Jan. 19, 2001

There was a waiting list to get in. There was about a one in twenty shot. Yet they still came from everywhere. There were French speaking guys from Quebec, France and Switzerland. A former ski racer named Christian Chedel even talked his finance company in NYC into giving him a week off of work. Moms and dads trekked all the way across the country just so they could sign release forms. And for what? For a chance to go to the Winter X Games in Mt. Snow, VT, February 1-4. For alternative athletes, the X Games is like going to "the show."

Squaw Valley, CA was recently host to the Paul Mitchell X Qualifier. It would be the last chance for skiers to qualify for the 2001 Winter X Games. Over the course of two days, athletes competed in Men's and Women's Skiercross and Men's Big Air. Competitors had to deal with unusually cold temperatures and making round after round of painful cutoffs.

Eric Archer of Colorado walked away the champion of Men's Skiercross. Archer is a former NCAA Giant Slalom Champion from University of Colorado, Boulder, who competed in the Winter X Games in 2000. Chasing right behind him was Jamey Parks, a recent graduate of CU, Boulder and former graduate of the ski academy, GMVS in Waitsfield, VT. Also qualifying in Men's Skiercross was Thomas Rinfret of Marquette, Quebec in 3rd place and Hiroomi Takizawa, of Japan in 4th. Takizawa will be the first Japanese skier to compete in Men's Skier X at Winter X. The skiercross course claimed relatively few victims, but it proved to be fatal to those who chose the wrong wax. The flat, rolly hill required skiers to be aggressive and well prepared.

Men's Skier X podium.

"I told my friends to tell my professors not to drop me from my courses. That I would be back late," said Lela Hebard, who finished second in Women's Skiercross and advanced to Winter X. Hebard, who is a senior at the University of Vermont, played hooky from school the first week back after winter recess, just to take a chance. "I knew I would be sitting in class kicking myself if I didn't try (to qualify for the Winter X Games)," said Hebard.

Ahead of Hebard, and dominating the women's field was a young Katie Shackelford. Shackelford grew up in Park City, where she was a competitive junior racer, but after suffering a serious head injury from skiing, she put her race skis away. (She still skis as a Mighty Mite's race coach at Squaw Valley.) The X Qualifier was Shackleford's first skiercross, and she crushed every heat. Shackelford and Hebard grabbed the only two spots left for women skiers at Winter X.

Men's Big Air had a different atmosphere. While the Skiercross featured several former ski racers with exceptionally formal skiing backgrounds, Big Air was for the self taught and innovative. A 17-year-old, Tanner Hall, walked away the winner for the second year in a row. (Hall won the X Qualifier in 2000, as well.) He qualified for the final round of 10 with a jump he landed on one ski. Although, Hall was a favorite going into the competition, he still had to defeat a couple of famous French Philippes, a set of big Schrab brothers from Wisconsin and Dynastar rider, Chris Hawks, just to name a few.

Big Air winner Tanner Hall

In second place was Adam Schrab. Adam and his twin brother, Luke, are making headlines in the Midwest, not for their number of "pucks in the net", but for crazy things like misty 720's and rodeo flips. The last spot going to the Winter X in Big Air went to Salt Lake City's Jon Turkula.

So stay tuned 'til next week 'cause the competition's going to get even better in Ver'mont, dammit.

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