It’s been a tough week for both organisers and riders alike. Bad light and fresh snow saw training and qualifications postponed numerous times but today we were finally blessed with blue bird conditions and the 2015 Burton European Slopestyle finals went down. Due to the earlier cancellations, the decision was made to hold a mega final consisting of 32 riders for the mens and 16 for the women.

Up first were the women and stepping up to the plate was New Zealand’s Christy Prior and her oustanding first run consisiting of fs 5, underflip melon, fs 7 melon and ending with a back 5 indy. Not a bad way to start her first appearance at the Burton European Open and later Christy told the crowd that this result was the biggest of her career to date.

Hot on Christy’s heels was slopestyle royalty Jamie Anderson. Her slick rail skills included, fs 3 nose tap to back 1, switch tail slide 270 out, switch straight air into the whale tail, cab 3 out to cab 5, fs 7 mute and finishing off with a back 5 indy. Enni Rukajärvi rounded of the podium with her second run, which included sw back 1, fs 7 mute, backside 5 stale and a near perfect cab 5.

 

 

After a few powder laps for us, it was time to head over to the men’s. With 32 riders in attendance it might have been the biggest final in the history of the Burton European Open and certainly one of the most nail biting finals in memory.

The fresh snow certainly created a few speed issues for some of the riders but it didn’t seem to phase Mark McMorris and his opening run that included sw back 12, fs double 10 and a back double cork 10. This first run gave him a score of 85.60 and saw him lead the pack for the majority of the second runs.

In fact this looked to be McMorris’s day until the second to last run of the finals, when Stale Sandbech dropped in with a thirst for the gold. Sandbech went in hard and pulled out a fs 5 nose tap to cab 5, fs blunt- 270 out, double crippler indy off the whale tail, back 12 mute, cab 12 melon to fs 10 indy. The judges were impressed and showed this with their score of a 91.40.  McMorris had one more stab at victory with the final run of the contest but was unable to complete a full run and thus Stale walked away with his first BEO slopestyle win. An elated Stale walked away with a cool 25,00 USD.
Torstein Horgmo grabbed the last spot on the podium with his run consisting of cab double 10 melon, sw back 12 and fs double cork 10.

 

2015 Burton Women’s Slopestyle Finals
1) Christy Prior
2) Jamie Anderson
3) Enni Rukajärvi

2015 Burton Men’s Slopestyle Finals
1) Stale Sandbech
2) Mark McMorris
3) Torstein Horgmo