Silver King Freeride 2008

2008 Silver King Freeride

Crystal Mountain, Washington was the setting for the 6th annual Silver King Freeride Competition. The Silver King is an impressive 1200 Vert Peak with a spine of rock down the middle of the venue, allowing the riders to find tight steep chutes, Rocks to pop off of, or an elevated snowfield with a mandatory 40 footer for an exit. The conditions were less than ideal because it had rained to the top of the mountain then got cold and started snowing. Day 1 for the riders was taking place on the Snorting Elk Bowl, a 500 vertical foot venue with tight tree chutes at the top approaching 60 degrees, some big rocks up top, and a technical rock section on the right and tight trees to small cliffs to the left on the bottom. There was about 3 inches of fresh on top of the hockey rink for the riders.
This year marked the first time women had competed in snowboard . 7 women showed up to join 14 men looking to be crowned champion.
The Women started the event off through a constantly changing pattern of snow, fog, and flat light that made it very difficult to stick your airs. Many of the women at Crystal were either 1st time or second time competitors. I was impressed by Heather Chapin , a Mt Hood local who was very nimble on her feet, could have ridden a more difficult line, but ended up in third for the day. 2nd place went to Alison Hayes from Whistler who looked like a ghost coming down the venue just as a squall line hit. How the judges could see her I don’t know. But it was Wily veteran Shannan Yates, last weekends winner from Snowmass, who came in ripped the most difficult line in the tree chutes and aired out the bottom.
On the men’s side the action was very interesting because only Ben Crocker Adam Devargas, and Dave Watson had competed before on this venue and went 1st, 2nd, and 4th on the Podium last year. Dave Watson would set the bar for the day by tearing up a tight tree shoot to a 15 footer that sent him into the bottom trees where jump turns ruled until there was nowhere left to go. A tree was pushed aside a point of the board and a 20 foot up and 30 feet out came out of nowhere which was stomped, and then pointed to the finish. Ben Crocker, reigning Silver King champion stomped his big air at the bottom but did not get the line score and was left in 5th with Adam Devargas in 6th. Sandwiched in between were three first year Freeride competitors. In 4th was Doug Thayer from Tahoe. Local Sky Risvold sat in 3rd, and Aaron Robinson from Whitefish, Montana was perched in 2nd. 1.12 points was all that separated 6th from 2nd. Place and then a 3.56 point gap to Dave Watson in 1st.

The final was set for The Silver King. As usual the King was more elusive then accommodating, not holding any of the snow that had been continually falling since it rained all the way to the top of the venue 4 days earlier. The women would start the day off with weather holds and poor visibility as the squall lines pushed through the venue all day. Most of the women decided to test themselves on the riders left side of the venue, called Pinball’s a 50 degree slope interspersed with trees, rocks, and pepper. The 1st couple of ladies avoided anything crazy and just put down smooth fast pow turns all the way to the bottom. Jamie Coughlin was one of them and her run would push her from the bottom of the pack all the way up to 3rd and the podium with the 2nd highest score of the day for the women. Alison Kayes maneuvered her way through pinballs
And held on to 2nd position overall. But it was The Shannan Yates show again, aggressively carving up Pinballs, dropping a rock band and flying down to the finish.
The men took over after Shannan. Tyler Dewitt, sitting in next to last, started off in Hairballs a tight steep chute that scored really well and was able to move up 5 places to finish in 7th. He was followed by Kirkwood local Tim Roberts who took a nice line through the top of Pinballs then lost his way and was left in 9th place. Next came Jake Laskin, who was the only competitor ski or snowboard who attempted to ride Pinball chute, a scary long chute not very wide that he even aired in the middle of. He might have moved up even farther had he stuck his landing off the left side of the spine, but settled for 5th. He was followed by Adam Devargas who came in to Hairball’s hot, then aired out which caused him to go right by the middle chute. But it was his aggressive line through the elevated snowfield and a 40 footer to get out that gave him the highest score of the day and moved him all the way up to the podium and a 3rd place finish. He was followed by Ben Crocker, notorious big air artist who came down through Hairballs, the middle chute, and onto the elevated snowfield for something big and a shot at the podium. He eyed up a 70 footer pointed it but did not have enough momentum, hit a cliff up high and then bounced onto his head from 60 feet for 6th. Doug Thayer who was sitting in 4th then tried his luck on the Pinball side missed his airs and fell to 8th place. Sky Risvold took his run to the far right of the venue. Not the most technical line but one with fresh pow and a big launch at the bottom for which he received a sickbird nomination, and the second highest score given to a snowboarder at the comp. He was rewarded with a 2nd place finish overall. It was down to the final two riders to see who would be King of The Silver King. Aaron Robinson then followed Sky over to the right hit the big air at the bottom to the Ka-Ka’s of a sick bird Nomination. The lack of difficulty on his run would drop him two places to 4th. Only the 1st round leader Dave Watson was left up top. Dropping into Hairball’s the crowd saw why he was in 1st as he made solid 180 degree jump turns through the chute then came down to the middle chute which was tighter then hairballs and still managed to flow smoothly through and onto the elevated snowfield. Too far left to drop the big cliffs he tried to get back to the right hit a section of ice and slid right passed the tree airs to the left of the cliffs, finished up with a mainline at the bottom and the 3rd highest score of the run, holding off Sky and Adam for the top podium spot.