K2 BACK NINE: First Day News and Notes
Taking park skiing or freestyle to the big mountain and backcountry has officially solidified itself as reality after the first day of the K2 Back Nine.
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After Tuesday’s announcement that the inaugural and unprecedented K2 Back Nine held at Whistler, BC CAN would go off Sunday March 12th and Monday March 13th, skiers, filmers, photographers all converged on the scene.
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Once everyone made it to Whistler, including Chris Benechetler who traveled nearly 30 hours from Japan to make it in time to the contest, event organizer and K2 Team Manager Mike Gutt reminded the athletes that, “This is not a competition; it’s an event.” Right Gutt, but what about that $90,000 purse? Well after watching the first day, the athletes were definitely vibing off each other in a positive and super friendly fashion, which is not usually the case during competitions, so Gutt’s approach and attitude proved to be right following the day’s events.
Led by event organizers and visionaries, Shane Szocs and Gutt, the unique Back Nine kicked off early Sunday morning under sunny skies and relatively fresh snow in the Pickalo-Flute face near Whistler peak. All eleven skiers (the invited 12th could not make it) were helied to the top of the face. After scouting their run from below, each skier could ski anywhere on the relative mellow face with entering through the Back Nine flag gates acting as the only requirement.
Canadian Eric Hjorleifson was the first skier to go and did not disappoint. He skied along the cornice before making a few turns up to a 15-ft. rock where he threw a clean, stylie Lincoln loop stomping the landing. He definitely set the bar high and kicked things off in an impressive fashion.
Young gun Sammy Carlson threw a sweet cork 7 off this hip in the saddle of the cornice stomping the landing as well. Whistler local Anthony Boronowski threw a stylie rightside 3 of the same cliff as Hjorleifson closing out a solid performance on the first of the event’s nine minigolf “holes” located throughout the Whistler area.
Skiers were then transported via heli to Callahan Country, about 10-15 miles back into the backcountry south of Whistler/Blackcomb resort. They shredded four more holes back in Callahan before calling it a day. Eric Pollard, Rory Bushfield, Mike Douglas, and Mark Abma all laid down notable highlight runs on a few of the holes. All eleven skiers, undoubtedly, fused together solid technical skiing with a wide array of freestyle skills. Most of the holes required technical prowess, but a few holes allowed skiers to showcase their talents solely in the air and not on the ground making the Back Nine the ultimate ski event in the industry.
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Skiers will sit down individually tonight and tomorrow night with the Poor Boyz Productions film crew and review film of each skier at every hole to grade their fellow competitors. Once the scores are tallied, a 123 podium will be announced along with a winner for each hole. The announcement, however, will not be made until April 20th at Whistler during the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Invitational—another different spin to this event.
The venue.
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The first day of the event saw several awesome maneuvers, lines, and overall excitement for an event that has been finally come to fruition. Tomorrow’s final four holes should be even better so stay tuned for another update with pictures.
Back Nine Athletes:
Sammy Carlson
Andy Mahre (no poles)
Eric Hjorleifson
Ryan Oakden
Rory Bushfield
Eric Pollard
Anthony Boronowski
Chris Benechetler
Marc-Andre Bellevieu
Mark Abma
Mike Douglas
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