As the full winter competition season gets underway, local Vail skiers and snowboarders head in different directions to establish USSA and FIS points needed for respective country and world rankings. Ski & Snowboard Club Vail (SSCV) athletes hopped on a plane earlier this week and headed out to Northstar California to compete in the Revolution Tour. In its ninth season, the “Rev” tour is a three-stop tour consisting of halfpipe, slopestyle, and cross for skiing as well as snowboarding. Podium results from SSCV athletes were in abundance at the event with impressive runs in every aspect from skiing halfpipe, to snowboard cross.

On Monday, Meghan Tierney had a great day in the ladies snowboard cross competition and placed in third overall. At 15 years old, she was the youngest girl in the field. She has been working incredibly hard and training well throughout the season, and it showed during her first competition of the year.

On Tuesday, John Leonard and Jake Cummings came out strong in the pipe competition and ended in first and second place among a field of 47 competitors. Leonard’s run scored an 84.25 and Cummings landed a score of an even 81. Leonard’s run was a flair, to a right 540, to a left 900, to a right 720, and ended with a switch left 720. “I have been training a decent amount at Copper’s pipe and haven’t gotten a chance to ski the new Vail pipe too much…I think one of the big reasons I did well in this competition was the music I was listening too, and my amplitude helped too,” says Leonard jokingly. Leonard was coming off a win in Vail last weekend at the USSA slopestyle event, and Cummings was coming off a nice third place podium at the same event.

“I’ve had a lot of fun skiing out here. The weather has been sunny and nice. I was a bit nervous coming into this competition because I haven’t skied pipe in about a month, but the confidence came back quickly. I think that one of the big reasons I did well at this competition was my amplitude,” says Cummings. Cumming’s run was similar to that of Leonard’s with a left 900, to a right 900, to a right 540, to a left 540, to an alley oop 540, to a left 720, and he topped it off with a switch alley oop 540.

These athletes earned USSA points during this competition, which will help them with their overall standings for the rest of the season.