Chris Tatsuno claims Sickbird award at first big-mountain competition ever held at Telluride
By Brandon Garcia/MSI


The snow conditions were the only downside to an otherwise flawless weekend—with an incredible energy level, zero injuries, and hard-charging skiing through extremely technical terrain.

“The energy that these guys put to the mountain and their technical ability was amazing today. They were going into areas that had never been skied before by the public,” said Bobby Murphy, Executive Director of Resort Services at Telluride. “To see some of the best skiers in the world rip this mountain up was really exciting.”

Variable snow pack forced competitors to be ready for anything.

“The conditions up there were burley,” said head judge Eric Schmitz. “It went from pure ice to punchy to sugar over rocks. Definitely not favorable snow, and yet the level of skiing was phenomenal.”

Women’s competition was basically a battle for second place, with Carrie Jo Chernoff of Crested Butte, CO, holding a commanding lead all weekend. She had the highest combined score of the day, for men or women, in yesterday’s semi-finals, and came into today leading by 12 points.

“I had a pretty big lead, so my focus was just to stay on my feet,” said Chernoff. “Not take it too easy, but ski something I knew I could finish.” Despite her conservative approach, she pulled farther into the lead today, winning the event by over 13 points. Telluride local Galena Gleason came in second, followed by Lynn Kennen of Alpine Meadows, CA, in third.

The men’s title went to Cliff Bennett of Snowbird, UT, who came out of fourth place in the semis to take the overall win—based on combined scores of two semi-final and two final runs.

“I came into yesterday’s venue a little skeptical,” said Bennett. There was a lot of weird snow in there, so I basically just skied down. Today, the venue was a lot more my style—really wide open, with cliffs I could air and then make big turns out.”

Yesterday’s semi-final winner Fred Mooney of Winter Park, CO, came in second, and Walker Willey of Salt Lake City, UT, rounded out the men’s podium in third.

The final award of the weekend, the “Sickbird” award, is perhaps as coveted as the win. Awarded to the competitor who lays it all on the line, this year’s Sickbird award was given to Chris Tatsuno of Sun Valley, ID, whose risky, aggressive skiing all weekend earned him the highest single-run score in yesterday’s semi-finals, and made him the clear choice for the award.

“Today was really good,” said Tatsuno. “I love the venue, and I want to see this happen here every year from now on.”

The best single-run score of the weekend was earned today by Drew Tabke of Alta, UT. “He pretty much hit every feature,” said Schmitz, “Big technical moves above some serious exposure and he stuck all of it. It was beautiful skiing on a really hard line.”

“The terrain here awesome,” said Tabke. “If we had good snow right now, it would be unbelievable.

The Finals were held in the lower section of Palmyra Peak—a huge venue that is rarely open to the public and had yet to be skied this year. After airing off the top cornice and through one of three short, bony chutes, competitors arced high-speed turns down Mountain Quail’s wide open couloir. “It felt like a huge downhill course,” said competitor Forrest Coots.

Athletes then cut right into the Nice Chutes—a technical mix of trees, rocks, and cliff sections with endless line possibilities—before rallying to the finish off of a couple of final showboat airs.

“Unfortunately, right now we probably have the worst snow conditions we’ve seen here in a long time,” said Telluride Ski Patroller Erik Aura, “but it went really smoothly and everybody’s psyched.”

“I know the potential for the future is just off the hook,” said local girl Galena Gleason. “I’ve skied a lot of the out-of-bounds terrain here and its endless. In a good snow year, it’s going to go off harder than any contest.”

The four-stop 2006 Subaru U.S. Freeskiing series kicked off with the Subaru U.S. Freeskiing Nationals at Snowbird, UT, and continues on to the Jackson Hole Freeskiing Open presented by Subaru in Jackson Hole, WY, and the Subaru North American Freeskiing Championships in Kirkwood, CA.

Along with U.S. Freeskiing Series title sponsor Subaru of America and host mountain Telluride Ski Resort, strong support from tour partners Amstel Light, The North Face, Powder Magazine, Sportsinsurance.com, Nordica, and Smith Optics have allowed for a huge overall prize purse as well as expanded coverage of the competition. New for 2006, MSI is excited to present online, video-on-demand footage of all events, which will be uploaded weekly to www.usfreeskiing.com

For Telluride schedules, news, photos, videos, and other important event information, visit the new: www.usfreeskiing.com/2006/TELLURIDE/telluride_index.html


FINAL DAY RESULTS- MOUNTAIN QUAIL - REVIEW

Women Bib First name Last name Home Mountain Day 1 Run 1 Superfinal Total

1 33 Carrie JoChernoff Crested Butte 68.6 30.8 28 127.4
2 56 Galena Gleason Telluride 57.6 28.8 27.6 114
3 8 Lynn Kennen Alpine Meadows 61 30 22.4 113.4
4 36 Tanya Christensen Crested Butte 54.2 29 29.8 113
5 31 Iris Noack Sliverthorne 56.2 33 20.8 110
6 50 Nancy Elrod Girdwood 56.2 27.6 26 109.8
7 43 Kim Havell Telluride 54.8 26.6 27 108.4
8 52 Michele Manning Alta 56.4 16.8 26.8 100
9 44 Katie Williamson Mammoth Lakes 56.4 18.4 0 74.8
Men Bib First name Last name Home Mountain Day 1 Run 1 Superfinal Total
1 9 Cliff Bennett Snowbird 65.4 37.2 35.2 137.8
2 12 Fred Mooney Winter Park 68 30.6 32.8 131.4
3 29 Walker Willey Salt Lake City 63 31.4 34.8 129.2
4 15 Robert W. Gray Jr. Sandy 61.8 30.4 36 128.2
5 49 Bill Buchbauer Telluride 62.6 31 32 125.6
6 30 Drew Tabke Alta 63.6 22.6 39.2 125.4
7 23 Forrest Coots Mt Shasta 62.8 29.4 31.2 123.4
8 18 Brandon Wilkinson The Canyons 66 23.6 28.6 118.2
9 17 Drew Billington Snowbird 67 19.2 29.8 116
10 16 Tyler Knoles Snowbird 57.6 33.8 24.4 115.8
11 58 Walker Tatum Telluride 59 25.6 26.2 110.8
12 51 Kris Knockendoffel Grand Junction 61.6 25.8 23 110.4
13 45 Garrett Russell Mammoth Lakes 60.6 28.2 18.4 107.2
14 48 Larry Segal Squaw Valley 57.6 28.4 16.4 102.4
15 4 Kenjiro Matsuo Tokyo/Alta 60.4 25.2 14.8 100.4
16 41 Devin Carrick Telluride 58.2 26.2 84.4
17 19 Todd Francis Park City 64.6 19.4 84
18 37 Doug Evans Louisville 56.2 27 83.2
19 13 Chris Tatsuno Sun Valley 56.6 22.6 79.2
20 20 David Wintzer Park City 55.6 21 76.6
21 3 Charlie Gaylord Snowmass 57 15.8 72.8
22 32 Ryan Brennan Telluride 57 13 70
23 25 Jared Lynch-Gilbert Alta 57.6 0 57.6