Some quick tournament highlights:

Pre-event:

Rob Fried–0 to 10,082 feet in elevation in 12 hours, including the final 1200 vert in the form of a steep hour long hike at over 9,000 feet high. It was worth it for the powder which became non-existent by the tournament time.

2 outdoor jams as the weather went from freezing to a balmy 49.7 degrees farenheit.

Blue skies and spring skiing conditions in January. Wishing for the snow to fall but loving the sunshine.

Moose in backyard.

The tournament itself: we expected 5 solid teams but due to RF getting a terrible case of flu, he and Larry had to scratch. Jonathan and I were going to judge and not compete but we switched that out.

One round, the finals.
Z and Billy opened solid, consecutive, and steady. These guys love to come out to ski and jam and it shows in the play. light hearted and upbeat just like the players themselves. By mid routine the disc started to hit the floor a little but the flow continued through.

Jamie and Bob, opposite spins but putting some moments together. A good start, followed by some more moments of greatness. Even some co-ops and spon hein, a disc stuck under the bleachers was no problem.

I’m not sure but I think Jonathan went dropless or maybe one drop to go along with all of his nastiest indy’s. There was no holding back and even though I had shaky finger for the first section we were able to string together some extended speedflow sections in the beginning and huge indy combos to finish strong and provide a good challenge to the defending champions.

I was glad there were no bad seats in the house when Pat and Paul put on their show. Their routine featured high diff and tight choreography. They all but hit the beginning of their show, with only a minor blip. Very cool co-ops with both motion and intricacy, timing and risk. High risk indy combos blew my mind–including a 10 from the Risk judge. Then a few blips at the end heading back into their choreography seemed to throw them a little before hitting a sweet set of ending co-ops.

Pat has always been a highly skilled player but in the last few years his game has an added edge that wasn’t there before. The combos and variety he pulls off and that edge makes him the best player at this event and probably at many events these days.

Missing their first Indoor events were Tommy Leitner and Dani Myers and they were missed.

A team of 4 mounted a successful moonlight expedition to the hot springs at the border of Yellowstone. That was the day I caught Rob’s flu, no further report.
Mikey