Nikki Stone [click]

Yesterday's delay was worth the wait as the women were looking down on the beauty that is Tahoe. The skies cleared and the sun broke allowing the aerialist ladies to boost with confidence under the Heavenly view from above Lake Tahoe.

American Nikki Stone, last year's gold medalist from Nagano, took the women's aerials under sunny blue skies, followed by Australia's Jacqui Cooper and Canada's Veronica Brenner in 3rd.

"You try to block out the fear and the pain and everything else and just make it happen..." —Nikki Stone

Nikki was steady under the pressure of defending her gold. Her back full, full was clean so she followed it up with a back full, double full. Listen to Nikki's interview

"I think after a while you just learn to focus so much on what you're doing," said Nikki. "You try to block out the fear and the pain and everything else and just make it happen... I think it's more relaxing to know that I have that gold medal sitting at home whenever I need it. So when I come out for these contests it's nice to do well but I can always remind myself that I do have a gold medal at home."

Jacqui Cooper tossed out her standard triple inversions, the highest degree of difficulty, while most of the others shot doubles. This would have easily brought her the win had she not dragged her hands on her first attempt's landing. Even with a clean second jump, it wasn't enough to displace Nikki Stone's consistency.

"I was second today and I hate losing," said Cooper. "Second is still good, but I had a really bad first jump... it was really nice in the air but I didn't land and it cost me the win today. I was really happy with my performance and concentration in the second jump... but overall I'm really happy, I'm still number one in the world right now and I'm psyched." Listen to Jacqui's interview

Everyone who stayed was rewarded with clear inspiration from women attacking these monstrosities at +35mph and launching +50 feet, keeping their world class composure under this Heavenly background. Now everyone is awaiting the next storm and looking to the Lake for signs of La Niña. Let the snow flow.

Saturday, January 24, Men's Aerials

Dmitri Dashinski (BLR) [click]

"Waiting on wind hold" were the words of the day during the men's aerials. They pulled it off, but the women will take to the ramps on Monday morning as their comp was rescheduled when the day grew long and cold.

Dmitri Dashinski from Belarus went all out and took it with a full, full, full, nailing it for 1st place, same spot he had in Steamboat, CO last week. "There was nothing good about today," he said of the weather. That's the chance you take when you play outside. And he walked away with another win. Not bad. "I got lucky today...very lucky," Dashinski said.

"I got lucky today...very lucky."—Dmitri Dashinski

After being out last year with an injury, American Joe Pack took the sweet 2nd spot on the podium, followed by teammate Matt Chojnacki in 3rd.

"Last year at the America's Opener, I hurt myself doing a full double full full and that's something I've been working on for a while," said Pack. "So for me to come out here and compete with that jump for the first time and land it and do well and get second... you're kidding me. That's something I've been thinking about for a little over a year now."

During the competition, tension sat in the air as the launchers waited at the top as winds gusted wildly, forcing course holds throughout the day. The first competitor of the day, Canadian Dustin Wilson, balked at the ramp. After that, Matt Chojnacki (USA) knew that if he did the same, the contest would be cancelled. So he went for it...and made it to the podium.

"We do deal with these tough conditions a lot," said Chojnacki. "I'd say it was borderline. I'm glad no one got hurt. That's all that's important because it was definitely sketchy."

—Hans Prosl, forced into self exile in Tahoe for The Mountain Zone