Tahoe Junior Freeride Series IV

The fourth and last of the 2025/2026 season’s Tahoe Junior Freeride Series comps was scheduled to be held at Mount Rose last weekend, but the cold snaps each night leading up to the comp were turning the venue into sheet ice so it was postponed for a week (which ended up being not only great for snow conditions but allowed Mum to join us to watch Wild Man compete). Maxie headed over to Nevada with his team on Friday for inspection day, dialing in his line over the span of the morning with his head coaches and getting himself decidedly pumped to compete.

It was an early morning departure from Powder House this morning to make it to Rose in time for the 8AM competitor meeting. Blue skies and warm temps greeted us at the mountain, the boys were all feeding of each other’s energy as we caught Northwest Express up the steeps of Mount Rose for inspection time. Ski patrol had the venue’s chutes on the east side of Rose closed early in the day to allow them to thaw out a little, which gave the Sugar Bowl boys a bit of time to unleash their energy on the icy groomers as a warm up. It was like a Sugar Bowl takeover of Northwest Passage as their head coach gave them the all clear to take a few warm up laps, super fun to tail down the swarm of academy jackets hurtling down at mach 10 in the early morning light. Lisa and I also enjoyed a few laps solo on the south side of the resort while Max and his teammates inspected the course, it’d been more than 20 years since the two of us had skied Rose on a trip to see Great Grandma Gladys in Carson City during a random Thanksgiving or Christmas all those years ago.

Max drew a great spot towards the end of the field for his competition run, his late start time allowing the snow to soften up from the freeze the night before. We managed to snag a chair with him as he headed up to wait for his start, he’d pressured himself into a frenzy but managed to wind himself down with some calming words from Coach Eric as he waited for his run at the steeps (his words post-comp: “I just talked with Eric and messed around with my teammates up top until I didn’t feel like I needed to poop, puke and pee all at the same time…”).

Maxie skied incredibly well, choosing an insanely steep and technical line – which suited his skills well – down through the top of the Cardiac Ridge chute, boosting off a couple of hits on his way down and showing impeccable control throughout. We all breathed a sigh of relief as he made it down into the finish area in one piece, the technical nature of the Rose course made for some huge rag doll crashes throughout the comp and we were all exceedingly thankful – Max especially – that he made it from top to bottom without any mishaps. His two head coaches were stoked with his run, with fist bumps as the exited the course and reminders that – as they’d told him pre-comp – all his demons were in his head and that he’d spent all season prepping to crush a line like the one he chose…

The three of us enjoyed some cool down laps post-comp with the pressure off as we waited for the presentations. When it came to awards, the Sugar Bowl athletes again performed incredibly well, with two of three podium spots and five of the top 10 point tallies. Scott Shaw – who was at the top of the leaderboard and had returned from a comp in Taos the day before – deservingly ended up in first place, his huge grabs and a 360 off Cardiac Ridge’s whale tail into a sketchy landing were really impressive. For Maxie, after some jitters and a crash in his first two comps of the season he managed to get in the top 10 point scorers for the day. Lisa and I were super proud of him and he was exceedingly stoked to accomplish the second of his goals for the season (the first goal was to dial in his 360 airs and the second was to get a place in a comp that he could count on his 10 fingers…).

It’ll be drills and park training for the rest of the season I think, with nothing but spring conditions in the forecast for the foreseeable future… We’re definitely all very pumped to cap off the competition series with a successful comp!