Whistler-based Canadian snowboarder Mikey Ciccarelli landed one of two high scores at Day 1 of the Natural Selection Tour (NST) at the Montana Bowl near Revelstoke.
He, Dustin Craven of Revelstoke and Spencer O'Brien of north Vancouver Island advance to the finals starting 11 a.m. Saturday (March 15), along with nine other athletes, to determine which two boarders will earn the 2025 men's and women's titles.
Ciccarelli, originally from Ancaster, Ont., scored the highest on March 16 at 90, followed by Torgeir Bergrem of Trondheim, Norway, recording 85.6. Ciccarelli won spectators' awe when he pulled off a switch backside 540 with a tweaked melon grab and pillow drop.
“I approach Natural Selection with the mindset of getting a clip, and focus on style, grabs, tweaking out tricks," he told NST. "My strategy is to make it look nice. The snow today was epic, 10 out of 10, bottomless."
Leading the scoreboard for the women's category is Elena Hight of Lake Tahoe, Nevada, who recorded 89.3. O'Brien, from Alert Bay, overtook Mary Rand of Narragansett, Rhode Island, in the last-chance qualifier for Saturday, scoring 76.6.
Meanwhile, Craven fell second behind Salt Lake City boarder Nils Mindnich's 89.33 midway through the men's round, still recording 85.66 to ultimately advance to the finals.
Ciccarelli and Hight each earned a $5,000 BOA Dialed-In Award for their top performances.
Brin Alexander of Whistler and Estelle Pensiero of Nelson didn't qualify for Saturday, but those competing alongside Canadians Ciccarelli, Craven and O'Brien in the finals are Bergrem, Hight, Mindnich, Ståle Sandbech (Oslo, Norway), Jared Elston (Bend, Ore.), Gigi Rüf (Au, Austria), Blake Moller (Edmunds, Colo.), Madison Blackley (Salt Lake City, Utah) and Šárka Pančochová (Uherske Hradiste, Czechia).
Watch the Day 1 competition at redbull.com/NSTsnow2, or tune into Day 2 of NST via livestream at redbull.com/NSTsnow2.
