This year, the 16^th annual games took place from Jan. 26-29 in Aspen, Colo. As is customary in progressive action sports, minds were blown and records shattered. The typically hyped up atmosphere was darkened, however, by the recent death of iconic freeskier Sarah Burke.

Burke’s death left a deep mark on the snow sports community, where she held an exalted place as a four-time Winter X gold medalist and spearheaded the successful effort to include freeskiing events for both men and women in the upcoming 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Still, the athletes present at the X Games sought to honor Burke by performing their best while sporting “Sarah” stickers and armbands. And perform they did.

I was psyched to see my favorite skier, 20-year-old Bobby Brown, reclaim gold in Ski Big Air. Heath Frisby also landed the first ever front flip on a snowmobile in competition (Snowmobile Best Trick), and Shaun White stunned the crowd by not only five-peating gold, but doing it with an unprecedented perfect 100 point scored run in Snowboard Superpipe.

As some athletes soared, others fell. There was no shortage of heart stopping, edge-of-your-seat moments, especially when Colten Moore channeled Tom Petty by free-falling over 100 feet from his snowmobile on a trick gone wrong; he persisted to get right up and win the gold medal in Snowmobile freestyle.

Skier Justin Dorey was less fortunate. He was one of many competitors who left the games in a stretcher, but they weren’t named the Extreme Games for nothing.

Some combination of the lights, fashion, athletic prowess, fearlessness, and inspiring, comeback attitudes of the competitors keeps me enraptured during the Winter X Games every year. Argue if you wish, but there’s something we can all take from the determination of someone who throws their body into the air, makes four-and-a-half rotations while flipping twice over, and trusting two planks to catch them when they land. Plus it looks sick.

“I fly free. My biological father is a pilot for Delta,” Swant said. “It’s actually really nice. Nobody else can do that on a whim.”

                By “that” she means go on daily excursions, such as her planned day trip to Minneapolis, or the time she flew to Seattle because she was “bored.”

                Due to the free airfare she receives, she travels a lot, including to locations outside the United States. She has been to Paris, Venice, and Cairo.

                “We’re power vacationers. We don’t sleep, we just go,” Swant said. “I love traveling and I love researching other places and other cultures.”

                Swant especially enjoys visiting museums, as she said she likes “seeing history but not reading about it,” she said.

                “The Louvre is one of my favorite places; it’s really cool,” she said.

                In the future, Swant hopes to continue traveling.

                “I’m going to study abroad for sure. In college I really want to spend half a semester in Switzerland and half a semester in Spain,” she said. “(And ) my goal is to go to China and walk on the Great Wall.”

                Swant’s love of travel and different cultures has helped her in her career choice.

                “I want to be a professor in college, and I want to teach something related to international studies,” Swant said.

                Currently she is a freshman at the University of Great Falls. Her major is international relations and her minor is European studies. Next year she will be continuing her studies at Carroll College.

                  Smith said she is teaching herself to play piano, which she said is going “pretty good considering I play bells and mallets so I already have a start on note names and stuff.” Smith said she draws some of her inspiration from her brother, Jordan Smith, who graduated from CMR in 2011.

“Kind of, he was the first of our family to really get into music. He taught himself guitar, drums, and piano,” Smith said.

Smith is a 2015 class percussionist at C.M. Russell High School. She said she hopes to go to college and study music in Bozeman.

After attending college and earning a degree in music, Smith said she would like to return to her high school and teach music. She would prefer to take over for Dennis Dell, the CMR percussion instructor.

“I wanna come back here and do what Mr. Dell does, but teaching band would be cool,” Smith said.

Smith said that her favorite part of percussion is “the variety, because the instruments create a lot of different sounds and feelings.”

She said there are a lot of changes between elementary, middle, and high school percussion.

“In seventh grade you’re in a percussion class, in eighth grade you’re in a big band, and in high school you’re in a percussion class again, so it’s kind of confusing,” Smith said.

Smith said that she enjoys playing in the Pep Band because “you have an excuse to be crazy.”

“I like it because you’re not only going to the games and cheering on the teams, but you’re getting a musical experience and kind of getting help,” Smith said.

Before she leaves Great Falls, Smith said she wants to do everything a percussionist could possibly do at CMR.

“I definitely want to get into Symphonic Band and all-state. I wanna try out for drum major, and I wanna be drum captain, too. It’s too much!”

“Every time I see a Minnesota plate, I think, ‘Go back to Minnesota this is my home’,” Minnesota native Kern said.

Kern lived in Minnesota for the first 12-13 years of her life up until her sophomore year, when she and her family moved out to the “Last Best Place.”  Her initial impression during her first year of attending school in Montana at CMR was this is “bigger and better” than her school back in Minnesota.

“This is amazing,” Kern said. “People out here are so much better.”

She continues to thoroughly enjoy attending CMR.

“This year I’m actually looking forward to going to school,” she said.

Kern started to pick up on the friendliness of Montana on the drive over.

“We still had our Minnesota plates on and we would get waves from people,” Kern said.

Compared to the students she went to school with in Minnesota, Kern said the kids here aren’t as cliquey, which was a relief coming from the small town Milaca, with a population of around 200.

“The overall mood was doom and gloom,” Kern said.

Growing up with the same kids since kindergarten, Kern said she was more than eager to get out of Milaca.

“If I were to have spent one more year in Minnesota, I would have begged my mom to move,” Kern said.

Living in Montana has proven to be satisfactory for Kern.

“You’re not judged out here,” Kern said. “Every person you meet has a smile on their face.”

                  “I started to play when I was a little champ,” Gliko said.

