Words & photos by Jon Lang

Day one of the US Freeskiing Grand Prix went down at Mammoth Mountain, California yesterday with Men's and Women's Halfpipe Qualifiers. Calling it day one is a bit inaccurate though, because on day one most competitors, coaches and officials were spending their day fighting the torrential winds and snow just to cross the parking lot to get from the hotel to the meetings in the Main Lodge to discuss how bad the weather was and what to do about it. That was of course after just barely getting to Mammoth, which posed a difficult problem for quite a few flying travelers due to this storm; but isn’t low snow levels the talking point of the season? The point is, it snowed really hard in the Sierras this week, the storm skiing was great yesterday and the event organizers created a very reasonable schedule to make up for the two-day delay. To get the mood back up though, yesterday was a super rad sunny day that got everyone stoked. Thanks to the California sun that was shining, the snow was soft and a great qualification round finally went down to kick off the event!

The ladies started things off by battling back and forth for spots in Sunday's Finals with big spins, great amplitude and classy style. The level of competition is getting better and better every season and it is great to see how awesome the girls are skiing.

Women’s Halfpipe Qualifiers Results

1) Devin Logan

2) Brita Sigourney

3) Megan Gunning

4) Rosalind Groenewoud

5) Maddie Bowman

6) Annalisa Drew

7) Iku Suzuki

8) Mirjam Jaeger

9) Anais Caradeux

10) Kimmy Sharp

11) Katrien Aerts

12) Emma Lonsdale

cut-off

13) Keltie Hansen

14) Ayana Onozuka

15) Yurie Yamazaki

16) Jakie Atkinson

17) Cassie Sharpe

18) Maiko Satoh

19) Shannon Gunning

20) Shuri Terada

21) Manami Mitsuboshi

22) Kendall Deighan

23) Allison Welsh

24) Julia Marino

25) Zyre Austin

26) Davina Williams

The men were also stoked the sun was out and they sure showed it. Between the two stacked heats a field of 12 great skiers threw down to secure spots in tomorrow's Finals. The top four skiers in each heat made it through, along with the next four highest scores respectively.

Matt Margetts

Men’s Halfpipe Qualifiers Results

1) Gus Kenworthy

2) Tucker Perkins

3) Thomas Krief

4) Torin Yater-Wallace

5) Noah Bowman

6) David Wise

7) Benoit Valentin

8) Matt Margetts

9) Allen Christian

10) Dan Marion

11) Mike Riddle

12) Lyman Currier

cut-off

13) AJ Kempainnen

14) Aaron Blunck

15) Xavier Bertoni

16) Kalle Leinonen

17) Walter Wood

18) Alex Ferreira

19) Hunter Visser

20) Simon D'artois

21) Garett Northey

22) James Campbell

23) Beau-James Wells

24) Carson Lehouillier

25) James Machon

26) Murray Buchan

27) Duncan Adams

28) Broby Leeds

29) Aaron Mackay

30) Lukas Bowman

31) Billy Mann

32) Sean Collin

33) Michael Schumacher

34) Tyler Wilson

35) Kentaro Tsuda

36) Kyohsuke Namiki

37) Peter Olenick

38) Colby Stevenson

39) Collin Jeffries

40) Quinn Waddell

41) Thomas Waddell

42) Patrick Baskins

43) Alex Gorham

44) Geoff Straight

45) Sam Thackray

46) Kiyoshi Terada

47) Justin Mayers

48) Takanori Shibabuki

49) Joss Christensen

50) Austin Simonpietri

51) Kris Atkinson

52) Kyle Smaine

Mike Riddle

Stay tuned for more updates on the US Freeskiing Grand Prix in Mammoth, California, including a look at Slopestyle Qualifiers and live broadcasts of Halfpipe and Slopestyle Finals, which take place tomorrow at 9:30am and 1pm respectively.