Faction Skier and Women’s Ambassador, Kristi Leskinen, sent us this report from her Homecoming Weekend in Seven Springs, which included a lot of the top female riders, see the report below:

Homecoming 2011

I can?t believe this was already the 3rd year for Homecoming, hosted by Seven Springs.  This years planning process was a little crazy, with tons of injuries just before the event.  I have to say I was really worried up until the week before.  I had to make some major last minute changes to the format, which transformed this years Homecoming from a contest to a photo/film shoot.  Luckily for me all the girls were down, the results were fantastic and I think, the event was as successful as ever.

The line up:

Keri Herman, Kaya Turski, Ashley Battersby, Devin Logan, Keltie Hansen, Anna Segal, Erica Durtschi, Shanny Cohen, and myself.

All the girls arrived in Pittsburgh Thursday night, and the shuttle delivered them directly to Seven Springs.

Day 1

We woke up Friday to a gloomy day.  I?m talking some of the worst conditions I?ve seen in a long time.  It rained all night and just as we were customizing our garbage bags it turned to snow and the jumps to solid ice.  We all took a tour of the mountain and the set up.  I?d been telling the girls how amazing the park looked, and I was anxious for them to see it for themselves.  We took several runs laughing the whole time, and then in true Seven Springs fashion made our way to afternoon activities!  First, we headed to The Seven Springs Shooting Academy for the 3rd Annual Skeet Shooting Competition.  The first round ended in a 3 way tie, but in the end it was Shanny Cohen who left with the trophy.  There is something about 10 girls getting together to shoot guns that never seems boring, and I love that each year one of the girls gets to shoot for the first time in her life.  After the skeet competition, Anna Segal and I helped with the evening weather report for WTAE

(ABC) Pittsburgh.  Luckily for us the weather was about to take a dramatic change for the better.  Next up, the seafood buffet, where we had a competition to see which side of the table could stack up the biggest pile of snow crab.  We finished the night in the game room, where some of the girls worked to hone their skeet skills with Big Buck Hunter.

Day 2

After a dismal first day, Saturday brought sunshine!  This time Keri and I got to help deliver the weather report, and we were stoked the sky was blue.  After an amazing, and I mean amazing breakfast buffet, we headed to The Spot to start hitting the jumps.  The bottom jump was epic.

Highlights included.  Keri?s switch cork 5?s, Devin?s Cork 7?s, Anna?s Rodeo 5, Erica?s 9, and the list went on.  It really is awesome to ski with a big group of girls in a fun environment.  The rest of the crew headed to North Park, where Kaya, Ashley and Keltie worked on their switch spins.  Switch Un-natural!  I was so stoked to see all the girls having a blast.  We ordered Pizza on the hill and stayed until the light gave out.  We headed back to the

lodge for a break and to watch the fireworks show, but we weren?t done yet. Seven Springs has night skiing!  Kaya, Anna and I took the opportunity and went back for more.  I definitely did a penguin slide down North Face for old times sake, and Kaya and Anna hit up the jumps and rails.  We finally made it in for dinner just after 9.  It was a full and productive day!

Day 3

More sunshine!  Sunday started out with all the girls giving back.  We had a ski with a pro event, where all the local kids were invited to come take some runs with us. Anna and Erica headed to the jump and the rest of us went to The Foggy Bowl, for an amateur rail jam.  We skied along with all the kids and handed out prizes for the best tricks.  Ashley and Kaya were killing the course. The rail set up was awesome and I even did some tricks for the first time! There is some real talent coming out of PA right now.  I think we were all blown away by some of the tricks the guys were doing. Ashley has a new crush. Sorry girl, Jimmy is a little too young for you! Congratulations to Dan for taking home the grand prize.  After the rail jam, it was time to jump some more.  We hit the jump until the sun went down, early dinner and bed, all exhausted from the weekends festivities.

Big thanks to everyone at Seven Springs and especially Ales Moser, Melissa Cullin and Joel Rerko and his staff for building an incredible park.  You guys killed it again this year. Proving that you don?t have to be on the west coast to have one of the best parks in the world!