator series blends low weight with real-snow suspension. And on storm days and film-project lines, signature freeride shapes like Whitewalker are aimed at powder, pillows, and wind-affected steeps where you want loose, pivotable tips, supportive platforms, and confident landings.
Team presence, competitions, and reputation
Armada’s reputation rides on the shoulders of its athletes as much as its skis. Over the years, names like Henrik Harlaut, Phil Casabon, and Sammy Carlson have defined the brand’s look and feel—style-first skiing that still handles real-mountain speed and impact. That visibility spans major events like the X Games and high-profile film releases, reinforcing Armada’s role as a tastemaker for park, street, and backcountry-freestyle aesthetics. The roster’s breadth—from urban icons to big-mountain specialists—helps keep the catalog honest: new designs trace back to specific needs revealed in segments, contests, and long-day resort laps.
Geography and hubs (heritage, testing, venues)
Armada’s U.S. presence is tied to the Wasatch—easy access to long season mileage, park laps, and storm cycles near Park City Mountain and the Cottonwood canyons. In the Alps, the scene around Innsbruck gives the team fast access to varied venues like Axamer Lizum and the Golden Roof Park, useful for repeatable park testing and quick condition changes. Historic filming staples like Mammoth Mountain continue to influence sizing, rocker lines, and the playful-but-capable feel that many skiers now expect from all-mountain freestyle shapes.
Construction, durability, and sustainability
Armada pairs wood cores and fiberglass/carbon laminates with sidewall constructions that vary by intent. All-mountain freestyle models use thicker edges and reinforcement underfoot to handle rails and landing zones; directional models lean into torsional stiffness and damping for edge fidelity; touring models deploy Caruba cores, strategic rubber/titanal binding mats, and lighter edges to keep mass down without making the ride nervous. On the softgoods side, the brand publishes “Honest Social Responsibility” notes outlining material choices in apparel and gear. For hardgoods, a two-year warranty applies to skis and most equipment, a standard that signals baseline confidence in materials and build. While any ski can be damaged by rails, rocks, or improper mounts, Armada’s construction playbook is tuned for the mix of freestyle creativity and resort mileage its audience demands.
How to choose within the lineup
Start with where and how you ski most. If your days blend carving with side-hits, trees, and the occasional lap through the park, look to the all-mountain freestyle family with waist widths in the upper-80s to mid-90s for a balanced daily driver. If you spend more time at speed on firm snow, directional all-mountain models with metal reinforcement and slightly longer radii will feel calmer and more confidence-inspiring on edge. If you tour, match Locator widths to your snowpack and objectives: narrower for long approaches and mixed conditions; wider for soft-snow zones and mid-winter storm cycles. Powder-first skiers who still like to trick and slash should consider signature freeride shapes with loose, rockered tips/tails and sturdy platforms underfoot. Size for your intent: freestyle-oriented riders often pick slightly shorter for maneuverability; directional and touring skiers typically size to nose/forehead or longer for stability and float.
Why riders care
Armada matters because it helped define what “modern” skiing feels like—and continues to translate that feel into products that make sense for real resort laps, backcountry tours, and deep days. The brand still reads like a dialogue between athletes and engineers: skis that pivot and smear when you want, yet bite and track when you need; graphics and shapes that look the part in a park edit but stand up to chunder at 3 p.m. Whether you arrive through contest clips, a team movie, or a storm cycle backcountry mission, the through-line is the same: creative expression backed by functional engineering. That combination keeps the label relevant to skiers who value both style and substance, from first chair corduroy to last-light pillow stacks—and it’s why Armada has a lasting footprint across freeski culture as well as everyday resort skiing.
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