Sunday, January 6

Ross Powers Clinches Olympic Berth

By Jaymo
EXPN.com

With his first place finish Powers secures a spot at the Olympics. Kelly Clark cleaned the ladies field with back-to-back boosters minus the sketch. Hey, but look out - Breck is holding back to back pipe comps later this week, and that is the home pipe of Todd Richards. Powers has got one spot, but the rest are still available. My money is on Andy Finch and Richards. I guess we will all know one week from today.

Luke Wynen didn't score well with the judges despite his solid performance.

So here we are..........Mt. Bachelor Oregon. The superpipe is primed and ready. Once again Pat Melondowski did his magic and an unreal superpipe is stage for a circus of flip twisting stuntery. On a side note, Bachelor built the pipe next to a lift............ah yeah........no hiking needed. And when you feel like you need to make some turns, Bachelor offers some of the best natural freeriding I have ever seen........gullies and windlips a plenty. The place is a blast with or without fresh pow.

All the usual heavies showed up. I mean - duh - the Olympics are only a month away and the spots are still up for grabs. The usual heavies have got even heavier! The practice day on Friday seemed like a videographers cold wet dream. Guys and girls going off all over the place. Partly cloudy skies gave way for good visibility, sweet stomped landings and big number "F stops". (The "F stop" thing is a photographers' pun). Kass, Finch, Powers and the rest of the gang (all 150) were going after it. The pipe claimed a couple girls, but they lived to tell about it.

Sports Illustrated was hanging tight along side the New York Times as they tried to decode Danny Kass's witty remarks about his deal with Taco Bell. Ah yeah that's right, Taco Bell. When Gnu Art Director, Sean Donnell, asked Danny about the Taco Bell money Danny replied, "I'm not hooking up with Taco Bell for the money, I'm hooking up with them for the free Tacos!" Sweet. Go Danny!

Kelly Clark's consistency proved unbeatable and mixed things up for the women's olympic race.

The qualifiers gave Todd Richards a chance to get his bag of tricks reorganized. After Todd had an "off" week at Mammoth, his stuff definitely came back to life here at Bachelor. He connected a barrage of inverted spinners with lip control so dialed that it could have been considered an exact science. His take offs were perfect on every wall and his landings were right on the vert bulls eye every time.

Yahoo! Internet showcased the big air comp Saturday night. A snowstorm rolled in and made the visibility a bit pooey. Landings were not so common due to the snowfall and the extra large jump. Dirksen stuck two backside 720's to grab second, and Kyle Clancey nailed a switch 7 to grab the first. Please note however, the jump was massive. Big ol' kudos to all who were jumping the beast in poor visibility. Keep in mind; the lip was 12 feet off the top of the 60ft table. YIPES.

The Big-Ass Big Air Booter.

Sunday morning looked grim. A warm moist front moved in and posed a threat. The contest went on in some sloppy conditions. The women seemed to really dig the softer pipe for safety reasons but the men were bummed on the loss of speed. Richards seemed to be heading for a win, until, out of nowhere he got sucked to the flats on a straight air. So what's he do? Richards gets up, builds some speed, and hits a wet cat 1080. Dear Lord Have Mercy!

Let me take you through a wet cat 1080.

Todd is regular foot heading into his backside wall. He pops a Mctwist and finishes it real early. (540 check) Then he continues to spin a flat 360. (540+360=900) Then just before he touches down, he reverts a 180 and lands fakie. (900+180revert=1080) This is quite possibly the burliest halfpipe trick ever. Unfortunately the fall cost Todd the win.

The sticky wet snow was grabby. Lots of guys were catching edges and losing valuable speed. In the end it came down to consistency. Ross Powers connected the sweetest stock inverted sevens and nines to clean house. Andy Finch was amazing. The young gun stood at the top ready to drop with a grin as stylish as the Italian Leather "Level" halfpipe gloves he was sporting. Andy Finch, Abe Teeter, and Luke Wynen scored the best style points hands down. Those guys were on it. Unfortunately Teeter and Wynen lacked some consistency and only Andy Finch was able to ride the style train onto the podium.

Final results?

Men
1. Ross Powers, South Londonderry, VT, 45.2 points
2. Andy Finch, Fresno, CA, 44.8
3. Tommy Czeschin, Mammoth Lakes, CA, 44.0
4. Todd Richards, Breckenridge, CO, 43.0
5. Magnus Sterner, Sweden, 43.0
6. Charlie Morace, Newtown, CT., 40.8
7. Travis Rice, Jackson, WY., 39.9
8. Abe Teter, Belmont, VT, 39.4
9. Rob Kingwill, Jackson,WY, 38.0
10. Rahm Klampert, Mammoth Lakes, CA, 37.2

Women
1. Kelly, Clark, Mount Snow, VT., 46.9
2. Gretchen Bleiler, Snowmass, CO, 45.4
3. Tricia Byrnes, New Canaan, CT, 44.3
4. Cara-Beth Burnside, Orange, CA, 41.6
5. Michele Taggart, Truckee, CA, 40.1
6. Christy Barrett, Vail, CO, 38.4
7. Alisa Mokler, Mammoth Lakes, CA, 34.7
8. Tara Zwink, Government Camp, OR, 34.5
9. Anna Hellman, Sweden, 32.5
10. Jaime Macleod, 31.9