This past weekend at Sun Valley, Idaho, the sun was shining and the riders were going huge. Saturday was the qualifier; where the field was knocked down from 20 to the top 10 riders. In the end, it was Colby West taking the win with a 92. He did what he always does: skiing very consistently, spinning both ways, and a switch hit. Colby continues to prove that he is one of the best half-pipe skiers in the world. He was also crowned the overall winner of the 48 Straight Tour. Colby’s run had a right five, switch seven, and finished with a big 10 at the bottom.

Simon ended up third on the day. He had the biggest airs overall, but was only able to get four hits in when everyone else was getting five or six hits. Simon continues to spin both ways, but he just hasn’t figured out a run yet that the judges will score him well on. On his second run, he went 3 or 4 feet bigger then anyone on his entire run but fell on his alley-oop nine on the bottom.

Peter Olenick finished fourth on the day, getting his best finish of the year. On his final run he put his hand down on his first hit but was able to maintain enough speed to finish his run. After the comp was the "monster hit", which was a one hit super hit. Peter brought out his whiskey flip to take home the 15,000 dollar first place prize. Pete didn’t do a whiskey flip all day until the super hit.

Jossi Wells injured himself Saturday in practice and was forced to miss the competition. Jossi will be out for the next month or two. The whole Empire Team is off to Europe for the Candide’s Event. This will be the first time the whole EMPIRE Team will be together. Make sure to check back for the update from this event.