Today was a dynamic day at the mountain with sunny pow laps in the morning followed by some beers and a closely contested World Cup Snowboardcross in the afternoon. The day was highlighted by some mellow pillow lines, some excellent mogul style airs, an on-mountain “Unofficial” gambling ring with some Russians and Italians, and some excellent US finishes. It was a crisp, bluebird morning with plenty of fresh snow to be found in spots. It is still a little thin in the trees, but we came upon some nice drops and pillows where it had blown in nicely and settled up. The views were world class on top of Chair 14, scoping out some backcounty lines and revelation spines. Revelation Bowl seems ripe for the plucking soon.
While we enjoyed the bounty up high, the Snowboardcross athletes trained down below. After a beer we met up with Callan from the US women’s team, one of the Alyeska sponsored athletes, when I worked up in Girdwood, AK. We wished her the best of luck and hoped for her domination. She killed it in the first few heats and fell off a bit in the semis but wound up in a very respectable 6th place, behind fellow US rider Lindsey Jacobellis who took 5th.
On the men’s side, Seth Wescott of Sugarloaf, ME rode really well in all of his heats and pushed towards the finals after a tough semis heat. We saw an amazing combination of riders in one of the heats with Ross Powers, Shaun Palmer, an Italian and a Russian. It seemed two of the sports inventors were paired up and naturally, we took part in an unofficial slope-side gambling ring. Somehow, the Euros thwarted us because we picked the American boys to come in one and two and the foreigners got some US currency out of us. Seth Wescott was the only American to make the finals and dominated the race, but in one of the tightest finishes I have ever seen, ended up in second. The Sugarloaf crew in attendance was pumped and Seth said ‘that was all he had left in the tank’ and was happy with the way he rode. What a whirlwind of a day, great to see that kind of action on the mountain!
Words:Â Brian Horton
Skiers: Jared Vincent, Brian Horton
