Throughout the ski season, thousands of Freeride (Big Mountain) athletes across North and South America compete to earn a spot at the IFSA Junior Freeride Championships. This year, three of our very own BSF Freeride athletes (Eli Magro, Ian Tuttle, and Soren Fricke) made the cut and headed north to Kicking Horse, British Columbia, earlier this month to showcase their skills to at the Junior Championships with the best of North and South Americans. Ian’s impressive finals run put him on the U19 podium, in 2nd.
To reach this level of skiing from a competitive standpoint is an incredibly challenging feat. The level of consistency a skier must display to be in the conversation of nationals is no joke. Essentially, at every competition you compete in throughout the year, you must land a run and do well. And for our athletes, that’s exactly what they did.
While up in Canada, all three of the boys did incredibly well, all finishing in the top 51 percent of the competition. During qualifiers, Eli Magro finished up in 31st place (missing finals by only one spot), while Soren and Ian both finished in the middle of the qualifying pack.
The finals competition got pushed back a day due to weather, giving the athletes a bit more time to think about their lines and get their nerves pumped up even more than they already were.
The next day, finals were set, and Soren and Ian were pumped up. Coach Lukas says “The venue conditions were less than ideal, but that didn’t stop these boys.” And if you’ve seen the finals videos, you know Lukas wasn’t lying. (Watch them here - Ian skis at 1:15 and Soren at 1:31.)
Soren dropped a heater of a run popping and playing around the venue and landing a super smooth and effortless top to bottom. Ian set the venue on fire with his line, including 3 big airs all before dropping one of the biggest three-sixty’s an IFSA Juniors comp has ever seen. Not only was this line high-consequence, but it was also executed flawlessly.
After the dust settled and the competition came to a close, all three BSF athletes ended nationals with rankings in the top 31 freeride junior skiers in the nation. Ian Tuttle (a longtime BSF athlete who also competed in moguls for many years) ended the season ranked 2nd in the Americas and earned a ticket to Europe to compete in the junior world championships next winter.
Congratulations to these skiers for showing up and showing out. Our BSF community is incredibly proud of you!
