Locals throw down and step up onto podium at Taos Freeride event

Missy Tracy takes snowboard title

Local athletes threw down at the Salomon Extreme Freeride Championships in Taos, N.M., March 3-5, with four of them stepping up to the podium.
Missy Tracy made the most of her first competition ever and won the women’s snowboard title with Crested Butte Mountain Resort rider Ivana Crone joining her on the podium in second place.
Meanwhile, Rob Dickinson finished second and Brandon Claybaugh, skiing for Atomic and the Colorado Freeskier, moved up 19 spots on his final run to take fourth place in the men’s skiing competition.
Tracy used the Taos event to test the competition waters after being talked into to it by her friends.
“My skier friends pretty much told me I should be competing,” says Tracy. “Taos was a relatively cheap and easy way to get my feet wet and see what the competition thing is all about.”
Tracy made an immediate impression on the judges on her first run, winning the qualifying day held on the West Basin Ridge.
“I just tried to pick a technical line and rode it smooth,” says Tracy.
Tracy used the same line with a slight variation on the next day but by the time she got to her exit, it was beat down and unrideable so she picked an easier exit.
The move left her in second place at the end of the day but she rallied back into first place on her final run the next day off Kachina Peak.
Tracy found a tight chute she wanted to straight-line through while scoping out Kachina Peak two days earlier. Upon further inspection, she discovered a technical way to get to the top of the chute and dropped into the teeth of the lion.
“I just tried to stay in the rocky gnar as much as possible,” says Tracy.
No other woman touched her line and she came away with the title, $500, and a new snowboard, as well as other prizes including a trophy filled with a gin martini that she had to chug on the podium.
Crone won the Taos event as well as a snowboard freeride event in Aspen last year. This season she took second place in Aspen in February. Due to her past results, Crone was pre-qualified through to the official day-one start in Taos.
On the first day, Crone dropped into the most technical line she could find but a butt-check left her in third place.
Crone continued to push the limit on the technical end of things the finals day on Kachina Peak, moving her way into second place and a $250 payday.
“I did the best I can,” says Crone. “I was the only woman to ride both of those lines. They were the most technical and the steepest.”
Dickinson avenged a hiccup from the Crested Butte freeskiing event two weeks ago when he dropped off the podium on the final day.
“I didn’t quite nail my run and find my bottom air,” says Dickinson.
He made up for it in Taos coming into the finals in second place and staying there to take home some cash.
“I walked away with $1,000—not too bad for three days of skiing,” says Dickinson.
Dickinson gained momentum during the qualifier day finishing in first place.
He came into the official start of the event the next day with a ski line picked out but it was dependant upon the sun to make it skiable.
“It would have been great if the sun came out but it started snowing and I had to bail on my original plan,” explains Dickinson.
As a result, Dickinson skied across a slew of rocks all the way to the bottom to finish the day in second place.
“I’ve never hit so many rocks on a run,” says Dickinson. “It was not something you go and ski with your buddies on a Saturday.”
Sitting in second place on the final day, Dickinson was determined to finish in the money. After proving he could negotiate his way through rocky terrain, Dickinson opened it up for the last day on the finals venue off Kachina Peak.
“After hitting a bunch of rocks the first two days, I really wanted to go out and have fun,” says Dickinson.
Dickinson kept it smooth and fast through the top and finished his run by sticking a huge air at the bottom to hold onto second place.
Claybaugh’s line on the first day was somewhat obstructed from view of the judges, leaving him in 23rd place going into the final day.
But he had competed in Taos before and had a line in mind for the finals that he had scoped over the past two years. Snow conditions this year changed the line but Claybaugh was set on skiing it anyway.
“It was super-rugged but from the bottom it looked good to go,” explains Claybaugh. “I was confident going into it and ended up stomping it. It was definitely a no-fall zone.”
His run was the highest scoring run of the entire weekend by far and moved him from 23rd to fourth place to take home $300 and win the Pájaro Loco (Sick Bird) award.