By Karen McColl
Day One of the Canadian Freeskiing Championships at RMR was an eye-opener for some of the Revelstoke locals, as they got a taste of the competition.
Except if you were Sean Cochrane, who was the competition. Revelstoke’s Cochrane skied a difficult line into North Bowl, hitting several cliffs in the top section, including one referred to by a fellow competitor as a ‘back-breaker.’ He held it together and is sitting in 13th place going into day two tomorrow. The cap for the men was 20 and he was the only Revelstoke competitor to make the cut.
CJ Wright skied hard and was happy with his line, but finished 33rd.
“I had a good plan and it worked out pretty well. All the features went exactly how I wanted.”
The last major cliff section gave Wright some troubles. “I stared to unthread; got myself in the backseat.”
It was at this point that he lost a pole. While competitors don’t specifically loose points for this, it does make it more difficult.
“Skiing out the bottom with one pole was a little unplanned.”
Wright, who has been in Canada for seven years and Revelstoke for two, finished 1st and 2nd in the Lake Louise Big Mountain competition in 2007 and 2008 and plans to continue competing in future competitions.
Eric Young, who qualified in first place yesterday, had an unfortunate change of luck Friday, and crashed twice.
“You can’t land every single thing every single time. I didn’t have same concentration after crashing.” He also plans to compete in upcoming Canadian Competitions.
Izzy and Zoya Lynch skied aggressively, but did not make the cut for today, which was capped at seven women. They finished 11th and 13th.
Competitors who liked Friday’s venue will be ecstatic with today’s choice. They will be heli-dropped onto one of two start zones on Mackenzie face in Greely Bowl, an area that sees little skier traffic. It will be an exciting venue for both skiers and spectators alike.
Spectators can reach the area by taking the high traverse into North Bowl via ‘Drop-In’ and following the traverse across the bottom of powder assault and onto the ridge that pops out into Greely Bowl.
There is a possibility that the competition could be delayed until Sunday due to weather. This will be decided by 10 am today.
People looking to celebrate the end of RMR’s first big ski event can take part in street festivities starting at 5 pm at Grizzly Plaza. Awards will take place at 7 pm at the Plaza and an Event Ender Bender wrap-up party will take place later at the Out of Bounds Nightclub.
Here are two additional images from the day:
