Ladd and Parkin Costain, both Whitefish

Mountain Resort Freestyle Team members, brought home three medals

and an overall trophy from last weekend’s Grom Stomp event at

Schweitzer Mountain in Idaho. Nearly 90 competitors ages 6 to 11

competed in slopestyle and ridercross events at the Stomping

Grounds terrain park.

Parkin, 11, took first place in

slopestyle and second in skiercross. He had the highest combined

score of the weekend, granting him an under-age invitation to next

weekend’s 12-and-over Stomp Games.

Ladd, 9, faced a field of 18 boys and

took second place in the slopestyle division with a first pumping

run full of “serious old-school style,” as the event announcer

described it.

After winning the last six Canadian

freeski events he’s entered, Parkin will travel to Grand Targhee in

Wyoming and Kirkwood in California to compete in the International

Freeskiers Association Junior Freeskiing Tour. Parkin has high

hopes of doing well in these events, although he will be competing

in the older 12-14 age category.

At Fernie, B.C., earlier this season,

Parkin had the highest score of all competitors up to age 18 during

the qualifying day and pioneered a line that the winning teenagers

used in their finals runs.

Counter to the Canadian events, the

IFSA has decided to limit entry in freeskiing events to ages 12 and

over, although the organization granted Parkin entry to the U.S.

events due to his extraordinary results north of the border.

Freeskiing events, also known as “big

mountain” or “extreme” skiing events, offer athletes the

opportunity to compete in steep, rocky and challenging terrain.

Competitors are judged in five categories, the most important of

which is “line,” or the difficulty of the route chosen by

competitors. The other categories are control, fluidity, technique

and style.