World’s top skiers battle Buttians at Snowbird freeskiing event last week

Tom Runcie pulls off a major comeback

This past weekend at Snowbird, Utah will be one to remember for Tom Runcie as he managed to pull himself up from 34th after the first day of the Snowbird freeskiing competition to place ninth overall.

As the last stop of the Freeskiing World Tour season, which starts in mid-August on the slopes of South America, the Subaru Freeskiing World Championships marks the end of a long journey spanning two continents and four countries. The athletes who have made it that far are all gunning for one last win, so the competition is usually of an even higher caliber than other events. Add to that near-perfect snow conditions on the venue on Friday and Saturday and you’ve got a recipe for excellence.
Friday marked the first official day of competition, following not one but two days of qualifiers for all the skiers not already pre-qualified. Thanks to his hard work at Crested Butte landing him in second place, Runcie was able to skip those two days. The wind had been doing its work on the Silver Fox venue, located directly below the tramline, buffing it out and setting up a surface that was smooth, soft, and stable, a rarity for big mountain competitions.
In a field of more than 70 athletes, Runcie skied near the end of the list, choosing a tight, technical line through North Chute after airing the wind lip at the top of the run. He chose to skip a man-made kicker at the bottom of the run, selecting instead an air through some small trees, staying true to his Mad River Glen and Crested Butte roots. The run was good, but only netted him 34th, just ahead of the cut-off at 35 men overall.
The next day’s venue, North Baldy, is a true beast in the world of competitive freeskiing, with a long vertical drop and almost too many features to consider. Once again Runcie showed that he is one of the best technical skiers on the tour, flowing through the upper section and rapidly making his way to Amphitheater at the very bottom of the run, whose features have names such as the Broom Closet and Femur Rock, all from 20 to 40 feet tall. As he has done in past comps, Runcie pioneered his way down from the very top of the Amphitheater, essentially straight lining what others had chosen to chop turns down and cleanly airing it out at the bottom.
Runcie jumped 25 spots in the final standings with his effort to finish in ninth place. In addition, the run was good enough to get him a coveted Sickbird nomination, one of only a small handful given out that day. Commentator and former local Frankie Alisuag remarked, “That guy must have been taking Jedi pills.”
Rounding out the extensive local crew that made the drive to Snowbird were Cierra Glenn, Max Lindsey, Ed Dujardin and his brother Will, Scott McBrayer, Kaytlin Hughes, Alex Reidman, Randy Evans, Jared Locke, Francesca Pavillard-Cain, Louise Lintilhac, and Mark Mikos. Only Mikos, a pre-qualified athlete after his performance at Jackson Hole earlier in the year, was able to make it to day two of the competition where he fell, ending up with an official no-score.
As this competition marks the end of the season, overall standings were also determined at the end of the day on Saturday. Runcie, with a second place at Crested Butte and his ninth at Snowbird, finished up eighth overall.
After such a positive result Runcie remarked “I’m fully addicted to the comp scene now, and am already trying to put the puzzle pieces together to get to South America for the tour stops down there this summer.”
Caleb Mullen, who did not compete this past weekend, finished in 23rd with Ryan Sutton in 28th and Rob Dickinson placing 32nd overall. For the ladies, Louise Lintilhac tied for ninth, with Alex Reidman in 17th and Francesca Pavillard-Cain in 21st.
Notably, Snowbird’s results saw a double, double down with the Flyin’ Hawaiian Drew Tabke and Angel Collinson winning both the World Championships and the Tour’s overall McConkey Cup for their victories over the course of the year. Lars Chickering-Ayers nabbed second and Chile’s Chopo Diaz finished third in the overall McConkey Cup standings, while Crystal Wright took second for the women and Ashley Maxfield finished third. For the tour stop, Crystal Wright placed second with Nicole Derksen landing in third. On the men’s side, TGR film star Sage Cattabriga-Alosa spun his way into second with Chopo Diaz rounding out the men’s field in third.