Griffin Post of Alta, Utah, and Jackson native Jess McMillan overcame some variable snow conditions to become the top finishers of the stacked international field pushing the limits on the “Unskiable” and “Tower 3” venue at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

Snow conditions were sketchy during the two-day contest. One female competitor said Friday, “If we ran this morning, I would have slide slipped the whole venue.” But the bulletproof ice rink mostly was replaced with sun-baked snow during Saturday’s final.

Thirty-four men competed in the final, many choosing to hit the steepest terrain on skier’s right side of the venue where the sun still hadn’t warmed the snow. They made it look easy, however. The impressive male standouts included Adrien Coirier’s exposed line through the steep “Handrail” section and cliff drop on the “Colorado Buttress,” which pushed him from seventh to fourth; Griffin Post’s aggressive and extremely fast run moved him from 10th to second; and Cliff Bennett’s near perfect line and technique pushed him even further out in front of the field, sending him to the super-finals with an unprecedented five-point lead.

In the women’s final, 11 skiers competed. But it was Hannah Whitney of Crested Butte, Colo., who got the oohs and ahhs from the crowd. She skied the most difficult line in the “Toilet Bowl” area, weaving in and out of the rocky face then finishing by hitting a double drop popular in the men’s field. She moved from fifth place to first for the super final.

With the snow softening significantly in the afternoon, the athletes upped the ante in the super-finals. A few competitors revved just a bit too much, crashing and opening the door for lower-seeded athletes to move up in the standings. Sitting in third, local Jacksonite Rob LaPier crashed when he dropped a cliff and nearly missed completely landing on the rocks beneath. He was knocked back to eighth overall. Current Subaru US Freeskiing Series overall point’s leader Adrien Coirier made the steeps look easy and was launched from fifth to second overall with his fast, technical run. Post made quick work of the top portion of the venue, skiing the gnarly, sun-baked snow as if it were covered in fresh powder. Post’s run, although nearly flawless, might not have been enough to push him past current leader Cliff Bennett had Bennett not made a small tumble in his final run, which moved him to third overall. The crowd pleaser, however, was when local Conor Horigan did a backflip off a 30 footer and stomped it, but the show wasn’t enough to get him on the podium and upstage Post.

“I had so many nerves going into this weekend and to ski to my expectations is just so satisfying,” Post said. “Cliff was five points ahead going into the final run and that’s a lot to make up. I knew my line this morning scored well so I just tried to ski it harder and faster. I got a little lucky I guess when Cliff fell, but I feel I skied the best I could.”

Sitting in first position going into this morning’s run, Crystal Wright of Jackson Hole had some bad luck when she mistakenly missed her line and was forced to ski the unchallenging gut of the chute. Tied for first with Wright was Suzanne Graham of Alta/Snowbird who also played it safe, sticking to a mellow line and opening the door for Jackson locals McMillan and Hannah Horigan who were sitting in third and eighth respectively. The two had solid, controlled, and fast runs, which moved them up to second and fourth going into the super-finals. But it was Whitney who stole the show by stomping the double-drop.

In the final run of the women’s competition Whitney attempted the same double-drop but crashed, costing her to slide from first position to fourth overall. Horigan’s smooth and aggressive skiing pushed her just ahead of Wright who also crashed. After hitting a 10-footer at the bottom of the venue, she couldn’t scrub speed and crashed into the finish area’s netting. Recent U.S. Freeskiing Nationals Champion Jess McMillan rounded out the Jackson Hole podium sweep with a very fast, hesitation-free run, which won her the title.

“It feels awesome to win at home,” McMillan said. “My whole family is here, all my friends and we had a Jackson sweep which is almost better than me winning alone.”



For complete results, go to usfreesking.com.

Special thanks to Subaru U.S. Freeskiing Series organizer, Mountain Sports International, for pulling off another great contest.