PSIA - Rocky Mountain - AASI Blogs

www.rookieacademy.com
The Rookie Academy,   a PSIA-RM member school that operates ski and snowboard instructor training courses out of Copper Mountain and Treble Cone ski are in New Zealand, is launching a PSIA based training program in New Zealand for the 2010 summer season.  The course is aimed at level 2 and above certified instructors, however there are courses to based on the NZSIA/SBINZ system for level 1 and uncertified members.  For more info check out the website above.

http://www.skischooljobs.com/

Short Radius Leapers from PSIA-RM on Vimeo.

Story and images by Cesar Piotto

The 2010 USA Powder 8 Championship was held in Aspen March 4th & 5th .

Fifteen teams signed in and headed up for their 2 seeding runs at Aspen Highlands. The seeding runs ranked the teams for the second phase of the competition, where teams raced head to head down G8 in the famous Highlands bowl. 

The clouds cleared and all competitors gathered at the top of the 12,392-foot summit of Highlands Bowl under blue skies. G8, one of the longest runs of the bowl and with a pitch of up to 42° challenged the teams as they competed and tried to stay in sync. 

At the end of the day the leader board was a combination of seasoned teams along with a few first time competitors. Reining champions Andy Docken / Jim Schanzenbaker founds themselves in a familiar place, whilst on the women's side, newcomers Robynne Ross and Kelly Beairsto nudged out defending champs Ginny Creak and Stacey Gerrish who held onto second place after the first day.

Day two provided very tough snow conditions and at times poor visibility. All the teams made it out to Little Annie basin hosted by Aspen Powder tours, on the back side of Aspen Mountain for a day of cat skiing and the finals of the competition.

With the seeds from day one of competition, the knock out phase began at 10am. 3" of fresh snow overnight covered a 2" layer of breakable crust and bomb holes which challenged all teams.
In the open division it was an upset win by Santiago Mazza / Hernan 'Tito' Franco knocking out two time winners Andy Docken / Jim Schanzenbaker. Jeff Maybon / Tanja Heller, the only mixed team in the competition, took third.
"It has been an unbelievable couple of days" said Tito, shortly after the winners were announced. "It was tough competition where we had to fight with most of our team mates!" continued Santi. "... six out of the nine skiers from the Aspen Demo team competed at this years event. Were not used to skiing against each other and there was a lot of bragging rights at stake."
Another pair of first time competitors Megan Harvey / Cindy Leuchtenburg took top honors in the women's division beating overnight leaders Robynne Ross / Kelly Beairsto.  While reining champions Ginny Creak / Stacey Gerrish settled for 3rd place this year. 
A special thanks goes out to Jim Schanzenbaker for organizing the competition.

The final results for the  2010 USA Powder 8 Championship :

Open Division :

1. Santiago Mazza / Hernan 'Tito' Fanco [ Aspen ]
2. Jim Schanzenbaker / Andy Docken [ Aspen ]
3. Jeff Maybon / Tanja Heller [ Aspen ]

Womens Division : 

Cindy Leuchtenburg / Megan Harvey [ Aspen ]
1. Robynne Ross / Kelly Beairsto [ Aspen ]
Ginny Creak / Stacey Gerrish [ Aspen / Beaver Creek ]