Words by Jeff Schmuck

Photos by Ilanna Barkusky

The AFP World Championships / World Skiing Invitational side of the World Ski & Snowboard Festival in Whistler, BC concluded yesterday following two action-packed days of slopestyle skiing.

The course, which was situated on Blackcomb Mountain the Highest Level Terrain Park, was hailed by many a competitors as one of the best and most flowy courses they've skied all year, thanks to a plethora of massive jumps and rail features with steep and speed-inducing landings.

Corbin Lefebvre

The proceedings kicked off on Sunday with Men's Slopestyle Qualifers, where 55 fierce competitors were spread out over two heats and given two runs to strut their stuff for their chance at moving on to the following day's Eliminations/Semi-Finals.

Kirby Sutherland

Robby Franco

Taking the top three spots in Heat 1 was the always impressive Aaron Blunck, rising star Johan Berg and the always smiling Robby Franco, while Mikkel Joraandstad (who's switch double cork 14 earned him the highest score of the day with a 90.33), the previous evening's big air finalist Espen Bergh and recent North Face Park and Pipe Open victor Lyman Currier took top honors in Heat 2.

Espen Bergh

Lyman Currier

Along with the top three from each heat, local hero Simon D'Artois, Matt Wilcox, Lars Bjorum, and the Gagnier brothers (Charles and Vincent) were also given the nod for posting the next five highest scores overall.

Simon D'Artois

Qualifiers Results

Heat 1

1) Aaron Blunck - 85.00

2) Johan Berg - 83.67

3) Robby Franco - 82.67

4) Simon D'Artois - 77.67

cut-off

5) Kristaps Thompson - 77.33

6) Jaeden Schenider-Clark - 77.00

7) Carson Kerr - 69.00

8) Riley Culver - 67.33

9) Kirby Sutherland - 65.67

10) Chris Turpin - 63.33

11) Jonas Hjohlman - 63.33

12) Cam Duncan - 56.67

13) Michael Granger - 56.00

14) Max Novotny - 52.33

15) Brenden Reid - 52.00

16) Yann Bussieres - 47.00

17) Thomas Rutkowski - 46.33

18) Dylan Marineau - 43.33

19) Ryan Bessette - 41.67

20) Noah Wallace - 33.67

21) Austin Karker - 32.67

22) Max Morello - 30.33

23) JF Houle - 22.33

24) Matt Crawford - 22.33

25) Dylan Bessette - 12.00

26) Dustin Sittler - DNS

26) Colby West - DNS

Heat 2

1) Mikkel Joraandstad - 90.33

2) Espen Bergh - 88.0

3) Lyman Currier - 86.67

4) Matthew Wilcox - 82.67

5) Lars Bjorum - 81.67

6) Charles Gagnier - 78.67

7) Vincent Gagnier - 77.67

cut-off

8) Cody Cirillo - 77.33

9) Mark Hendrickson - 77.00

10) Thomas Pool - 76.33

11) Cole Pates - 68.67

12) Cameron Smith - 64.00

13) Corey Vanular - 61.00

14) Tyson Oland - 59.00

15) Alex Hackel - 58.00

16) Corbin Lefebvre - 56.67

17) Zak Mousseau - 53.33

18) David Bonneville - 51.00

19) Jake Ondrik - 47.67

20) Evan Marineau - 46.67

21) Daniil Kalachev - 46.00

22) Ross Fedyna - 37.33

23) LJ Strenio - 33.67

24) Reid McEachran - 14.33

25) Austin Hunter - 13.67

26) Ryan Malone - DNS

26) Sam Ruttiman - DNS

26) Lukas Vianna - DNS

Yesterday, much like Sunday, then dawned bright and beautiful, and the 11 qualifiers squared off against the top 20 AFP ranked slopestyle skiers in the world, who were pre-qualified for the elimination/semi-final round due to their aforementioned rankings. It was here that things really began to heat up (both action and weather-wise), as the stellar line-up of judges would drop the ax to cut 31 down to 10 for finals later in the day.

Joss Christensen

McRae Williams

In the end, Gus Kenworthy, Russ Henshaw, Nick Goepper, James Woods, Joss Christensen, Alex Beaulieu-Marchand, Tom Wallisch, McRae Williams, Antti Ollila and Vincent Gagnier prevailed, at which point everyone took a short break to down a few beers in the sun before Women's Finals began.

