March 18- 20,2008 Snowbird FreeSki Comp,

Did the bonzai down from CM Sunday, flew Monday and hit the 'Bird Tue for a 8:00 am tram with the MSI Nijas ( the Subaru Freeski Tour promoter) 1st lap was a boot up to top of Baldy to evaluate possible venues for the qualifiers. Nice selection of wide open pow and OMG cliffs and chutes. Lots of sharks and punji trees as well. Hiking at 11K is certainly different than at 7K back home. Then over to the Cirque for more of the same. Explored Rats nest with mandatory air entrances and where a rope is tied in the trees to assist billy goating down a no fall zone rock feature. Caught some great afternoon goods in Daltons AND Mach Schnel. Snowbird certainly puts it's 2500 acres to use. Many tricky double fall lines, folds and chutes. The softer, drier snow makes even cut up crud bumps fun to ski. I can only imagine what 18-20 of fresh would be like. The real surprise came when I found out a full on season pass is under $600 !!!! Casey Bayless and Elliot Marsh from Crystal both showed up for the nearly 150 contestant qualifiers but did not advance to the finals. Tough crowd for sure. Finals start Friday. Web cast is HERE