Mitch and Tommy Pitman are rested and ready for their next big challenge at Big White for the Nor Am Snowboard-cross championship this weekend.
Tommy is coming off good results in the Nor Am races in Mt. Tremblant, Que. and Copper Mountain in Colorado earlier this month. The 20-year-old Warfield native finished with the fastest qualifying times on both days at the Quebec ski resort, topping the podium on the second day of competition while settling for fifth in the first round.
Unfortunately for Mitch crashes during training runs left him out of the races in Mt. Tremblant. However, he returned to the track at Copper Mountain where he raced to a respectable ninth-place finish before bad luck would again play a part. In his second heat, Mitch was cut off by another rider causing him to crash and again put him out of the next day’s races.
Meanwhile, Tommy qualified in first on the opening run in Copper Mountain, but finished in fourth place in the final. Slight damage to his board and a miscalculation on wax, resulted in a sixth-place finish on day two.
As part of the Canadian SBX development team, Tommy competed in World Cup races in Lake Louise and at Vallnord-Arcalis in Andorra earlier this year, and will race in two more World Cups in Veysonnaz, Switz. and La Molina, Spain in March.
After Big White, Mitch will spend the next month continuing on the NorAm circuit with races at Sugarloaf in Maine, Beaver Valley in Ontario, and Mt. Hood in Portland.
Tommy will catch up with Mitch in Portland to finish off the last of the NorAms before they both head to the Nationals back at Big White April 3-6.