The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Brooks Miller, Shiloh Stephenson step on top of podium
By Than Acuff
All the training, the stoke and the camaraderie came to a head for nine Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team (CBMST) freeride athletes and one independent local skier at the IFSA Junior Freeride Championships at Kicking Horse in Canada April 4-8. After two days of competing against the best skiers and snowboarders from Canada, the U.S. and South America, Brooks Miller stood on top of the podium among the u19 male skiers and Shiloh Stephenson won the u15 men’s snowboard category. In addition, skier Sol Hausdoerffer took fifth among the u15 women while Phoebe Cahir was awarded the Flyin’ Ryan Hawks Award which is presented to the male and female athletes who best demonstrate positive attitude, camaraderie and genuine love for the sport.
CBMST coaches Grant Spear, Evan Marcus and Tyler Adams took the team to Kicking Horse, one of the biggest teams of athletes from throughout North and South America.
“Crested Butte had one of the largest groups of kids up there with only Whistler and Sugar Bowl bringing more,” says Spear. “It’s huge that CB had such a strong showing at JFCs, it proves not only the success of the CBMST, but that our community is one of the greatest freeride communities out there.”
Given the situation, that is, the top athletes in the two continents competing on one stage, the plan the coaches laid out for their athletes was a mix of trusting the work they put in all season but, by all means, putting themselves out there.
“We had high hopes for everyone, but not grandiose expectations for any single athlete,” says Spear. “We told the athletes that this competition was their reward for a great season so just go out there and giv’er! The level was so high that we kind of had to treat each day as a finals day and playing it safe wasn’t enough to get past the cut in qualifiers. The plan was to ski smart, not safe, and to pick lines that they could ski at 100% ability level, not lines that took 100% of their skill to ski.”
Every Crested Butte athlete made it through the qualifier day without a crash but given the level of competition, skiing your line and staying on your feet wasn’t enough to make it to finals. As a result, CBMST u19 skiers Miller, Tucker Pritchett and Atalaya Hausdoerffer made the cut as did u15 athletes Sol and Stephenson.
“Everyone landed their qualifier runs with no crashes, but to varying degrees of success,” says Spear. “A couple had control hiccups or missed part of their lines and that cost them points.”
After nice weather for the qualifiers, clouds and cold temperatures rolled in and with it, a freeze/thaw cycle that made the planned finals venue unsafe. As a result, they moved the finals venue to an area called Whitewall.
“Whitewall is a steep, NNE face with a large cornice on top, filled with chutes, spines, cliffs and large rock features to get creative on,” says Spear. “Think Headwall but bigger and with more creative features.”
The cold and windy weather remained in place for the finals day making for firm conditions and flat light on a venue with no trees which was difficult for the athletes. Nevertheless, u15 athletes Stephenson and Sol rolled with the situation and rose to the challenge with Stephenson moving from second place into first with his effort and Sol finishing in fifth place.
“Shiloh got lucky with the light and ended up putting down a good run that moved him into first position,” says Spear. “Sol dropped in with milk jug conditions and had trouble finding her line, but she made the most of it with a super-fast run that she didn’t inspect that was good enough to keep her in the top five.”
Visibility and conditions continued to deteriorate during the u15 portion of the event and so event organizers decided they would postpone the u19 finals to the next day and while another stretch of waiting and wondering can wear on athletes, it turned out better in the end.
“The weather day was a blessing in disguise because we were able to adjust some plans after watching the u15 finals and the day ended up being warm and sunny with great venue conditions of firm chalk and windbuff,” says Spear.
Miller came into the final day sitting in second place and after inspecting one line the day before, he changed his line but stuck to his plan and spun two 360s in different directions in technical areas and threw in an additional 360 at the end of the run to push his way to the top spot.
“My plan for my finals run was to spin in both directions while also trying to be as clean as possible,” says Miller. “I was so happy with my first place run, I had so much fun while skiing. It feels amazing to be the champ, I still can’t believe it.”
Local independent athlete Niko Hudson skied fall line and fast in an exposed area with two huge airs and Pritchett chose a line that took him more crosscourt, linking together a huge air and three 360’s to finish in 10th and 12th place respectively in the end, while Atalaya finished in 15th place overall among the u19 ski women.
“We have had three u19 ski men JFC Champions in the last 10 years, a snowboard Junior World Champion and a snowboard u15 JFC champion, something that very few programs have ever done,” says Spear. “It proves that our coaching ethos works. Focusing on the technique and the process, having fun, encouraging individuality in skiing style and trying to create a joy for the sport instead of coaching to chase points and podiums.”
