The third annual Sandor’s Icebreaker Rail Jam saw past and defending champions rule supreme at Mount Sima on Saturday.
Josh Harlow gained back his 2010 open title in the freestyle ski category while Max Melvin-McNutt defended his open title from last year in the snowboard division.
It was a blast, and the prize money was good too, said the two open division winners.
“I was pretty stoked about it,” said Harlow. “I can’t really complain about $300 (in prize money). With the whole ski team out, it was super fun just throwing down.
“Everyone killed it, it was super fun and I can’t wait to do it again.”
“It’s fun to come back to my home mountain and shred with friends and get competitive,” said Melvin-McNutt. “I got the money to pay my rent in Whistler for January, so that’s satisfying as well.”
Melvin-McNutt, who is the first Yukoner ever to make B.C.‘s provincial freestyle team, snagged first with a backside 450 disaster to a frontside boardslide.
“I was looking for a good feature to do it on,” said Melvin-McNutt. “It was just the right set-up to pull it out. It wasn’t out of my skill range. It was something I was planning on doing.”
Gabriel Rivest placed second in the open snowboard division ahead of Adam Waddington in third.
Rivest, who is a coach with Snowboard Yukon, landed second with a disaster backside 180 50/50.
“I used to compete more back in the day - it was far in the back,” said Rivest. “I had to dig back probably six years.
“It was fun riding with Max. It is fun when you have someone to challenge you a bit. Max and I were just talking about how it was fun to have a bit of a battle at the end.”
Waddington, who won the freestyle division at last year’s Yukon Snowboarding Championships, landed a frontside 50/50 with a frontside 360 switchup.
“I’ve never done it before,” said Waddington. “I’ve done frontside 180s, but I’ve never done a frontside 360, all the way around.
“It was super fun. I wish more people came out to watch though. There was way more people last year.”
Waddington won gold in the halfpipe and bronze in slopestyle at the 2012 Arctic Winter Games last March.
After placing third in open last year, Harlow was back on top with a disaster lipslide 270.
“I hadn’t done that since last year,” said Harlow, who is a coach and team member with Yukon Freestyle Ski Association.
Also making the three-person final were Yukon teammates Calahan Guidolin and Etienne Geoffroy-Gagnon.
Guidolin took in second - his best placement in three years - with a switch lipslide frontside 270.
“That was a hard trick. It took me almost the whole night to do it,” said Guidolin.
Not only did Geoffroy-Gagnon take third in open, he won the U15 division earlier in the day.
“I didn’t make the finals last year, so I was stoked to make the finals this year,” said Geoffroy-Gagnon.
Geoffroy-Gagnon reached the final with a lip backswap front 270.
“It was the cleanest trick I’ve done in a while and I really liked that one,” said Geoffroy-Gagnon.
Melvin-McNutt, 18, who is beginning his second season with the B.C. provincial team, was awarded the overall silver in the juvenile boys division at the 2010 Arctic Winter Games, also winning gold in the half-pipe. The next year he placed eighth in the halfpipe at the Canada Winter Games.
Harlow placed 16th in slopestyle and 19th in the big air competition at last year’s Canadian Junior Freestyle Ski Championships in Quebec.
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Skier results
Open
1st Josh Harlow
2nd Calahan Guidolin
3rd Etienne Geoffroy-Gagnon
4th Dylan Reed
5th William Thomson
6th Anna Smith (top female)
Masters
1st Miguel Rodden
2nd Steven Harlow
3rd Jaoquin McWatters
U15
1st Etienne Geoffroy-Gagnon
2nd Niko Rodden
3rd Shayla Hamilton (top female)
4th Dawn Bohmer (female)
5th Kenton Benoit
U12
1st Matthew McBride
2nd Jack Blair
3rd Hunter Organ-Wood
4th Brodie Ferland
5th Isaac Pumphrey
5th Cole Beaman
7th Bjorn Boone
8th Camilla Hallock (top female)
9th Levi Ferland
Snowboard results
Open
1st Max Melvin-McNutt
2nd Gabriel Rivest
3rd Adam Waddington
4th Alex Chisholme
5th Esa Suominen
6th Lara Bellon (top female)
Masters
1st Alex Chan
U15
1st Esa Suominen
U12
1st Asher Brault
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com