Prepare for a bumpy ride.
Here is the helmet-cam video from my qualifier run. The count -> 2 spreads and 2 airs (bottom was a double) too me exactly 60 seconds top to bottom. I think I’m going to start spring break and just begin training myself to point the whole venue. Go for a Tatsuno style straight-line.
full res: http://www.jakecast.com/helmetclips/snowbirdQualifier09.m4v
Better luck next year,
Jake 
Welcome to my best attempt to live-blog day 2 of Qualifiers at Snowbird’s US Freeskiing Nationals.
Day 1 was pretty gnarly with snow conditions being hard to predict. Snowbird’s Nik A., Kyle W., and Chuck M. all took falls during their runs.
The women should be starting soon and I’ll update this post as that goes down.
I’m running 64th of 68 or so and I’m hoping that means the snow will soften up by the time I run-
—11:05a—
Ladies have wrapped up. looks like a lot of coral reef snow on west baldy.
—11:07a—
#2 in Taos Abbott Smith (sp?) just took a couple hard falls
—11:59a—
Daryn E. just took a hard fall at the top and is not stoked in the slightest
—12:36p—
Carston O. just killed it down the center section of the venue!
—3:16p—
Made it down my run in one piece! Not sure if it was enough, but I’m glad to be down. Insanely variable snow on West Baldy-
—4:45p—
Bummer judges didn’t think I had enough speed through my line. ended up 36 of 64 :-/…I need to ski faster
Good luck to McKenna, Carston, & Tim tomorrow on Silvy
I figured the drive back wouldn’t yield much in the way of usable trip report photos, but what was supposed to be an 11-hour drive through the desert turned into a 14-hour junk show in all things sketchy-
Complete results, in case you missed them:
Qualifier:
Women
Men, Page 1
Men, Page 2
Finals:
Women
Men, Page 1
Men, Page 2
I realize the Rio Grande is huge
Nik stares back at Taos Ski Valley
Durango Ski Area, Ski Hesperus
Nik shows what it takes to place 19th in a Big Mountain Competition
JakeCast hucks in jeans
Continue reading
Bah! I know I’m about 2 days late with this post, but finals went off Saturday despite Ullr not cooperating and everything went more or less according to plan. Some amazing runs were thrown down (especially under the bamboo entrance on the far right of the venue) despite the last minute final’s mountain change and Snowbird’s Cliff Bennett walked away with 1st.
Nik managed to jump from 35th (the last to qualify) all the way to 19th when he decided to send an air huge near the top of the venue and straightline the rest of his run. I bobbled a bit on one of my airs (rolled windows like my car was fire) and dropped to 27th.
It was an awesome event and I’ll have the full finishing lists and some pictures from the sketchy drive home tomorrow with my ‘Day 6′ post. I’ll also post a recap in preparation for the Snowbird event which kicks off Tuesday. Gnar.
Friday was supposed to be semi-finals with Saturday being finals, but due to weather it had to be canceled.
The bad news: the venue was changed to West Basin from the far superior Kachina Peak
The good news: everyone that qualified made finals :p
Finals just went down on West Basin and I’ll have an update/photos/final results later tonight-
