The big mountain event was really sweet this year even with some difficult and scary snow conditions, resulting from the rain earlier in the week that left a frozen and icy rain crust everywhere. Luckily the snow came this week to make the hard crusty conditions manageable as well as cover all the little rocks so no one could see them. The nice looking takeoffs were really deceptive, with sharp rocks lurking under the newly fallen snow, conspiring to grab your skis and rip them off your feet. Sam Wright was the first to be victimized by these rocks in the qualifier on friday, which were held on the Throne, as he rolled into his air a little too slow, dry docking on the buried rocks and front flipping off with one of his skis stuck on the takeoff point. About his encounter with the rocks, Sam was quoted as saying, " I feel so violated and exposed by what has happened today. It's too bad there have to be rocks with such bad intentions, I just wish I had seen this coming.(*)" Luckliy, the new snow was making for some much softer (sort of) landings as well so every possible rock, cliff band...basically anything that could be used to send some air, was. There was an unusually high number of falls on Fridays qualifier, most of which involved frozen ice chunks underneath the new snow and unforgiving icy traverses and ruts. Despite the conditions, JD Thompson once again threw down in the qualifier this year with a huge over rotated 3 off the lower dead tree feature that landed him in the flats. One way of avoiding the difficult conditions is by turning as little as possible, which is exactly what Zack Barrett did as he aired a feature at the top and straight-lined the entire venue to the cheers of his fellow competitors. The day was a huge success with really strong riding from both the male and female competitors and no serious injuries despite the large number of falls.

The finals day was more of the same conditions on The King, a 1500 ft face full of sweetness resulting in very high numbers on the stoke'ometer, with cloudy skies and intermittent low lying clouds. It might of as well been a powder day though because it was hard to tell the difference by the way everyone attacked the mountain. Almost no cliffs were left unhucked including the 40-70 foot band at the bottom of the venue. At one point there was an unidentified starfish or UFS (some sort of attempted lincoln loop) that came out of nowhere off the 70 footer. Apparently this is the first sighting ever reported of a flying starfish. A witness that wished to remain nameless provided us with this sketch. Once again Zack Barrett decided to send it by launching a 70 foot air, straightlining for 10 feet or more leading up to the edge, lip, or whatever you want to call it. With very firm but stompable landings, everyone crashed except for the eventual 2nd place finisher who dumped some speed before his air and landed on better tranny than everyone else. Local skier Tyler Ceccanti took 1st with a fast and fluid line down the king that included a 30 foot air in the exposed middle section of the venue, while Laura Ogden once again took 1st in the women's skiing. Then came the awards ceremony, real exciting stuff.

Then there were some announcements, blah blah blaah, and the wig party that evening at the Bullwheel. Only a few wigs actually appeared, no one got the memo I guess. But, the ratio was amazing, 80% girls, probably some kind of record...especially since there was a mixture of swedish, south american and japanese. The japanese girls, being on some sort of group vacation, had their cameras out and were shooting teasingly revealing photos of the other nationalities represented, keeping the stereotype alive. This photo taking frenzy eventually led to a 4 way makeout session represented by girls from sweden, colombia, japan, and canada. Holy crap this party was ridiculous, what are the chances of this coinciding with the freeskiing comp! Actually, none of this really happened, ahaah. But the party involved a lot of consuming and relaxation after the nervousness of the previous days competition.

The Silver King Freeride is organized by Mountain Challenge (mountainchallenge.org) and supported by Sturtevant's, Boarderline Snowboards, K2 sports, Monkey Rides, Clearly Lasik, Fuel TV, Sports Legs, Zeal Optics, Scott, Adhost Internet, Nordica, and Phiten USA.

Results-

Womens Ski
1. Laura Ogden Crystal Mountain 55.94
2. Hazel Birnbaum Kirkwood 55.00
3. Kasie Stroshin Whistler 53.01

Mens Ski

1. Tyler Ceccanti Crystal 71.31
2. Mike Vaughan Alpine Meadows 67.57
3. Elliot Marsh Crystal 63.44

Womens Snowboard

1. Shannan Yates Snowbird 53.44
2. Alison Kayes Whistler 44.63
3. Jamie Coughlin Mt Hood 42.00

Mens Snowboard

1. Dave Watson Snowmass 56.31
2. Sky Risvold Crystal/Snoqualmie 54.62
3. Adam DeVargas Sierra-at-Tahoe 54.50