Mt Baker, WA (February 5, 2010) — The first day of the 25th Annual Legendary Banked Slalom saw over 300 racers take to the course under classic Baker conditions–fun, wet, and variable.

For the lucky 25 percent who qualified today, milking slower conditions and fighting through chop was essential; “I stayed low, it worked,” to quote Mervin’s Tim Standford, who got through clean and will be racing on Sunday. For the rest, the chop may have been a little too much, or the new feature called the Gravitron, which basically consisted of a steep-ish straight line into heavy compression before the last turn–a minute and forty seconds into the race–one of the longest courses in recent memory that made all but the most seasoned of legs beg for a break.

But we all ride the same course, and for those who didn’t make it, there’s always tomorrow–and plenty of hit runs and soggy pow lines left to ride in between laps through the berms. Thanks to the everyone on the Baker crew for running 300-plus less-than-perfect characters down the natural halfpipe in less-than-perfect condtions, and doing it all with a smile.

Unnoficial word on the street had locals leading the charge with Lucas Debari and Temple Cummins near the top of the pile for men’s pro. As of 9:45, official results hadn’t been posted, but you can follow them as they go live on Mt Baker’s results page because I’m going to sleep–Team Funny Feelings needs to step it up tomorrow. See you on course!

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Displays the photo gallery for a selected Gallery AlbumAll Photos: Jeff Hawe