Men's winner Alex Wilson (USA) [click]

American Alex Wilson took his first freestyle win today under 16+ fresh inches on the course since this morning. "I love this type of conditions, I love when it's dumping. This is the pure essence of skiing when it's dumping and you're having fun," Wilson said smiling.

His run was his typical meat and potatoes with a double twister spread at the top hit and a triple twister at the bottom. Richard Gay pulled out second with his fine French style and flow down the fluff today that was boot deep in places kicking up a cloud at every turn.

"I love this type of conditions, I love when it's dumping. This is the pure essence of skiing when it's dumping and you're having fun..." —Alex Wilson (USA)

WWW=Women Who Won [click]

Another success story from the back of the pack was America's Caleb Martin who took third in only his 7th World Cup competition. It was his first time in the finals. "I had quite a bit of confidence and once I was in the finals, I knew I could just go for it," said Martin.

The women's mogul finals were even tighter, with Americans Anne Battelle and Michelle Roark looking like they were going to podium with only a few women left to finish their final run. The women were charging however in this blinding blur of white. Minna Karhu of Finland stepped up to the course and left nothing to chance with a huge run that pulled her .61 ahead of Sweden's second placer, Marja Elfman.

Mogul riding position [click]

The petite Aiko Uemura of Japan also pulled ahead of the Americans as well, but only because she had higher individual scores from the judges even though her combined score matched Anne Battelle's 24.36. Battelle was all optimism all the same: "I like to win and I never win so I'm always disappointed," said Battelle. "All in all I think I skied pretty strong, pretty solid. I had trouble getting in the zone or whatever you call it; I realized last year that life goes on even if you don't win the Olympics and I think I'm skiing better because of it."

Slow heli turnaround (we wanted to see more of these) [click]

Yesterday's rain switched to snow while we slept and everyone was awakened to white. Now the stylee boys and girls of the bumps had an additional element to deal with and most seemed to take it in stride. The visibility was diminished, but the landings were always soft, sometimes to the point where competitors were sinking instead of rebounding. The usual well formed alternating bumps and grooves were today more along the lines of fluff and ruts. By the time competitors reached the bottom they were able to straight line a lot because the fresh powder had filled in so much.

Tomorrow brings forth the aerials. We'll be looking for big air and inversions with the best in the world. Nikki Stone and Eric Bergoust are boosting for America under an expected three to four feet storm total by tomorrow night. Let's hope the ceiling raises just high enough that they don't disappear into the clouds here at Heavenly.

—Hans Prosl, thoroughly connected for The Mountain Zone