Words & photos: Pippin Lee

After being delayed for two weeks due to the snow gods taking an inordinate amount of time to wake up from their summer hibernation, the 2nd annual Pwned event took place at Mount St. Louis Moonstone in Ontario. Of course the hiatus only lead to everyone being more stoked to finally get on the hill and jibbing again. The event, put on by the fine people of Smith, Dakine, Orage and Head, was in collaboration with Newschoolers to put on a battle for on-hill, and online supremacy. And there was no lack of Newschoolers in attendance as the two plankers were out to celebrate Newschoolers.com’s 10th anniversary in style, and who better to bring down the house with than Mr. Doug Bishop himself, who came back to give his MC’ing career another try.

As the kids piled into the St. Louis lodge to get registered the sun decided to come for the show as well, and stayed for the good part of the morning. Luckily for all the skiers, the Mount St. Louis park crew had cashed in their magical beans and brought to fruition a park that Santa Claus himself would have trouble topping.

The battle for on-hill supremacy was setup with a two-run qualification round that saw the riders try to dazzle the judges to earn themselves a spot in the next round. With an array of boxes, rails and a thirty-foot jump, skiers had four hits in a run. Some took their first run on the safe side to make sure they had a solid run to fall back on, but most came our blazing with the top spot in mind.

Rails were pounded with disasters left, right and switch. Boxes were a blurry mish-mash of switch-up’s and 270’s and 450’s both on and off. The thirty-foot jump even held up to one of Kelly Gallacher’s impressive cork 900’s and countless rodeo variations. The judges were in for a hard day at work early on.

Matt Crawford

Judges

After the first round, the real battle began - head to head competitions. This led to some serious throwing down, as the competitors knew that any slip up would have them eliminated.

Scott Munro

Jack Irvine

The women’s final came down to Jess Warll and Stephanie Bourque. Both girls slayed the course in a best of three battle, but Jess landed a bit deep on the jump and washed out giving Stephanie the needed edge to grab first place.

Jess 'Gypsy' Warll

Stephanie Bourque (1st), Gypsy Warll (2nd)

Taking place next was the men’s AM final which was claimed by Edward Davis who made it his mission to throw down. Edward beat out finalist Kent Christensen with some very impressive rodeo 5’s and being one of the few skiers that stylishly conquered the rollercoaster box.

Elliot Carter

Elliot Carter (4th), Jack Irvine (3rd), Kent Christensen (2nd), Edward Davis (1st)

Last year’s winner of Pwned, Jamieson Irvine, showed up ready to reclaim his title of supremacy, and he started strong, quickly making his way to the final. The final was tight, with the youngster going up against Mr. Mark 'Block-9' Hunt.

Mark Hunt

Jamieson Irvine

Mark took an early lead in the best of three final with his swagger on the rails that was untouchable. But after Jamieson tied it up with his unprecedented prowess on the jumps and rails, it only took Mark one fall and the battle for on hill supremacy for Ontario was over. Once again, Jamieson Irvine, whose bag of tricks puts magicians to shame, stood victor.

Mark Hunt (2nd), Ahren Stein (3rd), Jamieson Irvine (1st)

Kudos to all the hard work Allison Thompson put into this event and Doug Bishop for keeping the people on the chairlifts chuckling at his valiant attempts to humor them without hesitation throughout the day. And as well to the judges and park staff who had the hardest jobs of the day.

Doug Bishop & Allison Thompson

Results

Men’s Pro

1) Jamieson Irvine
2) Mark Hunt
) Ahren Stein

Men’s Am

1) Edward Davis
2) Kent Christensen
3) Jack Irvine
4) Elliot Carter

Women’s

1) Stephanie Bourque
2) Jessica Warll