The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“They made Angle Gully look like a groomer”
Crested Butte Mountain Resort hosted the first regional competition of the 2014 season in the IFSA Central Region on Saturday and Sunday, February 1-2. Freeride teams from around Colorado and New Mexico travelled to Crested Butte to take on the famed steeps and take advantage of a well-timed storm that brought almost 30 inches just before competitors arrived.
The CBMST was ready to take on everyone and delivered, with podiums in almost every age class, highlighted by Brittany Barefield and Josie Byron taking first and second, respectively, in the 15-18 Women out of a total 25 Crested Butte and Gunnison junior athletes participating across all categories.
Hawks Nest played host to the venue on Day 1, Saturday, and the U12 division started up the action with solid skiing, hitting airs that would make most adults jealous or cringe, depending on your opinion of gravity.
Local groms Carson Hildebrandt and Gus Bullock led the 12-deep U12 boys, while Avery Bernholtz stayed on her feet to qualify her for Headwall. Turner Peterson of Crested Butte turned in a strong fifth to move on to the next day in the 12-14 Boys category.
In the older age divisions, the CBMST had six out of nine men move on to finals, led by sophomore Patrick Curvin and senior Solon Gray, in his first competition, who were in fifth and sixth place, respectively. Lane Griffin was close behind and Oz Scott, Peter Landry, and telemarker Conrad Truettner also made the cut, while Asher Coady, Matthew Harper-Johnston, and Bill Klein took unfortunate falls in the powder.
CBMST veteran junior Brittany Barefield took a small lead over a regional friend and rival, Emma Patterson of Taos, with her Crested Butte teammate Josie Byron close behind in third just two points away.
The next day in Headwall, Josie would make moves with the strongest run in the women’s field through the “little Banana chute” or “Pankey’s pocket,” depending on your vocabulary, and over Box Rock to overtake Patterson. Brittany Barefield skied a similar line to Josie to hold on to the lead, with just one-third of a point separating them in their final run.
Patrick Curvin would lead CBMST on the men’s side, earning fourth with a strong air off Box Rock while Oz Scott skied the second best run in the finals with a big sender off the diving board in Angle Gully to move from 12th to fifth. Lane Griffin kept it close in sixth place and Peter Landry kept the CBMST dominant in the top 10 with his creative triple off the handrail to earn eighth place.
Big shoutouts go to Pierce McCrerey of Team Summit for taking the win with the best runs on both days, while Erik Hilb and Kevin Nichols of Vail took second and third, respectively. Head judge Carrie Hicks said, “They made Angle Gully look like a groomer.”
The younger kids skied the Headwall admirably as well. Carson Hildebrandt and Gus Bullock stayed in first and second in the U12 and Charlie Cox skied the best run in the age class, moving from ninth to fourth. Turner Peterson was stoked to move to second place from fifth in the 12-14 Boys and Avery Bernholtz skied her way into first place in the U12 girls division. Dagan Schwartz represented Crested Butte’s only snowboarder in the finals, winning the U12 division after Mabel Howard fell on day 1 in the girls 12-14 division.
Next up is the second stop of the Central Region “Freeride the Divide” series at Aspen Highlands this coming weekend, February 8. It will be a one-day event held on Highlands Bowl and the CBMST will send eight athletes in the 15-18 division and four athletes in the U12 division. Brittany Barefield will be looking to continue her regional dominance while young guns Brooks Hudson and Kye Matlock will be looking to make up for their untimely falls on Hawks Nest. Oz Scott, Patrick Curvin, and the rest of the young man-children will be looking to improve on their scores as they build regional points that count towards their overall IFSA rankings. We look forward to watching all of the athletes’ progress as they try to qualify for the IFSA North American finals, to be held at Snowbird, Utah in April.