Semi-Finals Results

1) Gus Kenworthy - 92.00

2) Russ Henshaw - 90.67

3) Nick Goepper - 90.00

4) James Woods - 89.67

5) Joss Christensen - 88.33

6) Alex Beaulieu-Marchand - 87.00

7) Tom Wallisch - 85.67

8) McRae Williams - 83.33

9) Antti Ollila - 82.67

10) Vincent Gagnier - 81.33

cut-off

11) Simon D'Artois - 81.00

12) Mikkel Joraandstad - 78.33

13) Espen Bergh - 76.67

14) Lars Bjorum - 74.67

15) Willie Borm - 72.33

16) Johan Berg - 73.00

17) Noah Morrison - 70.00

18) Robby Franco - 69.67

19) Charles Gagnier - 68.00

20) Lyman Currier - 68.00

21) Matt Wilcox - 67.33

22) Colby Stevenson - 61.33

23) Kolby Ward - 60.00

24) Aaron Blunck - 57.67

25) Alex Schlopy - 46.00

26) Alexi Patja - 42.33

27) Matt Walker - 27.67

28) Jossi Wells - 12.67

29) Evan McEachran - 1.67

30) Keaton Carlson - 1.33

31) Henrik Harlaut - DNS

Amongst the eight ladies in contention, Jamie Crane-Mauzy capped off her impressive breakout season with a bang by taking third place thanks to a left 7 mute, backflip off the cannon rail, a double backflip on the second to last jump and a massive flatspin 3 on the final hit (aka Kong).

Jamie Crane-Mauzy

In second was X Games gold medalist Tiril Christiansen, who laid down a 7 tail on the first jump, a 450 out of the cannon and a 5 and switch 7 on the bottom jump section, which was enough to secure her the necessary points to be crowned AFP Women's Slopestyle World Champion and AFP Women's Overall World Champion later in the evening at the AFP Awards.

Tiril Christiansen

And in a surprising turn of events, taking home the win, and the first big win of her young career, was 14-year-old Maggie Voisin from Whitefish, Montana, who came out of nowhere and unleashed a flawless switch 9, left 7 and right 5 on the jumps to the delight of everyone in attendance.

Maggie Voisin

It was then time for Men's Finals, where Russ Henshaw, who after starting his season off in the best way possible by winning Dew Tour but then unfortunately injuring his knee during X Games, returned to the competitive scene in fine form and finished the season on a high note via placing third thanks to a right side dub 12 mute, switch left double 9 double japan and a left side double cork 12 mute on the jumps.

Russ Henshaw

In second was X Games gold medalist Nick Goepper, who was on fire all week long during practice and the elimination round and made it count and then some during finals with a right dub 12 blunt, misty 6 off the cannon, left dub 12 blunt and switch right double misty 12 on Kong. In addition to making his way to the middle step of the podium, his performance was also enough to secure him the title of AFP Men's Slopestyle World Champion.

Nick Goepper

And last but certainly not least, Gus Kenworthy picked up the biggest win of his season by absolutely destroying every feature on the immaculate slopestyle course with a perfect left dub 12 blunt on the top jump, misty 6 off the cannon and switch right dub 10 japan and switch left dub 12 japan on the bottom two jumps, which helped him win the AFP Men's Overall World Champion title for the third year in a row.

Gus Kenworthy

Finals Results

Tiril Christiansen (2nd), Maggie Voisin (1st), Jamie Crane-Mauzy (3rd)

Women

1) Maggie Voisin - 90.0

2) Tiril Sjåstad Christiansen - 88.0

3) Jamie Crane-Mauzy - 81.67

4) Yuki Tsubota - 74.00

5) Maude Raymond - 51.33

6) Annalisa Drew - 41.67

7) Nicki Blackall - 18.0

8) Alexi Micinski - 8.67

9) Anna Willcox-Silverberg - DNS

10) Emma Whitman - DNS

Russ Henshaw (2nd), Gus Kenworthy (1st), Nick Goepper (3rd)

Men

1) Gus Kenworthy - 93.67

2) Nick Goepper - 93.0

3) Russ Henshaw - 92.67

4) Alex Beaulieu-Marchand - 92.0

5) Joss Christensen - 90.0

6) James Woods - 89.33

7) Tom Wallisch - 88.67

8) McRae Williams - 86.0

9) Antti Ollila - 63.33

10) Vincent Gagnier - 20.33

To see how this event affects the AFP World Rankings, go to afpworldtour.com, and stay tuned for a recap on last night's AFP Awards.

This concludes the AFP World Championships / World Skiing Invitational, but the World Ski & Snowboard Festival is still in full swing, so if you're near the Whistler area be sure to come on up and help keep the party going. For more information on what's still to take place, check out www.wssf.com.