BD athlete Andrew Pollard wins Stevens Pass Cowboy Up Challenge // Black Diamond Journal

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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

BD athlete Andrew Pollard wins Stevens Pass Cowboy Up Challenge

Black Diamond athlete Andrew Pollard took top honors recently at the first stop of the IFSA North American Junior Freeskiing Tour. Congratulations Andrew! Check out his recap of how it all went down.

This year Stevens Pass, Washington held the 3rd Annual Cowboy Up Freeskiing Challenge. Over 60 junior skiers showed up to do battle on the infamous Cowboy Ridge. The competition was supposed to be held on Saturday, January 30th and Sunday, January 31st.

Day one of the competition was canceled due to low visibility. So, all the competitors enjoyed skiing Steven's finest. Day two was planned to happen early the next day with a possible super final in the afternoon.

On day two, all the competitors got an early athlete load to get them up to the venue early. Due to bad visibility, the competition judges had to split up throughout the venue, each judging a separate part. The ladies went first and skied quite well, showing that they could hang with the men. Next to drop were the 12-14 year old boys who absolutely killed it. Finally, the 15-17 year old boys were up and threw down. After the first run, two BD skiers, John Collinson and Andrew Pollard, held the top two spots.

Luckily, the judges decided that there was still time to hold a super final. All the top ten competitors from run 1 headed up on the lift for run 2. The girls went first followed by the young boys who both battled it out for fame, glory, and a pair of skis. The 15-17 boys were the stars of the show throwing tricks and hitting large cliffs to hard pack. Andrew Pollard was the last to drop in; he skied fast and hit a large technical air, giving him the win.