Mammoth Mountain set for epic week of halfpipe and slopestyle showdowns

The most jam-packed week of action on the 2023/24 FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe calendar is set to go down at Mammoth Mountain (USA) in the coming days, where we’ve got slopestyle and halfpipe World Cup action returning to one of the USA’s most iconic venues for another turn at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix.

The original program for competition action here in Mammoth called for slopestyle qualifications to start on Wednesday, followed up by halfpipe qualies on Thursday. However, with a winter storm forecast to hit on Thursday, we’ve had to bump halfpipe qualifications up to Tuesday, with the first riders dropping in at 9:25 PST Tuesday morning.

Slopestyle qualies are still on schedule for Wednesday, with finals then set for Friday beginning at 9:30. Halfpipe finals will close out the weekend’s snowboard action on Saturday at 13:00, with Sunday held as a reserve day should we face any further weather-related issues.

MARINO OUT, BUT BROOKES HITS MAMMOTH SHINING AFTER X GAMES GOLD

The 2023/24 slopestyle season opened with a bang just over a week ago at the Laax Open in Switzerland, when the USA’s Julia Marino set a record by becoming the first rider in World Cup history to win four consecutive slopestyle World Cups, continuing a streak that just so happened to begin here in Mammoth last season.

Unfortunately, Marino took a heavy slam this past weekend at the X Games in Aspen and has had to pull out of this week’s competition in Mammoth, dealing a blow to the U.S. hopes for more home soil success but opening things up for the rest of the field.

Tops amongst those riders looking to take advantage of Marino’s absence should be reigning slopestyle World Champion Mia Brookes of Great Britain, who rolls into Mammoth fresh off of claiming her first X Games gold medal in the slopestyle competition there. Brookes dropped not one, not two, but three runs that scored high enough to win gold in Aspen, and she’ll try to use that momentum to check ‘first World Cup slopestyle victory’ off of her to-do list this week.

Second place behind Brookes in X Games slopestyle was Kokomo Murase of Japan, who also closed out her weekend in Aspen with big air gold in another groundbreaking performance - including the first-ever competition attempt at a 1620 by a female rider. While Murase didn’t ride away clean from the attempted 16, it was yet another explosive moment of progression for women’s snowboarding by the most progressive rider of this season. Murase is on a track for world domination, and this week in Mammoth should be another big one for her.

Worth noting is that neither Brookes nor Murase was able to hit the podium at the World Cup slopestyle season opener in Laax (SUI), meaning those two should be extra motivated this weekend.

Annika Morgan of Germany claimed second place in Laax behind Marino, and the outrageously stylish 21-year-old who now has four podiums in her last seven World Cups starts dating back to the 2021/22 season. Expect her to be in the mix again this week.

X Games slopestyle bronze medallist Reira Iwabuchi of Japan and her teammate Mari Fukada, Jasmine Baird and Laurie Blouin of Canada, Hailey Langland (USA) and Arianne Burri (SUI) are a few of the other names to watch out for on the women’s slopestyle side.

GERARD ON A TEAR HEADING INTO HOME SOIL SLOPESTYLE

Red Gerard’s strong 2023/24 season hit another level over the weekend when the 23-year-old claimed his first career X Games gold in the slopestyle competition there.

Already riding high on a pair of big air World Cup podiums earned earlier this season, the USA’s own Gerard stepped things up in a massive way at Aspen, besting the boss Mark McMorris (CAN) in what was an incredible display of slopestyle firepower. Already a three-time winner here in Mammoth, Gerard will be the favourite to make it four this week.

It ain’t gonna be easy though, with a significant list of heavy hitters on hand looking for their own piece of the Mammoth Grand Prix podium.

Canada’s Liam Brearley is arguably at the top of that list, as he comes into Mammoth on a hot streak of his own, having claimed his first career World Cup win at the Laax Open, and then followed that up with his first X Games gold when he took top spot in the knucklehuck competition there over the weekend. Along with Laax third place finisher Cameron Spalding, Nic Laframboise and Truth Smith, the Canadian team is looking strong.

