Taos Goes Off with the Salomon Extreme Freeride Championships!
There are few places on this planet like Taos ski resort’s Kachina Peak. The mountain rises high above the valley, dwarfing everything below. For the skiers who have flocked to this hidden New Mexico gem for years, Kachina remains the ultimate test piece. Reached only via an arduous hike, the face of the mountain is studded with rock bands, cliffs and steep chutes. At 12,481 feet high, it is the highest venue of any freeride event in North America and the variety of lines make it one of the most challenging – and popular – among those who dare face it when the Salomon Extreme Freeriding Championships roll into town.
Kachina has a way of weeding out the weak, and mixing up the field. Yeah, you may be in first place after the event leaves the West Basin venue, but the next day you have Kachina staring you in the face. Everything becomes possible here: the greatest of heroics or utter collapse and failure. And nothing is certain or easy.
The men’s alpine field on the final day of the Salomon Extremes had already been greatly diminished by an aggressive cut by the judges. Only 25 athletes made it to the final round, and the JR and Womens’ fields were also similarly tight. For the men, some big dogs remained: Joey Smallwood who stood in third place, Kenjiro Matsuo who entered the day in the top ten and Cliff Bennett who also seemed out of the podium race. Local Mark Binder was in the lead, by a respectable 3.5 points after a first round run that amazed and impressed. He seemed poised to become the first local to win it all.
But Binder was one of many athletes who crashed out. A very aggressive line going wrong at the very end, Kachina once again dashing hopes as Binder couldn’t stomp his final air and tumbled into the 24 spot. Matsuo, the Japanese warrior who had shown so much promise during round one also crashed out, and with other athletes also having trouble, the door was left wide open for someone to snatch victory from the leaders.
That someone happened to be Jake Cohn. The Telluride skier put down another mistake free run to fight off a charging Cliff Bennett, who finished 2 points behind the winner. Scott McBrayer took the third spot on the podium, followed by Jason Hutchins and Josh Carlson in 5th.
With the points scattered a bit more widely among the ladies, it was left to the top four to battle it out, with the rest of the field hoping for a complete meltdown from the leaders to bolster their podium chances. Alaina Huestis ended up taking the top spot, followed by Katie Gillen and Breckenridge’s Colby Adams in the third spot. Adams narrowly edged local favorite Andrea Krejci for the win, wrapping up a very tight battle that was decided by less than a point.
The JR field was similarly competitive, with the largest group of athletes seen to date and some very impressive skiing. Francesca Pavillard-Cain took top honors for the JR females, followed by Xanthe Demas in 2nd and Carmen Fregulia in 3rd. Kevin McJames led the men, with Miles Honens in the second spot and Amon Barker rounding out the podium. Like the adults, the story for the JR men was little mistakes by the leaders opening up the door for those who skied clean. The clear leader after round one – Duncan Adams – taking a small fall that cost him dearly: Adams finished just off the podium, in the fourth position.
Two other new groups of athletes also joined the event this year, snowboarders and a mens’ masters division. Jeff Meyer took the inaugural snowboard event with Leo Vanderbosch walking away with the hardware in the masters division.
Review written by Tom Winters, Chief of Race and Sr Editor at Freeskier Magazine. For streaming video highlights of all the action, log onto www.skitoas.org. For more information contact Alejandro amb@skitaos.org and for photos e-mail Seth at Sethb@skitaos.org.