Konrad Hilpert glowed in the dark [click]

Three Russian women and one young American man exploded under the lights tonight at Heavenly.

American Steve Roxberg doubled his rotations for his first top spot while the Russian women extended their expressionism beyond fellow females yet again. All against the best freestyle competitors the world has to offer.

Tonight's festive acro atmosphere under the lights had all athletes smiling and finished up with a firework finale.

"When the leader of tonight's Russian onslaught, Elena Batalova, was questioned further, 'it must be in the food,' she replied..."

Steven Roxberg took 5th last weekend in Steamboat, CO, but was able to pull out his first 1st place here tonight.

"I added a two-and-a-half rotation. I did two of them tonight," he said of his winning routine.

Ahhhh, the fireworks [click]

After 11 years competing and over 10 podiums, Steven has been the best man many times but never the groom. Maybe it took his marriage this summer to show the young, strong freestyler the light above Lake Tahoe this evening. When asked what did it for him today, "the crowd, definitely," he said. "I didn't ski until December 27th. Now I have school on Monday and then the World Championships in March. I hope my teachers will be lenient."

The elegant and bold Russian team took the same top-three standings as it did in last year's World Cup final standings: Elena Batalova 1st, Oksana Kushenko, 2nd and Natalia Razumovskaya in 3rd. They seemed secretive as to their reason for winning. The coach said only, "we're decisive."

When the leader of tonight's Russian onslaught, Batalova, was questioned further, she said "it must be in the food." I think it was the brilliant costume with bell bottoms and frizz all around, but everyone else thinks it's the gymnastics background.

Thumbs up from Japanese competitor Yukitto Kondo [click]

In the men's, Konrad Hilpert of Switzerland pulled 3rd, only 2/10 of a point away from 2nd place Antti Inberg of Finland even though his costume was completely brilliant with silver puffy stripes reflecting the lights.

Tomorrow brings on the bumps finals at 2pm PST but a storm is due tonight. See them fly through the flakes of Heaven here in Tahoe.

—Hans Prosl, avoiding the flu back home for The Mountain Zone