White

After several days of zero visibility, the skies finally cleared to reveal Vanscouver's skyline and the second Triple Crown of Snowboarding finally got under way at Mount Seymour, British Columbia. With the morning Snowboarder Cross cancelled, the riders stormed the halfpipe at 4pm after hanging around the event all morning. Some of them were causing trouble, some freeriding, some drinking. The show was to be run marathon style — one-run qualifiers and finals, back to back. Settle in, bust out the lights, this is going to be a long one.

Despite the fact that everyone was cold and tired of waiting, the women attacked the cracked pipe without hesitation. American Kim Stacey fought hardest in the trench to come out on top. She was entirely too huge to fall short of first. Second went to Canadian Natasza Zurek with her clean McTwist at the bottom and third was swiped by Anne Kongsgaard of Norway who displayed overall fluidity.

"Not exactly what I expected to hear, being the only person in front of the stage. A weary Powers proudly accepted his award as a car spun donuts and honked its horn only a few feet away. I think his ride wanted to go home...."

In the men's heat, Ross Powers threw together a perfect first run and let everyone chase him for the rest of the night. When asked about his performance he said, "I did the run I usually try. I do McTwists, backside sevens, with some good amplitude." Ross, buddy, if only it was that simple. Trevor Andrew was able to link his huge McTwist with a few other goodies (7s, ally-oops etc.) to land him softly in the middle of the podium and Arild Kjeldaas of Norway grabbed a much-deserved third for avoiding the crumbling, brown, dark side of the shadowy pipe.

Other notables in the house were Sir Daniel Franck who couldn't hang on in the crusty pipe. Queen Stine Brun Kjeldaas stuck her 5s but missed the podium. The intimidatingly small, but forever huge, Shaun White should have placed higher than 20th. There were too many Euros and locals to mention. Other than that, if the pipe and Mother Nature could just get along, we could have had an international throw down of momentous proportions. This pipe, however, needed a re-cut badly and competing at midnight isn't always spectator-friendly.

Several times during the evening, Choppy Omega, our beloved announcer, decided to drop in and add some comic relief by pointing it down the center of the pipe and launching the bottom lip in hopes of taking out as many banners as possible. Some people were pissed, some were amused. I think he's part bowling ball. Next, the women were offered the jacket off of a judge's back (by Choppy) if they'd grab 10 feet of air. That they did! It was as if they were saying, "Ten? That's child's play." However, they were all kind enough to let him keep his jacket and not strip him altogether for announcing every girl's age followed by "yep...she's legal!"

	Baker View

By the time the finals ended around 12:40am(!), it was so late that most of the competitors, and all of the spectators, were asleep in their warm beds. A special thanks to Mount Seymour for letting us hang out well past closing time. Actually...I wish they had kicked us out! Most of Vancouver's nightlife had closed down by the time the event had ended and everyone was way too frozen, delirious and exhausted to do any celebrating. Not to say we didn't try, but we were all still sporting full boarding regalia and not looking too boogie-ready.

After midnight, Grand Daddy Vans, Steve Van Doren began the awards ceremony. "Please, could you keep it down out there?" he yelled into the mic. Not exactly what I expected to hear, being the only person in front of the stage. A weary Powers proudly accepted his award as a car spun donuts and honked its horn only a few feet away. I think his ride wanted to go home.

—Lucas Kane, sleeping on the side of the halfpipe for MountainZone.com