"Kirkwood skiers, riders and staff are all fired up to host the Subaru North American Freeskiing Championships," said Chris Eckert, events and promotions manager at Kirkwood. "Last year we could not have asked for better conditions for the competition, with bottomless pow and blue skies. This year's snow conditions differ from last, so we are expecting to see more technical lines being thrown down as opposed to the huge airs that we saw last year."

Competitors from around the globe, including Canada, U.S.A., Argentina, Sweden, Japan, Italy and France will vie for a $12,500 prize purse, with the men's and women's overall World Tour point leaders taking home $5,000 each. With approximately 200 competitors attending, the reigning Subaru North American Freeskiing Champions, Mathiew Richard and Laura Ogden, will have their work cut out for them as they try to hold onto their titles.

Also in attendance will be Subaru USFS point's leader Adrien Coirier of Les Arcs, France. Coirier won the Subaru Telluride Freeskiing Open, the Subaru Squaw Valley USA Freeskiing Open and placed second at the Subaru Jackson Hole Freeskiing Open. The North Face Young Gun point's leader Brady Smedsrud sits in second behind Coirier. Other contenders present will include Chris Tatsuno, Craig Garbiel, Griffin Post, Cliff Bennett and Neal Valiton.

Jess McMillan of Jackson, WY, leads the women's standings after winning the Subaru US Freeskiing Nationals and the Subaru Jackson Hole Freeskiing Open. Other contenders to watch include series front runners Jane Somerville, Andria Huskinson, Jamie Burge, Crystal Wright, Iris Noack and Tanya Christensen.

The proposed venues for qualifying will be on Vista with the finals being held in the Cirque. The venue is visible from Devil's Corral at the base of Vista and the Cirque. As always there is plenty of front row seating to watch the competitors put everything on the line.

"With the cancellation of the early season European events the 2007 USFS has seen quite an influx of athletes from all over the globe and has created the most competitive field ever," said Winter Sports Event Director and Announcer Dak Williams. "Kirkwood delivers every time by opening the permanently closed "Cirque" and this being a low snow year will only make it more difficult to win the title. If you are not in Kirkwood for this event you are missing one of the truly great ski events of the year."

Based on feedback and continued interest from snowboarders over the past few years, Kirkwood Mountain Resort will once again include a snowboard element to the contest. The North American Big Mountain Snowboarding Championships, which always produces see some great competitive riding, remains the only big mountain snowboard competition in the U.S.

New in 2007, MSI will be posting same-day video broadcasts on the newly redesigned usfreeskiing.com video player. The daily uploads of video, photos, news and results of each day's competition action will be available mere hours after each day concludes.

Previous Subaru U.S. Freeskiing Series tour stops include the Subaru Jackson Hole Freeskiing Open at Jackson Hole, WY, the Subaru US Freeskiing Nationals at Snowbird, UT, the Subaru Squaw Valley U.S.A Freeskiing Open, at Squaw Valley U.S.A , CA, and the Subaru Telluride Freeskiing Open at Telluride, CO.

Subaru North American Freeskiing Championships Schedule

Monday, March 26th- Registration

Tuesday, March 27th- Women's Skiing qualifier & Snowboarding Day #1

Wednesday, March 28th- Men's Skiing qualifier

Thursday, March 29th- Snowboarding Finals

Friday, March 30th- Skiing Day #1 World Tour

Saturday, March 31st- Skiing World Tour Finals

Sunday, April 1st- Weather Day

Special thanks to our sponsors:
Subaru of America
The North Face
Corona
Nordica
Yakima
Scott USA
Sports Insurance
Powder Magazine
Emergen-C
Leatherman
Grabber
Ski Press Magazine
IFSA
Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort
Jackson Hole Mountain Resort
Telluride Ski Resort
Squaw Valley USA
Kirkwood Mountain Resort