Eclipse En Route

By the time we arrived at Heavenly on Thursday night, the last sliver of the earth's shadow barely nicked the edge of the moon. It was phenomenal. Rings of color more beautiful than the casino lights in Reno surrounded the moon as it emerged from the eclipse. The kick-off fireworks for this World Cup freestyle are going to have a tough act to follow.

We're here to watch the best mogul skiers, acro skiers and aerialists tear up the terrain at Heavenly. We want an up-close view of those action-hero mogul suits, and we want to see how good these rookies really are. We also want to see if anybody tries to land a flat-spin trick in the mogul field.

	Lunatic

On the windy drive up Route 50 from Carson City, Nevada, we found the long-exposure feature on our digital camera. We left the shutter opened for 15 seconds while the lunar eclipse was above us. Here are some photos for our buds back in Seattle, and people in other places who weren't able to catch a glimpse of the event. It was, like, cosmic.

But while big things were happening in the heavens, we made our way through the mountains toward the big casino down the road from the ski hill. My skis didn't make the flight, there's no running water at the casinos due to a water-main break, but I have a feeling the full-moon eclipse will have a crazy yet auspicious effect on the weekend's grand festivities. Stay tuned for the full skinny.

— Michelle Quigley, observing the lunacy for MounainZone.com

Event Schedule
Friday, Jan. 21: Final training sessions for the aerials and moguls at the Freestyle Arena and Gunnbarrel. Acro qualifiers take place on nearby World Cup run from 11:00am to 2:00am. Opening Ceremonies start at 5:30pm on World Cup run, followed by the Acro Finals under the lights at 6:00pm, with fireworks following.

Saturday, Jan. 22: Mogul day. Qualifying from 11am-2pm, finals from 2pm-4pm. The aerialists will also be training next to the bump run during the day.

Sunday, Jan. 23: Aerials. "B" seed competitors from 9am-11am, "A" Seed from 1pm-3pm, awards ceremony to follow.