The Queens Cup Open hosted at Park City Mountain Resort last weekend went off in its 6th year, and was the ultimate battle royal between shredder ladies. This year's competition welcomed bigger spins, harder technical rail trickery, smiles, and high fives from all the participants.
The weekend started off with the Pro Throw Down, where snowboarder Steph Sue Feld and skier Veronica Kelly were named the Queens of Jibbing in their respected disciplines. With 30 competitors Steph and Veronica earned their titles and were rewarded with $500 each.
"Everyone was feeding off of each other and pushing themselves to do better tricks," said competitor and pro skier Erica Durtschi. "Veronica was absolutely killing it from the get go with so many variations of tricks. I think there should be more events like this one."
Veronica, did tricks like blind and front switch ups over the rail-gap box feature, 450's out of the front box and fast plant 270's on the down box. Steph did a front flip off of the flat box which surprised the crowd and got them saying "whoa!"
The ladies get their flip on.
"It was really awesome to win the rail jam, and I was glad to see such a large turnout of girl snowboarders and skiers to make it a success," Veronica said. "Everyone was super supportive of the girls in the rail jam, I saw so many high fives from the crowd and the park city park maintenance!"
The Pro Throw Down Rail Jam also raised $400 for High Fives non-profit foundation which is a foundation that raises money and awareness for those who have suffered a life altering injury while perusing a snow sports dream.
On Saturday, the stakes were set high again and skier girls competed against each other to be named the Queen of Slopestyle. On a blue bird sunny day it was New Mexico's Nadia Gonzales who earned that title and won herself $500 and a pair of Moment skis. Nadia threw tip top rail tricks into a switch 540, right 360 and left 720 to earn her title.
"I'd have to say that [Queens Cup] was probably the smoothest and most impressive womens comp I've ever personally worked or seen," said head judge Austin Ramaley. "[We saw] these girls doing front flips, backflips, mistys, switch hits and big smooth spins."
In second place was Park City local girl, 17-year-old Taylor Lundquist. Taylor scored a perfect score in the rail section of her run by throwing rail tricks like a 270 on, switch up, 270 out of the up-down box and also received Boom Botix' biggest boom of the day award.
Whistler's Emma Whitman came in third by throwing smooth grabbed 360's and cork 720's in addition to trick variations in the rail section.
Erica Durtschi's team.
"It was really awesome to see so many girls throwing down and sent me home super motivated to learn and progress more," said competitor Ashleigh Low.
In Queens Cup fashion, product prizes were rewarded to the team that did the best.
This year it was Erica Durtschi's team of Moo Eakin, Maggie Vosin, Taylor Lunquist and Alana English. Erica's team's stylish tricks like Moo's 270 out of the boxes, Maggie's 720's, Alana's spins on all the jumps and of course Taylor's second place run made for a team that really deserved it.
On Sunday about a foot of fresh snow had dropped down on the half pipe course. It didn't take long for the girls to come up with an unanimous decision to shred the famous Utah powder and collect product prizes at the end of the day instead of attempting to slip the halfpipe.
The girls were lead into the powder field by Park City local and Park City Freestyle Coach, Jessie Sharpe. Photographer Riley Snyder also joined the group and took photos. Jessie lead the girls to Jupiter Peak and took them on hikes, off cliffs and down steep chutes.
"This weekend has been one of the funniest weekends of the year," said pro skier Megan Gunning. "Queens Cup is such a great event the vibes are high its hard not to have a good time shredding with all the girl senders who come out."
The winner of the Queens Cup Evolve Chile video contest is Annabel Blake who won herself a free trip to Evolve Chile ski camp at Valle Navado. Go to Evolve's fan page to check out the videos of girls who entered. Annabel will be blogging her experience all the way from the Queens Cup Open to Chile this summer on Evolve's website; www.evolvechile.com.
The 6th Annual Queens Cup Open wouldn't have been possible without our sponsors; Park City Mountain Resort, Park City Freestyle, High Fives Foundation, Moment Skis, The Avent Group, Smith Optics, Bern Helmets, Paul Mitchell, Dakine, Discrete, Evolve Chile, Boom Botix, Skullcandy, and All-Seasons Resort Lodging.
For more information about The Queens Cup Open, visit the website at www.thequeenscupopen.com.
Check out the full photo gallery.
The Pro Throw Down Rail Jam:
Veronica Kelly (skier)
Steph Sue Feld (snowboarder)
Slopestyle Results:
1st – Nadia Gonzales – 83
2nd – Taylor Lundquist – 80
3rd – Emma Whitman – 64.5
4th – Catherine Warchal – 60
5th – Julia Krass – 59
6th – Julia Marino – 54
7th – Veronica Kelly – 50
8th – Marley Rodwick – 48
Moo Eakin – 48
Maggie Voisin – 48
9th – Alexi Micinski – 46
10th – Annabel Blake – 43.5
Boom Botix' Biggest Boom of the Day – Taylor Lundquist (270 on, switch up, 270 out).
