Lock In - A Rampage Story

Texte by Georgia Astle

Photo by Corbin Selfe & Trevor Lynden

Lock In – A Rampage Story

Raw, big-mountain riding has always been more my forté than a build-out slopestyle course. I like that I get to envision how to use the terrain and what feature works best to keep the flow going in a line. I also appreciate spending time on each section while building. I often feel rushed to hit something before I am ready on a built course with set practice windows. The final product is a T-to-B run, but there are a lot of pieces to the puzzle before getting there.

Our venue this year was used for the 2014 & 2015 Rampage and again in 2022 for Formation.

Right away, the bar was raised from last year. From 8 to 12 women on the roster, there was already some really impressive growth in the field. We had a good idea of what was achievable in the 8-day digging window after starting from scratch on an untouched site last year. So now, with lots of usable past Rampage features and some new build plans, the girls were ready to throw down.

The men’s events on this site had the iconic pre-built wooden features like the canyon gap and the RZR moto booter that pieced the hill together. Without those, we really had two main zones: the far looker’s-left ridge and the middle ridge. Out of 12 girls total, 9 gravitated toward the left ridge. I could foresee tough build days navigating through a maze of lips and landings. To not feel boxed in, I went to have another look at the looker’s-right.

We came across Chelsea’s crew standing on top of the well-known double drop on the middle ridge. She turned to me and said something along the lines of, “Georgia! Are you going to hit T-Mac drop with me and Cami? The only rule is, it has to stay huge.”

That’s when I realized the girls were teeing up El Presidente—T-Mac’s drop—not the double drop. Cue nervous laugh.

Mucho Gusto, El Presidente.

“El Presidente,” named after the second-best margarita at Chili’s (according to Tyler McCaul).

I liked that there were go-around options if things didn’t line up with it, but I was pretty excited to take on another big drop. I had an idea for a line, and the team was into it.

Dig days were underway: 5 a.m. alarms, wearing hiking gaiters to keep the dirt out of our shoes, hauling tools and snacks around the hill.

We had made steady progress throughout the line. El Pres was coming along but needed a huge foundation rebuild with rock stacks and sandbags. A lot of rock stacks—like harvesting every flat rock from Fairclough’s canyon gaps—and he had a lot of canyon gaps at this site (robbed once again, ayoo).

We got chased off the hill by lightning multiple days. Amazing for dirt, terrible for practice time. Once the rain finally cleared, the 3 crews rallied to slap down the giant landing in one afternoon.

Chelsea had T-Mac’s OG ridge line and a direct line into the drop. Cami and I were coming in from a lower entrance, on a drop and jump line that was leftover from Vinny’s Formation line.

We changed up the “Lemon Drop” to make it ride faster and changed the jump to be a straight shot into El Pres. During speed checks, we had to brake the whole way to avoid overshooting, and that’s when Cami crashed. On a run-in to test the lip, she got completely tossed OTB… partial elbow dislocation. She was back on her bike in a day and a half. The jump was then named “Tough Cookie,” courtesy of the doctor who relocated her elbow at St. George Hospital.

Tough Cookie had two reshapes at this point. If we wanted El Pres from our shared line, we needed to make changes, fast. Just in case, my diggers built a full go-around in case wind or nerves got to me before finals day.

Get stones, and lock in.

Tuesday and Wednesday were tough days. The overall mood was low on the women’s side, with a handful of big crashes sidelining some girls already. We were meant to drop Thursday, but storms kept coming through, which meant no one had finished their full lines. Finals got pushed to Friday. Huge collective sigh of relief for both the men and women — we needed the extra day.

is a game of self-preservation, but also overcoming fear.

Something I learned last year that proved to be my best weapon was the crew. Music blasting, good vibes. Jacob and Jarrod are my guys for this reason. In the car, on the way up, while digging — it’s constant banter and laughs.

Thursday was bluebird and calm. Jarrod had “Pardon Me” by Incubus queued, and I’d already forgotten about existential dread.

