The weekend saw a strong field ski some gnarly lines, and some stand - out performances.
Luke Nelson made quick work of the finals venue, Polar Peak. He Charged, doubled and spread eagled with his trademark controlled style. Luke commented after that it had been years since he'd put a turn in on polar. These days its powder 11's on route to the Griz bar and 1st place in the chinese downhill!

Former Fernie daylodge employee of the year Eric Young took 2nd place. Eric was one of the best skiers all weekend and took the lead into the final day. His final run was epic, as he launched a "big one" with serious consequence at the top of the venue. A slight miscalculation threw Young off his line and he was forced to forgo several features. Although bummed on missing out on 2500 fasoles, The big guy was stoked enough to be walking away with his first podium and 1500 bucks.
To really kick off the party Aaron Schmidt took third. In my books thats a 123 for Fernie.

It didn't stop there for the locals. Karolina Ekman destroyed the gnarliest and most tech section of Polar Peak and leaped from 4th to 1st to take top spot in the womens event. Karolina is having a stellar season and was recently on the podium at the Canadian Freeskiing Open at Red Mountain. Janina Kuzma took 2nd. She was once again the leader of the pack, leading after day 1 and 2. However Janina got lost on her finals run and was unable to ski her line. She charged the fuck out of it anyway, but Ekman's tech line was enough to surpass Kuzma. In third place was Nathalie Gervais who had a huge weekend aswell.
A shout out to Shannon "don't call me little fish" Whalen for killing her first ever Big Mountain comp. Shannon was sitting third going into the finals, but ended up taking one the best bails of the day after taking by far the biggest air of any of the ladies. Look out for Shannon. Trouble.
Bluebird skies, good Fernie nugs, beer, naked table sliding and gnarly freeskiers equals one hell of a good time!

Check out the pics, vid and full results. Big thanks to Anna Karlstrom, Ben van der Valk and Devon Boulton - Mills for supplying sick pics all weekend.


Smith Optics Fernie Freeski powered by Volkswagen

FINAL RESULTS

NAME BIB # DAY 1 DAY 2 DAY 3 OVERALL TOTAL

Category: Women Ski 19_
1 Karolina Ekman 18 17.67 30.00 37.33 85.00
2 Janina Kuzma 12 24.33 31.00 23.33 78.66
3 Nathalie Gervais 7 21.67 27.67 25.67 75.01
4 Martha Burley 17 19.00 23.33 26.00 68.33
5 Laura Sliva 9 17.67 23.33 25.00 66.00
6 Kathryn "Cassie" Morton 2 15.33 26.33 11.33 52.99
7 shannon whalen 8 19.33 29.33 TDQ 48.66

table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2">




table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2">




Category: Men Ski 19_
1 Luke Nelson 59 36.33 37.00 39.33 112.66
2 Eric Young 24 42.33 36.00 32.00 110.33
3 Aaron Schmidt 33 35.33 35.67 36.67 107.67
4 Mathieu Gagnon Theriault 31 39.67 35.67 27.33 102.67
5 Peter Hodgson 94 26.00 37.00 37.67 100.67
6 Sean Cochrane 83 28.00 39.67 28.00 95.67
7 Alex Wall 25 32.67 35.33 20.00 88.00
8 David Gosselin 89 27.33 28.00 32.00 87.33
9 CJ Wright 46 26.00 34.33 25.00 85.33
10 Rob Meaney 64 26.00 30.67 27.67 84.34
11 Scott Moody 99 25.67 29.00 23.33 78.00
12 Jamie McDermid 30 37.00 32.33 TDQ 69.33
13 Blayne Hettinga 77 30.33 32.67 TDQ 63.00