Speaking of strong, there isn’t a team stronger from top to bottom than the Japanese men’s squad, with reigning big air World Champion and 2024 X Games big air gold medallist Taiga Hasegawa, Laax Open second place finisher Ryoma Kimata, Copper Mountain big air winner Hiroaki Kunitake, Big Air Chur winner Hiroto Ogiwara and a couple of others all on hand and capable of a top-3 finish this week.

The one nation with perhaps the best argument with the paragraph above would of course be the host U.S. team who, along with Gerard, are set to boast Luke Winkelmann, Judd Henkes, Chris Corning, Brock Crouch and Jake Canter on the start list this week.

Noah Viktor of Germany, New Zealand’s Tiarn Collins, Finnish dynamo Rene Rinnekangas and Ian Matteoli of Italy are a few others to watch out for in men’s slopestyle action here in Mammoth.

KIM LOOKING FOR FIRST MAMMOTH VICTORY

Over in the pipe it’s setting up to be Chloe Kim’s turn to finally win a World Cup on home Californian soil, as the 23-year-old was able to shake off the disappointment of not putting a run down at her comeback competition at the Laax Open two weekends ago to win her record-tying seventh X Games gold this past weekend.

While Kim has won essentially everything there is to win in competitive snowboarding, she still somehow hasn’t claimed top spot here in her home state at the Mammoth Grand Prix. As long as she’s not too wiped out from the X Games madness, it could be hers for the taking here in Mammoth.

Her top challenger will almost certainly be Mitsuki Ono, last year’s halfpipe crystal globe winner and the second place finisher at both the Laax Open and X Games this season. Ono took top spot here in Mammoth last winter, and her rock-solid riding has her as a podium lock pretty much every competition right now. Along with sister duo Ruki and Sena Tomita, the Japanese team is looking as strong as ever.

With Maddie Mastro and Bea Kim also on the scene here in Mammoth the host U.S. squad will have a good shot at multiple podiums in women’s pipe, while the likes of Canada’s Brooke D’hondt, Berenice Wicki of Switzerland and Leilani Ettel of Germany will look to upset the U.S. and Japanese favourites.

HIRANO LOOKING FOR REPEAT MAMMOTH WIN WHILE HE CHASES REPEAT CRYSTAL GLOBE

With the full Beijing 2022 Olympic podium of Ayumu Hirano (JPN), Scotty James (AUS) and Jan Scherrer (SUI), as well as reigning World Champion Chaeun Lee (KOR), sitting out this one in Mammoth, things are wide open at the top for somebody else to step up and walk away the winner this week in the men’s halfpipe competition.

While the heavyweights listed above are absent, the full slate of the men’s podium from last season here in Mammoth is indeed on hand, with last year’s winner Ruka Hirano of Japan leading the way.

Hirano is fresh off a silver medal win at X Games over the weekend, and with a strong performance here he could leapfrog both James and Lee into top spot on the halfpipe World Cup standings with just one more competition to go, in Calgary next week. A repeat crystal globe-winning season is within his reach.

Hirano was joined on the X Games podium by his compatriot Kaishu Hirano (not related) in third place, while Shuichiro Shigeno finished just off the podium in fourth, and 2020 Mammoth winner Yuto Totsuka ended up in sixth after being unable to put down a clean run in Aspen. They’re all on hand for the Japanese team here in Mammoth, and per usual they’re all capable of grabbing a piece of the podium.

Last year’s Mammoth runner-up Valentino Guseli of Australia is on the start list for this week’s Mammoth action as well - in both halfpipe and slopestyle - but he, along with a lot of riders, are a little banged up after the weekend in Aspen. Whether he’ll be in fighting shape for tomorrow’s qualifications remains to be seen, but there’s no question he’ll give whatever he’s got in the coming days.

Finally, keep an eye on the host U.S. men, with Chase Josey, Joey Okesson, Jason Wolle and last year’s Mammoth third place finisher Chase Blackwell all hungry for a strong showing on home soil.

Where-to-watch and livestream information for Mammoth Mountain will be available closer to finals time. Stay tuned to our social media channels for updates.

QUICK LINKS

• Mammoth Mountain data page (start lists, live scoring, results)

• Past Mammoth results

• World Cup standings

• Photos