Prince George, B.C. – It’s not alpine or cross-country skiing or ski jumping, no slalom or Super-G or Nordic combined.  This is Ski Cross, a Freestyle skiing event that combines several aspects into some very fast and furious competition.

And, for the very first time, Tabor Mountain is the host this weekend of the Canadian Ski Cross Tour NorAm Men’s and Ladies event.   It’s one of the legacy pieces resulting from the staging of the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George.

There are 41 athletes competing this weekend, 28 men and 13 women.  Almost half of them are from the United States, the furthest-travelled coming from Maine.  There are three Northern B.C. athletes, 17-year-old Tiana Gairns and 16-year-old Gavin Rowell of Prince George, along with Jason Oliemans of Smithers.  And the rest of the field includes rising stars on the Canadian Ski Cross scene.

Here’s what happens in Ski Cross.  Skiers race down a course that has both natural terrain and man-made features such as big-air jumps, tabletop jumps where take-off and landing points are at the same height, rollers with rounded or wavy terrain and high-banked turns.  Four racers come out of the chute at once, going head-to-head to the finish line.

Training session were held Friday with time trials, heats and finals going today and Sunday.  The heat races begin at 1pm each day.