Rahlves Banzai Tour wraps with Silver Belt

The Silver Belt, with roots dating back to the 1940’s, was Sugar Bowl’s original race alongside Aspen and Sun Valley’s pre-world cup competitions, and this year’s Silver Belt Banzai saw 111 athletes from around the globe compete in Sugar Bowl’s famed Silver Belt Gully, with all eyes on the $30,000 prize purse.

In the men’s ski division, Greg Lindsey took top honors in a commanding start-to-finish first place run.  Lindsey was followed closely by South Lake Tahoe’s Kyle Smaine in second, the Jamaican Ski Team’s Errol Kerr in third, and George Hjelte in fourth place.

The women’s ski division saw a familiar finish, with three-time champion Shannon Rahlves taking the top podium spot, followed by Keely Kelleher from Salt lake City, and locals Hannah Jermstadt and Quincy Young rounding out the field.

Women’s snowboard saw exciting heats with Kirkwood’s Erin Wilson and Rose Daiek taking first and second respectively, while Jennifer McReady and Carrie Hall took the third and fourth place spots.

The Men’s snowboard division saw Tahoe City’s “Frenchie” rider Sylvain Duclos take the top spot’s honors, followed very closely by Sugar Bowl’s own Jayson Hale, with Dan Krenicki and Keith Davis rounding out the field.

The Silver Belt race was the conclusion of the 2011 Rahlves’ Banzai Tour, which made stops at both Alpine Meadows
and Kirkwood earlier this season.

A unique blend of big mountain freeriding, ski&boarder cross
strategy and downhill speeds, the Banzai pits four racers at a time down
all-natural terrain with limited rules but to stay on course and finish
in the top two spots to advance to the next round.

Overall Banzai Tour point winners were Salt Lake City’s Marcus Caston for men’s ski, Shannon Rahlves for women’s ski, Sylvain Duclos for men’s snowboard and Jennifer Mcready for the women’s snowboard division.

And with parting clouds affording the first real top-to-bottom views of the challenging Silver Belt course, the Rahlves Super Final got underway with each winner from the Tour’s men’s ski division races challenging  Daron Rahlves himself for a one-run, winner-take all $10,000 Banzai blitz, with none other than tour namesake Daron Rahlves showing the field that while freeriding skills and ski-cross strategy certainly factor in, it’s truly downhill speed that wins this race.  For his efforts, Daron took home bragging rights, along with the prized “heavy weight champion of the world” Super Final Belt.

Rahlves photo by Gepa.