Unknown Accomplice

If several hundred people come out at night to watch you work while it's snowing sideways, you to are a rock star.

Mike Michaelchuck is again on tape and pain killers to suppress his injury. You might think this would open the door for someone else to claim the prize. Unlikely. Michaelchuck only needs to stick his signature backside flip to bring awe and astonishment to the masses. No problem. "As long as I don't land switch, I'm okay," he said.

The boy always seems to be okay even when he's injured. Leslee Olson had a little injury of her own by knocking herself out. She couldn't tell me what happened because she didn't remember. Several people walked away funny with some solid steel butt checks or body shocked, straight leg landings.

Dark Winds

The vert was big so any misinterpretations could be fatal. Then, as if this wasn't enough, the snow was wailing up the pipe and through the people. It slowed the boosters to the point where they had to sling shot each other out of the starting gate.

The ladies were sticking to method airs, maybe because Leslee was seeing stars. Michele took first for biggest, Shannon second for smoothness and Tina third for methodic basis.

I expected to see Josh Dirksen somewhere in the top five because he was one of the few with the senselessness to go inverted on this behemoth beeeeahhhhhhtch, but nooooooo. It's always about size with these damn snowboarders. So, Sweden's Stephan Karlsson got pulled, kept speed and soared above the wall of ice aghast. Lael Gregory got redemption from the judges after being denied finalist status in the World Cup earlier in the week.

The wind only increased to the point where you couldn't see the top, you couldn't see the other side, banners were blowing off the fencing and people were cheering only the real big gusts.

— Hans Prosl, driving through waves of white outs for The Mountain Zone

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