Tai Barrymore. p: Dan Brown
The second day of the Winter Dew Tour has concluded here at Killington as the Pantech Invitational has brought the industry's top athletes to this small hamlet to compete in the second stop of the tour. Starting early Wednesday morning, the packed schedule began with Women's slopestyle qualifiers. Maude Raymond would take the top spot, followed by Eveline Bhend and Eva-Maria Patscheider on the Bear Mountain course. The setup consisted two sets of rail features into three cannon type rails; a box, flat down and pipe and concluding with three large jumps. Moving on to the half pipe, the men would assault the pipe with hope of moving on to the Semi-finals and in the end; Josh Christensen, Kyle Smaine and James Campbell would take 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. Men's Slopestyle would follow, whittling down the 23 entries down to those who'd be able to put a run to their feet and move on. John Strenio would come out on top with Henrik Harlaut and Alex Beaulieu-Marchand close behind.
The winds have howled through the New England valley for the past week, and despite the sun and blue skies, the weather has been cold and would become even colder as the news of Freeski icon Sarah Burke passing away broke yesterday prior to the start of the Women's Last Chance Qualifiers for Superpipe. Appropriately so, the event was cancelled with all entrants moving on to the semi-finals that took place this morning. Early this morning under a clear but brisk sky, the women honored their hero and friend by skiing the pipe in a train and gathering at the bottom for a moment in Burke's honor. The women then dialed themselves into the competition and exhibited some of the biggest runs in recent memory, with "amplitude" being the adjective of the day. Notables included Anyana Onozuka and Maddie Bowman. The top three ladies would include Devin Logan in 1st, Brita Sigourney and Maddie Bowman in second and third respectively. The winds returned for Men's Slopestyle Semi-finals, buffeting the course and causing the event to be postponed for 40 minutes. When the winds refused to pass, a vote was taken with the majority deciding to move the event to Saturday as a one-run format.
Gus Kenworthy. p: Dan Brown
The day would conclude with Men's Superpipe Semi-finals under the lights. A packed field gathered at the top of the icy, difficult pipe to decide who would move on to Finals. A shortened practice schedule due to equipment failure, coupled with the fast conditions caused most to have trouble getting their proper run under them, creating a contentious fight for around the bubble spot. Those who could get past that found themselves moving on to Saturday's final. Tai Barrymore would hold first with his massive airs that included a left side 900 into a massive alleyoop double flatspin 900, followed by a left cork 5, right 900 and finishing with a left 1080. "It's really difficult right now" said Barrymore, "It's super icy and hard to adapt to, coming from the West Coast but I'm super happy coming into tomorrow." Gus Kenworthy would take second, followed by Torin Yater-Wallce in third.
SKI SUPERPIPE OPEN QUALIFIER 1
1 Joss Christensen 80.25
2 Kyle Smaine 77.50
3 James Campbell 75.00
4 AJ Kemppainen 73.75
5 Christian Allen 73.25
6 Marshall LaCroix 70.75
7 Yannic Lerjen 70.50
8 Lyman Currier 68.50
9 Kris Atkinson 68.00
10 Tyler Peterson 61.75
11 Austin Simonpietri 58.00
12 Beau-James Wells 56.50
13 Alexander Ferreira 48.25
14 Colter Brehmer 45.50
15 Frederick Iliano 43.75
16 Theodore Porter 39.75
17 JP Solberg WD
SKI SUPERPIPE SEMI-FINAL
1 Tai Barrymore 87.50
2 Gus Kenworthy 82.75
3 Torin Yater-Wallace 81.50
4 Taylor Seaton 80.00
5 Tucker Perkins 77.50
6 Joss Christensen 76.00
7 David Wise 74.25
8 Xavier Bertoni 70.75
9 Noah Bowman 69.25
10 Simon D'artois 68.00
11 Benoit Valentin 67.00
12 James Campbell 66.75
13 Dan Marion 63.00
14 Christian Allen 62.75
15 Marshall LaCroix 62.25
16 Nils Lauper 61.75
17 AJ Kemppainen 60.75
18 Matt Margetts 60.25
19 Joffrey Pollet-Villard 58.25
20 Thomas Krief 33.75
21 Lyman Currier 29.75
22 Kyle Smaine 24.75
23 Yannic Lerjen DNS
23 Mike Riddle DNS
23 Peter Olenick DNS
23 Josiah Wells DNS
23 Simon Dumont DNS
SKI SLOPESTYLE OPEN QUALIFIER 1
1 John Strenio 85.00
2 Henrik Harlaut 82.17
3 Alex Beaulieu-Marchand 80.83
4 Vincent Gagnier 76.17
5 Willie Borm 74.83
6 Josiah Wells 72.67
7 Cody Ling 72.00
8 Matt Walker 69.33
9 Tim McChesney 68.17
10 Robert Franco 67.83
11 Alex Bellemare 67.00
12 Mike Mertion 64.67
13 Colby West 64.33
14 Oscar Scherlin 62.83
15 Aidan Sheahan 55.50
16 Cody Cirillo 52.67
17 Erik Hughes 42.00
18 Lyman Currier 40.50
19 AJ Kemppainen 40.00
20 Kai Mahler 31.33
21 Will Hibbs 30.00
22 Ian Cosco 17.17
23 Jeremy Pancras DNS
23 Fridtjof Fredricsson DNS
SKI SLOPESTYLE WOMEN QUALIFIER
1 Maude Raymond 86.33
2 Eveline Bhend 81.67
3 Eva-Maria Patscheider 66.00
4 Maria Bagge 60.33
5 Nina Rusten Andersen 54.67
6 Rose Battersby 34.50
7 Emma Whitman 23.33
8 Jackie Kling DNS
SKI SUPERPIPE WOMEN SEMI-FINAL
1 Devin Logan 86.75
2 Brita Sigourney 85.00
3 Maddie Bowman 81.25
4 Ayana Onozuka 78.25
5 Annalisa Drew 74.50
6 Anais Caradeux 72.50
7 Rosalind Groenewoud 71.00
8 Katrien Aerts 70.00
9 Dara Howell 63.50
10 Manami Mitsuboshi 62.50
11 Keri Herman 60.81
12 Kendall Deighan 59.75
13 Kimmy Sharp 58.50
14 Megan Gunning 58.25
15 Keni Maras 54.75
16 Charity Mersereau 54.00
17 Davina Williams 51.25
18 Rose Battersby 51.00
19 Mirjam Jaeger 48.50
20 Yurie Yamazaki 45.75
21 Keltie Hansen DNS