Words: Myles Ricketts
Photos: Rich Glass
The North Face took quick action at the start of the month to make sure the first stop of the the Park and Pipe Open Series would happen, moving the stop from Ontario to Whistler Blackcomb, British Columbia.
As anticipated with the relocation of the event to the west coast of Canada, the field of athletes was not quite as large as hoped, but what it lacked in size it made up with quality. With world class HP athletes like Mike Riddle, Peter Olenick, Matt Margetts, Taylor Seaton, Roz Groenwoud, Megan Gunning and many others in attendance, it made for a high end competition.
To make the event more difficult for the athletes, the Saturday training was a snowstorm packed with high wind and lots of snow. Somehow unusual for coastal Whistler weather, a cold front came in for Sunday's finals. The sun was out but it was frigid -15 in Canadian (metric) terms. Not sure what that relates to in US (imperial), but in simple terms, it was f$@king cold.
Despite all the lead up fun, the athletes absolutely threw down.
Taking 3rd place for the ladies was Keltie Hansen of Canada, Maddie Bowman in 2nd and one of the most well known regulars in the HP, Roz Groenewoud, smashed first place. Roz started her run with the largest air of the ladies followed by a right 9 then some switch landings and switch take off spin combos to finish up her winning run.
For the dudes, 3rd place went to Joss Christensen after a very techie run of switch hits and spins with bad ass grabs. The silver went to Kris Atkinson who made it into the finals as the 2nd place qualifier. Kris started with a nice dub back tail into both left and right spin combos.
The MAN, aka winner of the day, was Gus Kenworthy. He boosted a left 9 tail, right 10, switch 720, alley flat 5 to a left 10 finisher.
MEN'S RESULTS
1. Gus Kenworthy
2. Kris Atkinson
3. Joss Christensen
4. Mike Riddle
5. Matt Margetts
6. Marashall LaCroix
7. James Campbell
8. Dan Marion
9. Taylor Seaton
10. Peter Olenick
WOMEN'S RESULTS
1. Roz Groenewoud
2. Maddie Bowman
3. Keltie Hansen
4. Megan Gunning
5. Dara Howell
6. Davina Williams
7. Amy Sheehan
8. Kendall Deighan
9. Alli Welsh
10. Jackie Atkinson
