The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Final stop of the season
This weekend the Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team traveled to Snowbird, Utah to compete in the final stop of the Junior Freeskiing Tour Championships. Coming off multiple podiums only four days earlier in Taos, expectations were high.
The Junior Freeskiing Championships at Snowbird draws the highest level of competition in junior freeskiing, with athletes making their way from Canada and Europe to give their all against the best.
Crested Butte’s team consisted of Nolan Blunck, Matt Evans, Oz Scott, James Beltz, Josie Byron, Brittany Barefield, coaches Ed Dujardin, and Woody Lindenmeyr and a great showing of parent support.
The stage was set on the Silver Fox venue underneath the tramline, which is one of the longer venues on the tour.
The course was skiing well, but the low snow year provided fewer options than usual. Snowbird would not let the crowd down though, and fresh snow almost magically appeared with some 15 inches falling on the second day of the three-day contest. This made for the best conditions the tour has seen this year, and it was on.
For the women, Josie Byron and Brittany Barefield worked together to find a line that would help them overcome slow starts on day one. Competing in her last girls 12-14 division (and also celebrating her 15th birthday), Brittany Barefield put together the highest scoring run in the finals, jumping from seventh to third.
Barefield skied both smooth and aggressive, finishing her run with a straightline to air, wowing the crowd and securing the podium. Skiing a similar run with the same finishing straight-line, Josie Byron upped her score 3.33 points to secure an eighth-place finish.
In the 15-18 boys division, three out of the four CBMST boys skied their way into the finals, with Matt Evans, Nolan Blunck, and Oz Scott sitting in fifth, 15th, and 20th, respectively. In his only competition of the year, Scott put together a playful yet hard charging run, capping his run with a 25-foot air and earning himself 17th place.
James Beltz also skied well in his first JFT comp of the season, and is hungry to charge hard next year. Nolan Blunck skied two solid runs in his last competition as a junior, impressing the judges with his consistency and flow to take 13th place.
Finally, sitting in fifth going into the finals, Matt Evans attempted to storm the podium by back-flipping a 15-foot rock early in his run. Evans back-slapped his flip, however, and lost five spots to finish in 10th.
Despite finishing lower than he would have hoped, Evans’ skiing and overall attitude earned him the overall Tecnica/Blizzard Free Mountain Award. The award “goes to the athlete who best exhibits on-hill/off-hill positive leadership and a sportsman-like attitude.” Next year, Evans will ski for Blizzard Skis and Technica Boots, a huge achievement for the 16-year-old.
Also, congratulations to Jess Sterrett of Alta/Bird (12-14 girls), Chase Whitney of Squaw Valley (12-14 boys), Sally Steves of Red Mountain, B.C. (15-18), and Ian Borgeson of Arapahoe Basin (15-18) for winning their respective divisions.
Go to www.westelkproject.com to see more photos and video highlights.
