The Men’s Slopestyle Semifinals was held Sunday morning at Stratton Mountain and 36 of the world’s best competed for 20 spots in the Finals. The course had riders drop in to two rail features, a 40-foot flat rail and an up-down rail. Those were followed up by a section of four tabletops, all measuring well over 40-50 feet. The jumps were packed super-tight, so only riders who really stomped their tricks were able to gather themselves in time to hit the next kicker. To round out the course, riders had their choice of a gap-to-butter box or an up-flat-down rail.

Lane Knaack, hailing from Mammoth Lakes, set the pace early stomping his way through a dizzying seven-seven-five combination. His first-run score of a 47.4 held up and was enough to earn him the fourth Semifinalist spot. Nate Sheenan demonstrated some of the days more progressive tricks, such as a cork backside seven and frontside five double-grab, and landed himself in third.

That left Shaun White and Travis Rice going head-to-head for first and second. Travis threw down easily the most technical trick on the up-down rail with a cab boardslide up to frontside boardslide down, and then stepped it up on the kicker section with a truck-driver three, backside 180, and an insane cab nine.

In the end, Shaun bested Travis by one point. Shaun stomped a tailslide to 270-out on the flat rail, and a nine to cab nine combination that left no doubt as to Shaun’s slopestyle supremacy.

The Women’s Slopestyle Semifinals, held on Sunday morning, featured twenty-one women showcasing their tricks and looking to move into the money round of ten.

Stratton Mountain local Elena Hight got the action going with a smooth rail combination at the top of the course, followed by nice straight airs and both backside and frontside threes. The judges were rewarding variety, so Elena’s run set the pace early.

Hana Beaman was the next to get the Sunday crowd going by stomping her way through an ultra-technical run and earning herself the top qualifying spot in the Finals. With most of the field choosing to go with the safer 50-50 on both the flat rail and the up-down rail, Hana earned some respect by nailing a 50-50 to boardslide combination. She followed that up with a 360 on the first staggered kicker, some set-up straight airs, and a big backside 3 in front of the judge’s stand.

Jamie MacLeod, who finished third in the Slopestyle Finals last year, finished in the second qualifying spot. Jamie landed a 50-50 to frontside 180 out on the up-down rail, followed by a half-cab, and both backside and frontside threes. Kelly Clark rounded out the top three Semifinalists, boosting the largest straight airs of the day, and stomping a backside three indy.