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Four Days of Shredding
Temperatures are dropping and, during these four days, so will skiers – through the chutes and cliffs on Blackcomb Mountain. This week, Blackcomb is the convergence zone for some of the best freeskiers in the world. It also has the best snow this season and incredible terrain that will put skiers to the test at the 3rd Annual Canadian Freeskiing Championships.

	Last year's winner, Jeff Holden

Top skiers on the roster include a who's who of today's freeskiers. Jeff Holden, who won last year's contest and was the overall World Tour winner, and Utah's Linda Peterson, women's winner here last year, will defend their titles against a tough and rowdy group of 70 athletes.

The skiers will be judged on line difficulty, fluidity, control, technique and aggressiveness. Jim Moran, judge and former US freestyle ski team member who took 3rd here last year, said that line difficulty is a benchmark for judging.

"The best score any skier can get is 10, but it starts with line difficulty. That's the benchmark for judging the rest of the areas. It just makes sense. If you're looking at a line, there are 10 different ways down, one is the easiest and 10 is the hardest," he said.

Some competitors had to qualify Wednesday while others are repeat freeskiing competitors from contests in the United States, Canada, Europe and New Zealand. Skiers to watch are Gordy Peifer, winner here in '97; '99 Snowbird Champions Will Burks and Jennifer Berg; '99 World Tour Champion Barb Peters; and, '99 World Freeskiing Champion Guerlian Chicherit, from Tignes, France.

Also here are '94 World Extreme Skiing Champion Dave Swanwick, '96 World Extreme Skiing Champion Chris Davenport, and '97 World Tour Champion Brant Moles; Seb Michaud from La Clusaz, France; Charlotte Moats, who took 2nd in the '99 Rip Curl Heli Challenge; '98 US Extremes Champion Rex Wehrman; and other hardcores Robbie Rollins from Alyeska, AK; Jon Johnston and Andy Knouse from Crested Butte, CO; and, Jamie Burge, of Lake Tahoe, CA, among many more.

Check here for daily stories, photos and interviews. Here's the schedule:

Wednesday, January 5th - Qualifier Day
Thursday, January 6th - Day One Semi-Finals
Friday, January 7th - Day Two Finals
Saturday, Januray 8th - Weather Day
Sunday, January 9th - Superfly Slopestyle

— Michelle Quigley, sampling sushi for MountainZone.com