Mountain Zone
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Peter McMahon releases

Cody Thompson wins again

Cody Thompson once again dominated the expert women and is two for two after winning today's event with a final score of 246.71. Cheri Vanderhorn from Steven's Pass, Washington was second and Lori Stahler from Utah placed third.

Chris Rice launches

Times ranged between 2.95 and 5.69 minutes (with penalties figured) for the expert men. Chris Rice cranked it out to win, with Reid Sabin in second place and Taug Boschen in third.

"They're very strict here, which isn't bad, but I've got to be super-duper extra clean," Rice said after his run.

Dana Breslau

The course started off with a giant slalom section which moved into an uphill loop, then back onto the main course for a nordic jump where racers had to land in the telemark position. More giant slalom gates were followed by a reipelykkja (pronounced RAP-uh-LOO-shah — a Norwegian word which means rope loop), to another grueling section where many athletes began to show their wear (look for the lung pieces here).

The remainder of the course had more GS gates and a luge-like banked turn with more gates at the bottom. A few free-skiing sections were scattered throughout where skiers were not required to make a telemark turn and could slide into a parallel if they chose.

Some of the skiers used longer nordic-style poles to help get through the uphill sections, and dragged them along through the downhill and jump.

"It's important to have long polls for the uphill," said Ken Lucas who placed 5th, "but you go through the whole run with these long crazy poles and go over jumps with them."

Sunday's slalom will be the last of the events here. Tune in for the fun.

— Michelle Quigley, paralleling with free heels for the Mountain Zone