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Difficult, variable conditions continued to plague the Molson Canadian Freeskiing Challenge at Red Mountain this morning. From the bottom, Mt. Roberts, the venue for the finals, looked beautiful and relatively benign in lovely early-morning light, but the skiers and judges who inspected the venue arrived at a different conclusion.

Terms like "sketchy," "marginal," and "heinous" were the consensus. "The conditions are unsafe up there; the course is strewn with frozen death cookies and chicken heads," said General Manager of Red Mountain Jim Greene.

A conspiracy of weather shifts contributed to the conditions, with warm temperatures and rains late last week causing some sloughing into the chutes, and avalanche control bombing on Mt. Roberts also dislodged some debris. Temps plunged last night and those chunks set up big time, causing the dreaded frozen death cookies.

At 11:30am, Head Judge Michel Beaudry and his team of experts made the decision to move the finals back to Lynx Line where the semifinals were held. It was a tough decision from the standpoint that Roberts is brawny, with a severe cornice drop and tremendous varied terrain with plenty of features — a real test of big mountain skiing ability. But in the end, from a safety standpoint, it was the right decision.

"It would not have spectacled what these athletes can do and the potential for serious injury was high," said Judge Edith Rozsa.

So it was back to Lynx and the skiers did not disappoint. The women attacked the same line as yesterday though a bit more conservatively after cold temps coupled with lots of tracks had worn the route. The upper rock band below the cornice was thin, too, wreaking some havoc on the field.

Ingrid Backstrom of Squaw Valley, CA, who was leading coming into this final, skied a tough line and skied it well. "I really would have loved to ski Roberts," she said, "but it wouldn't have been safe for everyone. On Lynx I did everything I wanted but could have been a bit smoother in the bumps."

Her run was smooth enough for the judges, though, as Backstrom easily won with a combined score of 53.8.

And some leapfrogging occurred in the pack just behind her as Jennifer Ashton, of Whistler, BC, jumped from 5th to 2nd with the second best run of the day.

"I skied a line that scored high for the men yesterday and tried to be very smooth and it worked," Ashton, who heads for Europe tomorrow for a competition in Les Arcs, said. "I'm psyched to see how I do against the European skiers," she added.

Local Red Mountain skier Stephanie Gauvin, in her first competition, bumped up from 4th to 3rd with an impressive run. "I am so proud," she said, with her 1-year-old baby strapped to her back at the awards ceremony. "I knew I needed a better line than yesterday so I added extra jumps and stuck them all."

The men's final proved very interesting indeed. As the day wore on, the snow pack went from bulletproof to carbon fiber, making it extremely difficult to ski aggressively while also maintaining control. The top five skiers bore out the old Yogi Berra quip, "it ain't over till it's over."

A handful of the top skiers fell during their runs causing some significant shifting of the top five. Telluride's Caleb Martin came from behind to win a very close competition in his first-ever event.

"This is just unreal," he said holding his $5000 winner's check. "My spin at the bottom was a nice finishing touch; I think that helped my score. Also, I'm experienced competing (he's a former US National mogul racer), and basically it's all the same — Fall line."

Yesterday's leader, Pierre-Yves Le Blanc fell near the bottom of his run and ceded 2nd place to to local skier James Heim, who had one of the cleanest runs of the day on a tree line no one else even considered.

"I felt really good about my line except I did not know where I was going," Heim said at the finish.

Le Blanc managed to hang onto 3rd when Andrew Radford, a solid second yesterday, threw a ski near the top.

"The whole run was bomber but I had a pre-release issue," Radford said. "My ski felt like kicking off early. I have new bindings arriving next week. Too late I guess."

Red Mountain staff put on a phenomenal show despite all the difficulties they encountered. All the competitors seemed psyched with the hospitality and the venue and many agreed to return next year for more Japan grabs and jibbing at Red. Hopefully next year they'll get to take on Mt. Roberts. It will be there waiting for them.

— Buddy Levy, MountainZone.com Correspondent