Winter Park Colorado saw all the snow sports action this past weekend. A major alpine qualification race took place and will continue to run through Tuesday. At the same time as the alpine race, the USASA Rocky Mountain Series made a stop in Winter Park and athletes from all over made their way to the competition. Ski & Snowboard Club Vail athletes were part of the mini pilgrimage to the other side of the divide. They packed up their park skis and snowboards and headed to the event to land some tricks.

“In particular, Mitchell Lee had a great day. We were missing a few of the regular SSCV athletes at this competition but the ones that were here skied really well,” said SSCV’s freeski coach Peter O’Brien. Lee has made his way to the podium in almost every USASA slopestyle event he has competed in this season. Following Lee in the open skier men’s category was Cole Pates in fourth place. In the 13-15 division, SSCV’s Aaron Milligan had a tremendous day and placed second in the largest field with a technical and clean run. Young Colin Gitchell from SSCV had a solid day and ended in fourth for the boys 10-12 group.

On the snowboard side of the event Travis Tafoya was the big winner placing second in the challenging 16-17-age class. Tafoya has been riding tremendously well all season and clearly is on the mission to get to Nationals.

The USASA Nationals are around the corner and only the top two athletes from each age class in the Rocky Division will be eligible. As the skiers and snowboarders look towards the future, they think about what they need to do now in order to land one of the coveted national spots.