I hiked to the top determined to link everything to El Pres.

Radio crackles: “Georgia dropping.”

Drones circling.

Everyone is watching. I usually like hitting things for the first time when no one is around… but the energy of the crowd even on practice days is surreal.

Through the Red Bull arch, onto the knife-edge ridge, Scissor Drop, then crept into Rheeder’s Drop-in — balancing and trying to keep traction across stacked sandbags with a small layer of dirt on top of them before releasing the brakes and hitting the tiny 2.5-foot-wide landing. Full speed through the natural slash bench and Huey’s Huck step-down. That section is so flowy, I had to remind myself to shut it down for Lemon Drop.

I rolled in at a crawl, after overshooting it repeatedly the day before, but somehow managed to brain-fart my way into the backside of the knuckle, face full of handlebars.

Uninjured, but a solid knock to the confidence high I was trying so hard to uphold. Today was my last chance to hit El Pres before contest day. I did not want to overthink how slow I had to hit a drop and jump before hitting the biggest drop of my life. We had to change it. First menty B of the week, check.

Jacob, Jarrod, and some other crews came to the rescue. They skipped lunch to give Tough Cookie its fourth and final rebuild.

They deleted part of the lip so Cami and I could keep speed from Lemon Drop, have a straight run-in, and get on the pedals into El Pres.

Mom Energy

My mom and I initially made an agreement that Rampage was no place for mom energy. I didn’t want to worry about her worrying about me. Then, when the rest of my crew all wanted to come support, I knew my mom would hate to miss out. So we made a deal that I would wait to see her after I hit my whole line.

So there I was padding up to go see how the boys went with the rebuild when I saw my mom walking into the venue. Possibly the last human you want to see when trying to stay composed and be all tough guy before hucking off a 60-foot cliff. But it was really nice — we walked up to mid-road together, and she didn’t say anything about my fat lip and dried tears. My family all got to watch the last practice session.

The new mod looked great — I knew we were on.

Chelsea was teeing up to hit El Pres again, and Cami was doing her first run-ins. I did the ceremonial rock throw, the no-goggle run-ups, and drew my “stop pedalling here” line in the dirt.

I wanted to keep my front end up on the takeoff to avoid getting bucked. It was wild how long I saw Zion on the horizon before spotting the landing. It was so cool to piece that together — the landing was dialled, so was the takeoff. Such a relief, and like, holy shit, we just built a 60-foot drop. I went back up and hit it again before riding over to my family and finally giving them a hug now that the scaries were ticked off.

That was the moment it clicked. I felt good on my bike and was seeing it all come together just in time for finals day.

The Big Show

With only 7 of us dropping in for finals, we had a good shot of getting through before the wind picked up.

Kirsten was first to go — she threw down a huge sui on her drop and set the stage.

Mine and Cami’s scores were tight since we shared a similar line, so I knew I’d want to be back up at the top for a second run if her second score got bumped ahead of mine. Considering that was my first jump I’d done a step-down sui on, I could try and clean it up, but I was pretty happy with my first run.

Cami dropped — she laced her run and added a sui at the bottom. It was going to be close.

I was at the start gate waiting to drop in when I heard my first-run score was still just ahead.

Sitting there on my bike, I felt a gush of relief and validation. I couldn’t believe it — my second Rampage podium.

I was over the moon to land a spot on the podium and just wanted to get down the hill safely again to see family, friends, and my team. To share that with my family was something special.

Last year, I came in with a game plan that had worked, but I did not anticipate being in the pointy end of the results list with how solid all the girls were riding again. The reality is, it’s a marathon, and anything can happen throughout the week. I followed my intuition, had fun along the way, and trusted my own method.

If I can pass any advice on to young riders looking to get into freeride, just remember to take your time and enjoy the process of calculated progression. There is no rush. There will be days when you should listen to your gut instinct and say no. Then there are days when the work you put in shows, and the confidence oozes.