The fourth and final stop of the 2014 North Face Park and Pipe Open Series schedule will feature a slopestyle competition in Heavenly Mountain Resort’s Ante Up Park.
Several U.S. skiers from the 2014 Winter Olympics are expected to compete March 13-15 at Heavenly Mountain Resort.
“We are excited to offer athletes one more chance to compete this winter at Heavenly Mountain Resort,” said Katie Ramage, The North Face Sports Marketing Director. “The resort’s excellently maintained terrain parks will provide a wonderful competition venue with Lake Tahoe as a stunning backdrop.”
Lake Tahoe Olympic gold medalist Maddie Bowman will make an appearance at the event, but will not be competing.
A Sierra-at-Tahoe ski resort product, the 20-year-old Bowman helped solidify Lake Tahoe’s standing as a region that producers excellent halfpipe freestyle skiers.
At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, she joined Reno’s David Wise of Northstar California as a freestyle halfpipe gold-medal winner.
One of the coolest and lasting moments of the 2014 Winter Olympics was Bowman atop Wise’s shoulders, draped in the American flag, celebrating her gold-medal victory.
“The way I’ve gotten here is taking it one day and one competition at a time and having absolutely as much fun as I could. And hey, it worked out,” said Bowman, who has won gold medals at the past two Winter X-Games.
Heavenly Mountain Resort overlooks the sapphire-blue waters of Lake Tahoe, making it one of the most unique snowsport destinations.
The length and pitch of Ante Up provides a nice, smooth slopestyle flow featuring boxes, rails, jibs and view of Lake Tahoe.
“We have seen the excitement surrounding slopestyle build tremendously this year,” said John Wagnon, Heavenly’s Director of Marketing. “Heavenly is pleased to be bringing the action to our own Ante Up Park this March.”
All PPOS events are part of the Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP) competition schedule. The PPOS will work in conjunction with AFP on competition judging with Mike Atkinson serving as head judge for the series.