                  Gliko said he has been fond of music ever since he was a kid, but he didn’t get into music until he was 10. Gliko’s favorite hobby in and outside of school is “just music in general.” Gliko plays drums most of the time, and he also plays guitar and wants to learn piano. He also said it would be cool to have piano in his musical expertise.

Choosing an instrument wasn’t really an option. Drums chose Gliko.

“Because my dad played guitar, I would play drums with him,” Gliko said. “It was hard growing up playing county music and then listening to all this hip-hop and rap music.”

At C.M. Russell High School, Gliko is involved in Symphonic band, Jazz band, Pep band, Drum line, and All-State. After college he wants to be “the next Kellogg,” Gliko said. Russ Kellogg directs the band program at CMR.

His inspiration is Daniel Bukvich, a well-known percussionist.

“He’s taught me most of the valuable lessons I’ve learned in music,” Gliko said. “It’s called playing for a reason. It’s all about playing.”

“It’s hard passing up something you love.”

 “I like to make people laugh,” she said.

Sowell, a freshman, was born and raised in Great Falls. Sowell has three brothers, two of whom were adopted into her family. Her dad works as a police officer while her mom just made a job change. All of her life her mom has worked as a social worker, but she now holds a job at Job Services.  Living a life different from most other teens has given Sowell a different view towards life.

“I didn’t grow up different, just a different environment,” she said.

Sowell’s adoptive brother, Michael, has grown up with the challenge of living with developmental disabilities. Life at home can be hard to deal with sometimes, she said. She tends to be smiley and happy even when times get tough.

Sowell has seen what few have found in the world: happiness in every moment. There is so much to be happy about in the world. Her motto towards life is, “once you learn how to be truly happy, you won’t tolerate anything less.”  With these words she never leaves a day sad.

“Parents have a lot more insight than we give them credit,” she said.

Her dad is her best friend, and having him as a role model has had the biggest influence on her life. He taught her to smile through the tears and find something to be happy for every single day, she said.

“There are too many good things in the world to be anything but happy.”

His senior year classes will only include three classes — all electives.

Marez said he is glad to graduate early.

“I can start college right away if I want to,” Marez said.

Marez is currently in senior English, where he recently completed his senior project.

“We did Hamlet,” Marez said. “I didn’t like it. It’s hard because I don’t know anyone in the class.”

It took a lot of work to get to where he is. His freshman year, he took freshman English; he took sophomore English online, and junior English his sophomore year.

Next year should be a breeze for Marez, who plans on taking a multi-media class or maybe yearbook.

“I don’t like school that much, so I figured I’d get it over with,” Marez said.

“It’s hard to find time to do homework because I have a job,” he added. “And I’m taking a web design class online.”

Despite the hard work to get to where he is, Marez says it is worth it.

Freshman Sarah May had this experience playing volleyball in seventh grade.

“I always have played volleyball, but I couldn’t anymore,” May said. She and her teammates were in the final two for the brackets and she went in for a dive and landed straight on her knee. After the accident, she had to cut the season short and she hasn’t played since.

“When I had to quit for those two years, I totally lost it all,” May said. But instead of playing, she was a scorekeeper.

“Yeah, I did want to play in high school, but I knew I wasn’t good enough to make it,” she said. Instead of playing for the CMR team, in February of 2012 she is going to play intramural. Intramural is a “just for fun” game where you get to pick who is on your team and it isn’t too serious.

“When I was little I played for Heisey,” she said. She played every position before she got into middle school. But once she got into middle school she started playing middle back, which was her favorite position to play. Her weakness in volleyball is serving.

“I was horrible at serving,” May said. She said that she likes underhand serving a lot better than overhand serving.

“It was my life and I had to just quit.”

“We take pictures of people and get to know people better,” Halvari said.

A freshman at CMR, Halvari said she likes to be involved in her school in a different way than many expect. She was looking at the election form when she saw yearbook and thought it would be fun to take the class.

Taking pictures and designing the spreads is the favorite part of yearbook for her.

“I am scared to interview the seniors because I think that they will be mean to me,” Halvari said.

While designing the yearbook, staff members must write stories about people and in order to do that they have to interview them.

“When I am a junior or a senior I hope I will be able to be Editor in Chief, Photo editor, or Design editor,” Halvari said.

When a freshman and a sophomore you are only able to be a general staff member, then when a junior and senior you can interview to be one of the editors. Halvari said she wants to become Editor in chief, who is in charge of the publication, and they have their own special page and come up with the design along with the juniors.

Halvari said she would like to maybe become a journalist for a newspaper or a magazine after high school.

“I am planning on taking yearbook and newspaper throughout high school.”

Trainer attends the skating nirvana and is fatigued when done.

“When I get home, I’m super tired,” she said.

A native of Great Falls, Trainer has gone roller blading ever since she was 5 at Hauer’s Roller Rink — as long as she had nothing lower than a D in any of her classes.

“It brings me closer to hang out with friends,” she said.

Rollerskating is not the only big part of Trainer’s life; she also goes hunting, camping, and fishing with her dad.

“He taught me how to fish and hunt,” she said.

Comparatively speaking, the biggest part of her life is her mom’s day care.

“I’m around kids all the time,” she said. “It’s insane, but I love it.”

Trainer’s mom owns Rewards Daycare, where Trainer spends most of her time other than the roller rink.

“I would be really bored if my mom didn’t own a daycare,” she said.

Trainer spends her days preoccupied doing homework for skating and watching over children with her mom or hunting with her dad.

“It’s a big part of my life,” she said. “I would be really bored if my mom didn’t own a daycare.”