Get ready Snowbasin, the Winter Dew Tour has arrived. Today marked the first day of practice for both freeskiing slope and halfpipe competitors, with the slope guys taking flight this morning and the pipe men and women taking to the skies this afternoon. And in typical Utah fashion, the weekend has kicked off with sunny skies and warm temperatures.
Kicking things off with slopestyle, the course is a fast and mean beast, with little to no room for error. The top section consists of two rail features (with two options each) and drops you straight into a triple jump line that looks like a rhythm section. Smaller than the jumps at the Breckenridge stop, they make up for it by being in close proximity to one another… one bobble on the landing and you can kiss that run goodbye. After the last jump, you’ve got one last rail feature, an up-rail or the Toyota Box, made famous at the last stop of the Winter Dew Tour.
With no open qualifier at this event, the fat has been cut off and only the leanest of slopestyle riders remain. HÃ¥tveit, Wallisch, Carlson, Schiller, Gagnier, Walker, Brown, Cosco, Henshaw, Dumont, Casabon and all the big guns showed up today. Lap time is long on this course, so many of the athletes opted to hike after each run through. Rail trickery was kept to a minimum today, but some double corks were dropped today, and a lot of smooth stylish 540s and 720s were seen in strong numbers, as well. Quite a bit different, shorter and more intense than the last course at Breck, the slopestyle prelims on Saturday should be real.
After a sizable break in the middle of the day, the pipe jocks took to their habitat to get accustomed to the Snowbasin halfpipe. Again, the lap times were not that speedy, so almost all the pipe riders opted to hike this afternoon. As the sun set, the amplitudes got bigger and the tricks got more technical. While it was practice and many riders were taking their time getting dialed in, a few competitors went to work right away. Simon Dumont officially won practice by dropping competition caliber runs with competition caliber amplitudes, Pete Olenick was skiing with a purpose and was seen asking if their were bigger height meters, and Roz Groenewoud on the women’s side was boosting smooth and stylish airs.
In addition to the aforementioned, the usual suspects were in the mix: Dorey going large in Dorey fashion, Xavier and Kevin dropping double flips, and the return of Sarah Burke after her one year hiatus from the competitions scene. The natural snow halfpipe of Snowbasin should provide an excellent venue for riders to perform aerial maneuvers for the next couple of days. Only time will tell.
Stay tuned for more action as tomorrow holds the promise of men’s and women’s halfpipe preliminary elimination rounds. And if you’re in the Ogden area, come out and support your freeskiers.
