Rail Jam hosts small slopes and high hopes

The cold weather was no hindrance to the hundreds of students and community members who gathered under bright stadium lights last Saturday night to watch the fourth annual Rail Jam competition. Lining the barrier fences and covering the hillside above the Dobbie Lambert fields on campus, an electric crowd fueled competitors through the four-hour event while a DJ kept attendees' spirits high through the breaks.

Rail Jam — hosted by the Associated Students of MSU (ASMSU) — is a skiing and snowboarding rail competition held annually on campus since 2022, according to ASMSU Events Chair Conner Poore. Applications for the competition were open to anyone, though the event only accepted 46 competitors due to time constraints. These competitors competed across four divisions: Men’s and Women’s Skiing and snowboarding, according to Poore.

The competition was split into preliminary and final rounds, in which competitors had 25 minutes to do laps using the three different rails on the course. According to Poore, judging criteria was based on the USA ski and snowboard rubric. The top three finishers in each category went home with cash prizes of $1,000 for first place, $400 for second and $100 for third.

The competition was live-streamed courtesy of Montana PBS, and consisted of 18 men’s and women’s snowboarding competitors and 28 men’s and women’s skiing competitors. The first-place finishers in each category were Milo Graffin for Men’s Snowboarding, Jayva Jordan for Women’s Snowboarding, Marea Adams in Women’s Skiing and Jack McManus in Men’s Skiing.

“It was awesome,” Graffin said.  “I was so hyped. You never really know what other people are doing, you’re just focused on yourself and the Rail Jam. I’m proud of how I did in finals.”

Graffin — who has been snowboarding for eight years — originally applied to the competition as an excuse to visit his sister, a current MSU student.

Growing up, Graffin’s grandparents lived next to a local ski hill in Wisconsin, where his sister first taught him to snowboard.

“It was pretty surreal, I wasn’t really expecting to win,” said McManus, who is currently a University of Utah student and drove up from Salt Lake City after hearing about the event on social media. “My main goal was to just have fun, I made a focus to try to land as many tricks as I could and diversify them.”

“It was super exciting,” said Jordan, who has competed in previous Rail Jams. “I didn't know how much the prize money was, so that was kind of a shock.”

Though the event was held on campus, competitors traveled from as far as Madison, Wisconsin to be involved. Best friends Adams and Flynn Kabisch — who took first and second place, respectively, in the Women’s Ski division — drove up together from Salt Lake City on Saturday morning to compete after watching friends do so in past years.

Both Adams and Kabisch commented on the overall community and positivity of the event. “There were all these girls from all over and it was just a really good presence and energy,” Adams said. She added that she was happy to see the level of competition and the progression of the sport for women.

“I loved how much of a spectacle it was,” said Kabisch, who managed to secure a second-place finish in Women’s Ski despite riding with a broken wrist. “We just showed up and wanted to have fun.”

While the competition was the main event, there were other activities for attendees who were not competing, according to Poore. Local DJs kept the crowd entertained during breaks and announcer Jack Feick — a prominent figure in the park skiing community and the emcee for the 2024 Rail Jam — provided live commentary. “This year especially we tried to get a lot of community partners like Eagle Mount, Bridger Ski Foundation and Bridger Bowl,” Poore said.

Planning for the 2025 Rail Jam began as soon as the previous year’s competition ended, Poore said. The process included contacting community partners and sifting through applications to find competitors. “It takes a whole team, but it’s a lot of fun and we all love doing it,” Poore said.

The atmosphere Saturday night made the event memorable, especially for competitors — both old and new. “It was just good vibes,” said Graffin, noting the size of the crowd and the DJ as main contributors to the excitement.

“The production was honestly the best I’ve seen in a Rail Jam,” McManus said. “My favorite part was just the energy that was there, the amount of people [made it] electric.”

“It was very different with all the people there watching,” added Kaiser Pellman, a freshman at Gallatin High School and the second-place finisher in the Men’s Snowboard division. Though the competition was similar to what he’s done in the past, he said the crowd’s energy provided a new experience.

“One of my favorite parts is meeting new people and riding with new people that you normally wouldn’t,” Jordan said, mentioning that she enjoyed talking with the other competitors at the top of the hill about the tricks they were planning to try throughout the night.

For Olaia Connelly — who finished second in the Women’s Snowboard division — the 2025 Rail Jam was her first competition. “I thought I was gonna be really nervous but I wasn’t. My goal was just to put down the tricks that I know I can do,” she said. “My favorite part was just getting to shred with some really awesome ladies.”

Many of the participants emphasized their enjoyment of the competition and the community surrounding the Rail Jam, as well as their intention to apply again in the future. “The environment was very different, having everyone watching and cheering for you,” Pellman said.

As the night drew to a close, competitors from each division gathered at the top of the course while Feick announced the winners. “[This is] almost too good to be true. Are we living in a movie?” he joked while calling out the names. Competition winners were handed flashy, oversized checks as they posed for photos and returned to the crowd to celebrate with friends and family.

For Adams, taking first alongside her best friend was the perfect ending. “You never go in expecting you're gonna win,” she said. “You’re kind of just in the moment.”

To watch how students shredded at the 2025 Rail Jam, head to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j58PjoPVr7M.