What all started out as a solid, if early, morning of competition at the Mammoth Mountain Visa Grand Prix/World Cup quickly deteriorated into a weather-affected stop-and-go marathon, as a howling winds and heavy snow wreaked havoc on the program for Friday's halfpipe finals.
From the start, some wind issues delayed he start of finals by 15 minutes, however, once things got underway with the ladies' first run of finals and into the start of the men it looked like we were in for good contest in the perfect Mammoth pipe.
However, as the old saying goes, mountain weather can change at any time, and in what seemed like a blink the winds came up, the snow came down, and after the sixth man down the pipe we were into a course hold that would last over an hour.
Eventually, the weather calmed down and a revamped program called for a re-do of the men's first runs, followed by the ladies' and then the men's second runs.
However, Mother Nature – or, Old Man Winter, maybe – had other plans, and once again the storm kicked up a notch just as the men were dropping in for their second shot at a first run. When it became apparent that the storm was here to stay, things were called off for the day, with the plan to weigh options at a meeting that evening.
With the storm forecasted to prevail unto Saturday, it was decided that the ladies' first fun of finals would stand as their final tally. This meant that Ayana Onozuka – Thursday's top qualifier and the clear standout in Friday's single finals run – would walk away the winner, with her score of 85.00 well-clear of second-place Devin Logan's (USA) 80.40 and third-place finisher Janina Kuzma's 74.00.
With her performance, Logan was just able to hold on to the lead in the World Cup standings that she established with a victory at the season-opening event in August at New Zealand's Cardrona resort, with 180 points. Onozuka pulled into second on the standings, just 20 points behind Logan, while Kuzma sits in third just 20 points again behind Onozuka.
As for the men's competition, while the first attempt at Friday's finals saw six of the nine men in the finals complete runs down the pipe, it wasn't enough to give a true finals result for the event. With the forecast for Saturday calling for continued snow and wind, officials and organizers put the contest on hold, hoping for a window in which to finish the final.
However, a second attempt to run the men's final later on Friday also got called off, and the decision was made to call things off for the day and try again on Saturday.
Saturday came with more of the same – snow, wind, and delays. After a Herculean effort by crews to clear a massive amount of snow out of the bottom of the pipe, it was announced that one final decision would be made on Saturday afternoon.
While the sun did finally break out just before that final decision, the winds kicked back up to probably their strongest force all week. And, with that, there would be no final, and the qualification results that saw US skiers Gus Kenworthy, David Wise, and Aaron Blunck top the proceedings in that order would stick as the final judgement.
"It was kind of a frustrating past few days, just hoping for good weather there and not really getting it," Kenworthy said after receiving his winner's trophy, "But both the event organizers and the people at Mammoth did an amazing job at least trying to get the comp off. They did the best they could, but in the end it was just too crazy with the weather and too unpredictable with the wind. It worked out good for me and I'm happy to be on top, but it doesn't really feel like a totally legitimate win.
"But I think everyone kind of knew, going into qualifying, that this could happen, and I think everyone did kind of ski the qualifier like it was a final and skied it at a really high level, so I feel good about that."
France's Kevin Rolland, who finished qualifications (and thus, finals) in seventh-place, would retain the yellow World Cup leader's bib based on his Friday performance and a win in August at Cardrona.
All in all, organizers crews, and officials should be commended for the efforts and determination. Ultimately, the weather rules when it comes to winter sports such as halfpipe skiing, and at some point all options become exhausted. And so, it's on to the next one, with ski slopestyle scheduled to take to Mammoth's expertly-constructed Unbound terrain park on Sunday morning, with a full slate of qualifications and finals to hopefully close out the Mammoth Mountain Grand Prix/World Cup on a high note.
Hi-res photos from qualifications
Source: fis-ski.com
