The first of the Highlanders kicked off at the weekend at Nevis Range. It was a typically Scottish day with low cloud hanging around. However, it still did not stop the 27 entrants from getting their shred on.

The Nevis Range staff had been working hard all week to get the park back together again after it was buried last week and they did not disappoint. Multiple rails, boxes and kickers littered the Summit run but the 3 kickers in a line had to be abandoned due to a distinct lack visibility. After a heavy bit of dye the rails were good to go for the revised format of a rail jam. The raised box and the down rail were the acquired targets and the riders unleashed wave after wave of destruction and carnage against them. The Scottish locals far outnumbered their English counterparts who had made the journey up from the Shire to take part, but that did not stop them unleashing terrible fury and style to tip the results in their favour.

Kids oozing style

With many of the younger riders throwing down tech trickery that would put most adults to shame, they were also oozing style, to really lay it on thick. However with age comes experience and the old boys were not going to take it lying down. Butters on and lipslides a plenty were the order of the day from them and war was waged.


Winners Jordan and Tomski
© Felix RobinsonThe old gondola car was a focal point for the afternoon as it provided some shelter and housed the DJ who kept the tunes going throughout the day. Format was two runs on each rail and the best scores counting. As everyone was a tad wet and the judges couldn’t feel their fingers and toes the final was cancelled and everyone legged it to the restaurant to get some food and dry off. The upside to this was most folk could make it back home in time to see the Scotland England rugby match.

Now the results have been processed there are already a few people who have won the Scottish Overall Titles for 09/10. Based on combined World Cup points for each event, the pre requisites were they had competed on both snow and artificial slopes and be a competitor with Snowsport Scotland to be eligible.

2009/10 Overall Winners

Female snowboard : Emilia Vanni
Kids snowboard : Tomski Robinson
Youth snowboard : Jordan Gee
Male snowboard : Danny McCormick
Female ski : Anna Vincetti
Kids ski : Chris McCormick
Youth ski : Harris Booth
Male Ski : Eugene Mackie

Stiff competition

Tomski's mum, Felix Robinson said,

"It was a long six hour drive to Ben Nevis in Scotland, but Tomski and Jordy were full of good spirit.

We arrived early on the comp day to find out the weather was really bad. There was a worry it would be cancelled, but they were in luck this time. Visibility was terrible with the jam session taking place on one rail at a time, but still everyone threw down their best tricks with some stiff competition.

Thanks to Nevis Range for pulling out all the stops to get the park together for the event and prizes and to all the sponsors for supporting the series - Snozone, Armada, Freeze Pro Shop, Bawbags, Level 1, Skullcandy, Boax, Synergy Snowsports & Joystick.

More on the 3rd April at Cairngorm

The final leg of the Highlander is the week after the Brits on the 3rd April at Cairngorm. With the plentiful snow Scotland has seen this winter there is a large pile of snow for the kicker and some of the rails are already out. Hope to see you there.

Ed - we love the comment that accompanied the pictures:

"Due to the inclement weather the photos are very limited as Stevie McKenna was not keen to get his camera out in the conditions and most people don’t need to try too hard to imagine what the inside of a cloud looks like anyway."

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