By Doug Hare EBS STAFF
Easter
Sunday marked the end of the 2018-19 ski season for Big Sky Resort. It was a
quiet end to a busy season, with a few skiers enjoying the last day of spring
skiing and many bunny ears spotted from the chairlifts.
The
day before was a livelier affair with throngs of revelers cheering on
participants in the pond skim, held every year on the Ambush Headwall. Seventy-five
pond skimmers entertained the raucous crowd with great runs, and some
not-so-great runs, until lightning cut the party short. A video of sit skier
Robert Enigl’s impressive run has drawn nation-wide attention.
While
the lifts are not spinning until the mountain biking season begins, there is
still activity at the base area as a complete renovation of the Mountain Mall
has begun and is slated to be finished by next Thanksgiving.
From
April 9-13, the BSSEF freeride team had many athletes travel to Golden, British
Columbia to compete in the 2019 IFSA North American Junior Freeride
Championships at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort.
“NorAms
were a huge success for the Big Sky freeride team. We put down some really good
runs as a team and the level of competition was very high,” said Coach Wallace
Casper. “Just being invited to NorAms alone is a huge accomplishment for these
athletes given that IFSA only invited the 150 best riders in all of North
America to compete.”
Casper
singled out Isaac Singer, Nehalem Manka, Duncan Gentry and Dawson Raden for
their strong performances in Canada, noting that the 15-18 ski divisions were
extremely competitive.
“I am stoked with my performance this
past season, especially at NorAms, and I attribute much of my success to the
support of my amazing coaches,” said Nehalem Manka. “I am also very proud of
how the Big Sky team as a whole performed and am looking forward to next season
and continuing to progress my skiing with the help of my coaches and
teammates.”