After days of course building, banter and speculation on who would be the fastest—skier or boarder—down the newly built Bluebird Banked Slalom at Sun Peaks Resort, it all come down to race day.
Sunday, April 1 wasn’t your typical spring skiing day at Sun Peaks. With a full blown winter gale buffeting the race course at the top of the Crystal Chair organizers did an amazing job at pulling off the inaugural Bluebird Banked Slalom.
Eighty racers huddled for shelter, as they waited their turn to claim Bluebird victory.
After applying gallons of bright blue dye and slipping all excess snow off the twisty and high banked course, the first Bluebird Banked Slalom was under way. More than 80 racers made it through the course and while there were no injuries reported a few bruised egos were more than evident.
In the end it was Sun Peaks Masters Category skier Tod Collier who was victorious with a time of 1:19.64. The fastest Masters snowboarder was Carl Cowton of Kelowna at 1:32.73.
In the Men’s Open Snowboard class Ross Thompson of Kamloops took first at 1:35.77 followed by Tim Work (1:37.67) and Josef Riegler at 1:40.16.
In the Ladies Open Snowboard the fastest were Desiree Janzen (1:42 53), Marlee Marchewka at 1:45.24, and Erin Vogan (1:48.00).
In the Men’s Open Ski class Kiren Nikula cruised to victory with the second fastest time of the day at 1:21.10 followed by James Mcleod ( 1:26.95) and Sun Peaks’ Dylan Stevens (1:28.11).
In the Ladies Open Ski class Leni Riechor was victorious with a time of 1:32.49, Caitlin McKinley was second with a time of 1:41.97, followed by Joan Gardner (1:53.40).
The awards party on the patio at Bottoms Bar and Grill was inundated by a full blown snow storm that didn’t cool any spirits, as all the racers, organizers and volunteers were ready to set the evening events on fire. Master MC Brett Tippie had the huge crowd in stitches with his off the wall style as Bangers and Mash laid down some sweet and soulful DJ tracks for the party-ready crowd.
Looks like Sun Peaks Resort has a great new annual event in the Bluebird Banked Slalom as racers could be heard above the roar of the partying crowd declaring, “Next year, my name’s going on that trophy!”
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