January 22, 2009 E-MAIL PRINT

Touch of gold: Wescott, Powers open new resort features

by Matt Boxler/

Seth Wescott and Sugarloaf director of operations Rich Wilkinson introduce the new Sidewinder course on Jan. 3. (photo: Sugarloaf)

Seth Wescott and Sugarloaf director of operations Rich Wilkinson introduce the new Sidewinder course on Jan. 3. (photo: Sugarloaf)

Two of snowboarding’s most decorated performers, both Olympic gold medalists and both New England natives, took a short break from their busy schedules recently to open signature features at their home resorts.

At Sugarloaf, Mainer Seth Wescott cut the ribbon and made the inaugural run on Sidewinder — the snowboardcross/skiercross course he designed. And at Okemo, Vermonter Ross Powers did the same on the Ross Powers Superpipe, a 450-foot long pipe measuring 18 feet high.

Wescott, the 2006 Olympic gold medalist in snowboardcross, was joined on Jan. 3 by a few riders from Carrabassett Valley Academy for the first official run through Sidewinder, which is located beneath the Superquad and is now part of the resort’s re-designed terrain park.

“For me, getting to go out and win the first Olympic medal in this discipline was a realization of a lot of years of hard work and it's really nice to create a new training and competition facility for that here,” he said at the Sidewinder unveiling. “It’s been great fun being able to design the course from scratch, and I hope people will like it.”

Wescott was in Maine for the ceremony just two weeks after his Dec. 20 World Cup snowboardcross win at Arosa, Switzerland, the first World Cup win of his career. But he couldn’t stay for long, as he’s the U.S. favorite in Gangwon Province, Korea, where he’s competing in snowboardcross at the 2009 World Snowboarding Championship, an event he won in 2005.

Joining Wescott on the FIS Snowboarding team in Korea is Chris Walker of Manchester Center, Vt., who will be competing in halfpipe, and Michelle Gorgone of Boston, who will compete in alpine.

Meanwhile, over in Ludlow, Vt., Powers was on hand Jan. 7 to officially open the Ross Powers Superpipe and FamilyCross Park at Okemo, where he serves as the resort’s snowboarding ambassador.

The superpipe, located in the Dew Zone, boasts an incredible 50-foot span between the decks and is cut regularly with Okemo’s laser-guided Zaugg Pipe Monster. The superpipe will host an open Match My Trick event, with $1,000 up for grabs on Jan. 31.

The event is quite simple. One person throws down some tricks in the superpipe and stands in the lead until another rider throws something better. The last rider standing wins.

Okemo’s FamilyCross Park is located on the Lower Tomahawk trail and offers banked turns, berms and rollers for intermediates. But when professional-caliber riders choose to hit this park hard, it can serve as an effective training ground for boardercross and skiercross.

“Okemo is an awesome family resort with great terrain parks,” said Powers. “It’s a place where I can train and raise my family.”

A legendary performer in the halfpipe (he holds more event titles than any rider in history), Powers has shifted gears and is currently training for snowboardcross, for which he hopes to land a spot on the U.S. Olympic team in 2010. He has already won two Olympic halfpipe medals — gold at Salt Lake City in 2002 and bronze at Nagano in 1998.

In addition to his training, competing and ambassadorial duties, Powers continues to host his snowboard camp (this year it's March 23-25) for intermediate and advanced riders. The camp benefits the Ross Powers Foundation for athletes in need.

“We have a good group of coaches lined up for the camp and hopefully some nice spring weather,” Powers said. “My goals for the camp are to help the campers learn new tricks, for them to meet new friends and, most importantly, to have fun.”

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