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March 28, 2014

CBMST Represents in the Top 10 at Grand Targhee

Brittany Barefield handled this double with ease in the finals.

Last week the CBMST took half the team to Grand Targhee, Wyoming for their last IFSA National before the North American Championships at Snowbird in April. Five freeride athletes and 3 U12s took on the awesome terrain off the Sacajawea lift amidst strong national competition from Little Cottonwood Canyon and Lake Tahoe.

Peter Hunt in his entry air on Day 1.

Peter Hunt in his entry air on Day 1.

The Wydaho area had been blessed with over a foot of snow a few days before the competition.  Conditions held up and made for great action on the Reliable venue for Day 1.  All CBMST athletes stayed on their feet and made it to the final.  Josie Byron skied a technical line down the looker’s left boundary adding up terrain features her whole way down to get herself in 8th while Brittany Barefield skied a strong top section off the center part of the venue to earn 11th.  Peter Landry led the CBMST men in 11th with a strong 17-footer on the looker’s right side of the venue while Peter Hunt found a creative double in the center of the venue which he flashed, earning 16th and judge’s shoutout later.  Sophomore Lane Griffin wrapped up the action by slotting himself into 25th with an awesome straight-line through some trees to an 8-footer pioneered by Oz Scott and Matt Evans a few years ago, his backseat landing keeping him from scoring higher.

Seth Klein of Altabird Freeride took the biggest air on Day 1.

Seth Klein of Altabird Freeride took the biggest air on Day 1.

The competition venue moved just up the ridge into Wildcat for the finals, a slightly longer venue with much bigger features and a money-booter at the bottom called Rock Chuck. After the 12-14 division lit up the course showing that age can be blurred by young athletes, the 15-18 year olds had their chance to showcase their skills.  Brittany Barefield made up for her average showing on Day 1 by taking the best score in the finals by almost a point with her big double in the bottom of the venue to move up to 4th place and earned the Sick Bird belt buckle for her division for her efforts (an award solely at Targhee this year).  Josie Byron executed her controlled style almost to perfection and moved up to 5th.

Grant Howard went absolutely massive in the finals.

Grant Howard went absolutely massive in the finals.

The boys faced some serious competition on this bigger venue, hardly anyone fell and some big moves were being thrown down.  Peter Hunt stomped a high speed double covering most of the bottom portion of the venue and took the 8th-best score of the day to get himself in 10th, a personal best at National events. Lane Griffin kept things in control but washed out on his tails on his 3 off of Rock Chuck while Peter Landry had trouble sticking his big air reminiscent of Matt Evans and removed himself from contention.

Big props go out to the athletes from the Altabird Team, Little Cottonwood Canyon, and the two Squaw Valley teams.  Only 2 out of 12 athletes in the top 3 amongst the four age-divisions in the main event were not from these two freeride hotspots.  Grant Howard and Casey Rose, both IFSA independents from the LCC, took 1st and 2nd, respectively, with Justin Carpenter of Park City, UT in 3rd in the 15-18 Men’s Division. Jacqueline Pollard of Altabird Freeride took 1st in the 15-18 Women’s division with Emma Deslauriers of Squaw Valley Big Mountain Team and Edie Mason of Altabird close behind in 2nd and 3rd, respectively. In the younger divisions, Parkin Costain of Whitefish, MT dominated the finals of the 12-14 Boys’ Division with Cole Harrity of Squaw Free in 2nd and Finn Reddish of Altabird Freeride in 3rd.  On the girls’ side, Mia Winans of Squaw Free and Ava Seelenfreund of Squaw Valley Big Mountain Team took 1st and 2nd, respectively while Allanna Fitzgerald of Altabird Freeride finished in 3rd.

Brittany Barefield handled this double with ease in the finals.

Brittany Barefield handled this double with ease in the finals.

The U12 National Championships preceded the IFSA National at Grand Targhee and Kye Matlock, Charlie Cox, and Avery Bernholtz represented Crested Butte.  Avery was able to put together 3 strong runs to take 2nd out of 5 competitors.  Kye Matlock found himself in 3rd for his final run but took his bottom air bigger then expected into a hot-tub landing, bumping himself down to 6th overall.  Charlie Cox couldn’t put it together his first two runs but stomped his 3rd run for 7th-best in the finals, landing himself in 14th out of 20.

The event was the last event for the CBMST in the IFSA National series before the North American Finals at Snowbird, UT. That will go down April 9th-13th, and the CBMST will be training hard to get there!



About the Author

2. Will Dujardin
Will Dujardin is our content editor at West Elk Project. He competes in big mountain competitions and coaches the Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team. Skiing is his life and he likes to mix it with other fun things like DH mountain biking and traveling.




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