On Jan. 16, Southern Ontario Freestyle Skiing held a slopestyle event at Mt. St. Louis Moonstone. Cory Vanderploeg was there for NS.

Words and video by Cory Vanderploeg

The day started off cold and overcast, with poor conditions due to the rain received earlier in the week. Registration was a breath of fresh air though, seeing all the skiers in Ontario show up for a small slopestyle event. Everyone was pumped to ski and session together and see what the course looked like.

Riding the chair up the hill, you could see the course to the right. The course consisted of three mediocre jumps and no rails. At the first jump, you had the option of a box that was 5ft x 5ft, or hit a jump the was only 5 feet. After the 'obstacle' there was a jump about 15ft with a little pop. The last feature was a small 10ft jump.

Now to most people this sounds pretty crummy and no one could compete under such harsh conditions, but the event took a turn for the best. People started buttering on the the box, throwing switch 5's smooth and stylish 3's and it really turned into a competition to show who had their basics down smooth and perfectly.

Then Charles Grant showed up. His run seemed effortless with a switch 180 to gain speed for the second 'booter'. Clean rodeo 5's then finished up with a clean switch 3. As I finished follow caming him he remarked 'this is a fun little set up' in a sarcastic tone.

After the crowd saw was Charles could do, they started to throw down. Brendan Duvall followed Charles' example and threw some nice rodeo 5's as well. Tomas Goodall threw a clean run with a switch 5 to regular 5. Lastly, Mark Allas rode the course with ease switch with a zero and a switch 3.

The Day turned out to be fun with all the sick tricks thrown and Jodi Cooke's goofy comments on the speaker system.

The results in the Pro division were:

3rd Place - Matt Bergey - $50

2nd Place - Mark Allas - $75

1st Place - Charles Grant - $100

**Watch the Video**