Francine MoreillonWomen's Champion [Listen to the Interview] |
Tuesday, April 7, 1998
DAY 3: Euros Dip the Gnar Gnar to Win
The Europeans stuck it on Wilbur Peak on the third and final day of the World Extremes. Francine Moreillon picked her line well in advance and managed to stay on track without getting lost like many of the other women today. Choosing a line similar to Wendy Fisher who went before her, Moreillon scored high by charging aggressively and with confidence to become the new women's World Extreme Skiing Champion.
"I'm really happy because I could find the line I picked out in the morning," said Moreillon. "That's really quite impressive for me because I'm not really used to this mountain reading and all that, so I'm really happy."
 Color Commentary by Chris Davenport [Listen to the Interview] |
Many of the women had trouble with route finding on Wilbur Peak, a huge mountain with many variations and cliff bands which are visible if you're looking up from the bottom of the course, but not so obvious when coming down from the top.
Though they had strong runs yesterday, A.J. Cargill and Chris Hutcheson had route-finding issues that lead to a loss of momentum and falls. Alison Gannett stuck an impressive jump at the top of the mountain, but got lost over the huge cliff bands and took a fall (no injuries) which set her back. Heidi Van Winkle took a similar line and fell just to the skier's right of Alison. Check out why Wilbur is notorious for throwing people off-route.
Arnaud AdamMen's Champion |
"I like to do an original line because there's always more snow on an original line. It hasn't been tracked up yet," said Morris.
Three guys went big today with launches off a 50 footer. First to make the bold statement was Daisuke Sasaki, who barely hesitated before dropping the big dark center cliffs and landing into a puff of fluff. Last year Sasaki skied under this cliff and was thinking then. He knew exactly what it was like and landed it. When we asked him how it was, he said he couldn't remember. [Listen to Sasaki's post-hucking reaction]
"There's air up there that we've all been looking at for three years that no one's touched," said Shane McConkey, who is out of this year's comp due to a torn ACL. "Three people already hit it today and it's pretty cool."
Frenchman Seb Michaud was the second to launch the steep drop and may have done it had he not lost his ski on the landing. However, in an impressive descent he caught more air on the remaining one ski making for pure entertainment. Michaud ended up walking down when his other ski was lost in the deep powder below the judging line. He was the first person to ever walk across the finish line in Valdez. Losing his second ski didn't affect the judging, but it was comical and Michaud didn't seem to care.
Jason Prigge stepped up to one of the boldest lines of the day, perching himself like a parakeet on a toothpick and dropping 55 to 65 feet above a few hundred feet of exposed terrain.
"Prigge descended with great control in a line of a pro competitor," said judge Chris Davenport, the '96 champion, who would have also competed if he wasn't nursing an injury.
A beautiful bluebird day made this venue a satisfying one, relieving pressure after the only two allotted weather days had already been used in the beginning of the week. Competitors were eager to attack this stellar course after two days at Odyssey due to weather restraints. Wilbur was a fine venue to challenge the mountaineering and technical ability of these skiers.
— Michelle Quigley, Mountain Zone Staff
Final Results
Women Name Bib# Sex Day1R1 Day1R2 Day2R1 Day3R1 Total Moreillon, Franci 17 F 30.20 31.80 33.60 34.00 129.6 Monod, Raphaelle 6 F 30.60 30.80 35.40 30.80 127.6 Fisher, Wendy 13 F 30.60 30.60 31.00 32.80 125.0 Cargill, A. J. 7 F 31.80 26.00 31.60 21.00 110.4 Gannett, Alison 32 F 22.00 31.20 31.80 23.80 108.8 Hutcheson, Chris 4 F 29.00 22.60 32.00 22.20 105.8 Van Winkle, Heidi 3 F 22.80 27.80 34.80 19.00 104.4 Kremer, Kirsten 22 F 29.00 24.00 0.00 0.00 53.0 Men's Division Name Bib# Sex Day1R1 Day2R1 Day3R1 Total Arnaud, Adam 19 M 39.40 42.40 40.00 121.8 Raney, Miles 8 M 37.40 34.00 41.00 112.4 Morris, Greg 30 M 34.80 40.00 34.20 109.0 Ronnback, Jesper 35 M 32.00 37.40 39.40 108.8 Prigge, Jason 9 M 36.60 28.60 39.00 104.2 Rollins, Robbie 11 M 35.20 33.00 36.00 104.2 Small, Geoff 26 M 23.60 39.80 36.60 100.0 Tchiknavorian, St 14 M 30.00 41.40 28.40 99.8 Dill, John 25 M 31.20 37.80 30.60 99.6 Peifer, Gordy 20 M 31.20 38.00 29.00 98.2 Anthony, Chris 33 M 31.40 32.20 32.80 96.4 Tol, Jesse 24 M 26.60 36.20 33.20 96.0 Aitken, Scott 2 M 28.60 34.40 29.00 92.0 Stephane, Dan 16 M 33.20 24.60 31.60 89.4 Murphy, Chris 31 M 39.00 21.20 29.20 89.4 Johnston, Jon 12 M 31.40 30.00 27.40 88.8 Wehrman, Rex 36 M 32.80 36.40 18.00 87.2 Belleville, Matt 34 M 28.40 31.20 23.40 83.0 Swinson, Brian 27 M 27.00 24.80 25.20 77.0 Aiko, Jan 37 M 21.20 27.80 22.60 71.6 Clemetson, Curt 23 M 27.40 22.20 20.60 70.2 Michaud Seb 15 M 36.80 32.80 0.00 69.6 Norin, Anders 21 M 32.60 31.80 0.00 64.4 Sasaki, Daisuke 10 M 24.80 34.20 0.00 59.0 Sjoblom, Henrik 18 M 30.80 22.00 0.00 52.8 McGovern Aaron 28 M 38.20 12.80 0.00 51.0 Conway, Dean 29 M 26.20 23.40 0.00 49.6 Swanwick, Dave 5 M 34.60 0.00 0.00 34.6 Moles, Brant NA M 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.0