Monday, February 5

US Freeskiing Nationals Concludes

freezeonline.com

It is difficult to describe exactly how amazing the final competition run of the High Sierra Heliskiing US Freeskiing Nationals really was. It began with great conditions. Heavy snowfall caused organizers to call a weather day yesterday, and the face of "North Baldy" accumulated a foot of fresh snow. The new snow softened landings and buffed the venue for today's final round at Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort. "North Baldy" is a huge venue; it (the run area) is full of snowfields, cliff bands, pine trees, chutes, and rock outcroppings. Ski patrollers controlled the venue early in the morning and the first woman charged out of the start at about 11:00am.

The women set the mood for the day by really attacking the venue with strong and solid athleticism. "I knew I had to win this event," said Jamie Burge of Squaw Valley, California, "I really need a ski sponsor!" Burge, who has been featured in numerous ski movies and magazines led the women going into the final run and solidly kept her lead by almost 5 points.

Burge was followed by Aleisha Cline of Sun Peaks, BC, Canada. Cline is a strong, fluid and technically beautiful skier who was second overall in the 2000 North American Tour. Kirsty Exner, who skis out of Rossland, BC, finished in 3rd. Local favorite, and last year's 2000 IFSA World Tour Champion moved up from 9th going into the day, to finish 4th in the competition. 5th place went to Asia Jenkins of Aspen, CO. Jenna Funston from Big Sky, MT placed 6th. A two-way tie for 7th was awarded to 2001 Canadian Freeskiing Champion Jen Ashton of Whistler, and 2000 North American Tour Champion, Jackson Hole's Jessica Baker. Ninth place finisher was Susan Medville of Crested Butte, CO. The top five women earned points on the IFSA World Tour point standings.

The women led the charge, and the men ran with it. Dynastar's Guerlain Chicherit of Tignes, France skied an unbelievable run. Chicherit was 2nd going into the final run and knew that he must do something extraordinary to win the event. The second Chicherit left the start he was on a mission to win the day. He opened his run with a huge backflip, charged through the venue, aired numerous cliffs, and concluded his run by sticking his landing off of a 40 foot cliff.

2nd place finisher was 2000 World Tour Champion and Rossignol skier Hugo Harrisson, of Whistler. Harrisson skied a beautiful fast, and fluid run. He landed on some rocks on one of his cliff jumps and destroyed a ski. Despite the damaged ski, Harrisson managed to stick the landing of his final air and score the second highest run score for the day. The leader going into the day was Fernie, BC's Ryan Oakden. Oakden had a momentary loss of control and found himself in 3rd place. 4th place went Sweden's Kaj Zackrisson. Moss Patterson, of Whitewater, BC loves to do backflips during competition. Today, Patterson aired a 40 foot cliff while performing a huge front flip. Patterson finished the contest in 5th. Rounding out the top fifteen was Park City, UT athlete Eric Schmitz came 6th. Jamie Blair of Alta, UT was 7th. A two-way tie for 7th was shared by Crested Butte, CO's Jack Hannan and Jon Orarback of Salen, Sweden. Another tie for 9th went to local Snowbird athlete, Rick Greener and Todd Windle of Remarkables, New Zealand. Ryan Connelly of Big White, BC was 10th. Daisuke Sasaki from Teine Highland, Japan was 11th. Aaron Hunt of Beaver Mountain, UT was 12th. Nick Alexander of The Canyons, UT finished 13th. Tomas Anderson from Salen, Sweden placed 14th. Romain Raisson of Les Arcs, France finished 15th. The top 15 men earned points on the IFSA World Tour standings.