Freestyle World Cup Deer Valley 1/10-1/12

[Tricia]

Phil and I are currently in route to Utah to do a little recon and coverage for the Deer Valley Freestyle World Cup.
Who's going to be watching?


Here's a little teaser from a few years ago.

 

[Tricia]

Day one was a bit of a learning curve for us because neither of us are familiar with the lay of the land at Deer Valley.
Day two should be much smoother for us now that we've found our nooks and crannies.
When we arrived to gather our credentials on Tuesday we were able to attend a press conference with 5 of the top athletes, a few of whom are looking for their qualification for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
We posted a quick video on facebook from the press conference. Please forgive the orientation of the video.
Early in the day we were able to get on the course and watch some prep work and practice.

We took trip back to the press room so we could get some of our thoughts down and upload some pictures, which is when we bumped into Jonny Mosley, who took a minute to engage with us and talk about some of his recent projects and how he is familiar with the reviews and details of Pugski.com

When we came back out to followup on the later runs, this was what we saw.

Such a bummer to see Bryon Wilson crash in qualifiers, but awesome to see Bradley Wilson in a podium position!

For the women's final, I was stoked to see Jaelin Kauf do really well.
Will have more coverage tomorrow. Can't wait!

 

[Tricia]

Day 2 of the Deer Valley Freestyle WC - Moguls
One of the noted things about this years Deer Valley Freestyle WC is that they didn't have a Duals Mogul competition because its not an Olympic event. This is why they had two days of Moguls.
The snow consistency changed quite a bit in a day, making the course very fast.
The women's qualifier started before sunset which seemed to help course control a bit but the men's qualifier served up several crashes and ski outs on the course.
As we've talked about in other threads, the girls have been really interesting to watch.
A couple stand outs on the girls side;
Jaelin Kauf, Morgan Schild, and Tess Johnson.
A few random shots:

Jaelin Kauf highlights

Kingsbury highlights

Results from Deer Valley -

 

[Tricia]

Day three - Aerials
We had been watching some of the prep work for the landing area for the days following the fresh snow that came in. By Utah standards the snow was fairly heavy and set up differently than they anticipated for Deer Valley standards. The jumps were getting faster and the landing area was fairly soft which was a challenge for the athletes.

While we were close enough to get a few decent shots, the highlight video from the FIS Media site is the best way to share what we experienced on site.

We saw some pretty big crashes, none of which rivaled the crash that home town favorite USA Aerialist Zachary Surdell had some strange thing happen as he was going up the jump, when he went off the side, into some course workers to the skier's right. I'm not sure what happened but it was insane to watch, and incredibly quiet while he was being attended by medics.
Sending good vibes to him.

 

[Jilly]

Should be fun. I have VIP tickets for Temblant moguls!!

 

[Tricia]

Phil is on the course while I get some typing caught up in the press room.
This event is airing on NBS Sports at 5:30 PST
http://www.nbcsports.com/live

 

[Karen_skier2.0]

My eyes are stuck to my computer screen watching the moguls!! Amazing athletes and 3 American Women in the top 6 finals!!!

 

[Karen_skier2.0]

Yes, even these professionals get nervous. The coach had to stop one athlete in the start gate to buckle his helmet!

 

[Karen_skier2.0]

Two men in the top 6.

 

[Karen_skier2.0]

3 Americans in the top 4!

 

[Karen_skier2.0]

 

[Tricia]

3 Americans in the top 4! View attachment 36838

That leaves me super stoked!!!
*Note - we have three placeholder posts below the OP so we can add the day to day coverage in the beginning of the thread.

 

[Karen_skier2.0]

Jaelin Kauf has now officially qualified for the Olympics!!!

 

[Tricia]

A few pics from the course. (inserting names of athletes where I can)

Goshin Fujiki - JPN

Casey Andriga USA

Casey Andriga - USA

I think the next two shots are Bradley Wilson - USA

I think this is Bryon Wilson

 

[Tricia]

More on the Wilson Brothers.
http://blog.deervalley.com/deer-valley-world-cup-with-brad-and-bryon-wilson/

 

[Philpug]

There were three dominations on the gear front. ID-one skis which had to be over 70%, followed by Hart, and a few onesies from Volkl, Rossignol, K2 and yes....Bomber! The binding domination was of course the Look Pivot, both in 12.14 and 18 shells. Marker Royals were next with really no Salomon Sth2's to speak of. Boots showed a clear domination with Full Tilt leading the pack and a few Dalbello Kryptons scattered in.

 

[Andy Mink]

There were three dominations on the gear front. ID-one skis which had to be over 70%, followed by Hart, and a few onesies from Volkl, Rossignol, K2 and yes....Bomber! The binding domination was of course the Look Pivot, both in 12.14 and 18 shells. Marker Royals were next with really no Salomon Sth2's to speak of. Boots showed a clear domination with Full Tilt leading the pack and a few Dalbello Kryptons scattered in.

View attachment 36941
View attachment 36942
View attachment 36946
View attachment 36947

You have to Pugski up those skis! Stickers for everyone!

 

[Andy Mink]

Surprised I didn't see Mikaela's name on the leader board! She is having that kind of year.

 

[crgildart]

I didn't know LEKI poles came that short. Are they kids model?

In all seriousness, you can't appreciate just how fast these folks are shredding down that course watching on TV. Seeing them blast by live watching from the side or bottom gives a much more awe inspiring experience..

 

[Tricia]

We got out for a few freeski runs today before covering the Women's Qualifier
Deer Valley is looking great @Started at 53 you need to plan another trip.

More aerial practice happening.

More to come....Look to post 3 for recap of the day after the competition for day 2 comes to a close.