Monster Army was in full force at the Dew Tour Mountain Championships this past week in Breckenridge, Colo. The team was on hand to cheer on the two invited Monster Army athletes Robby Franco and Birk Irving. Franco started things off on Thursday, December 11 competing in Men's Freeski Slopestyle Semifinals against a stacked field including Monster Energy teammates Gus Kenworthy and Henrik Haurlaut. Franco started off his first run strong on the upper rail section destroying the features in sight, but had problems on the middle Toyota rail section coming off early. This threw his tempo off and his run was pretty much a wash after that. His second run was much stronger and he started things off on the first rail going switch 270 to continuing 270. Next rail he did transfer to pretzel two, and heading into the first two jumps threw down switch right bio 1080 and then switch left double 10. Going into the Toyota rail section this time he did a 270 off the upper rail and continued his speed into the last two jumps with a left double 1080 blunt followed by a right double 12 mute, just coming down on his side and washing out. This inevitably cost him the chance to make finals, but it didn't stop him from having a huge smile and cheering on his friends and teammates the rest of the day.

On Friday, December 12 it was Birk Irving's turn to take the superpipe in Men's Freeski Superpipe Semifinal. At the young age of 15, Birk was easily the youngest athlete in this stacked heat of 28 competitors. This was the first Dew Tour that Birk has competed in and he impressed the judges by going huge and showing style on both of his runs. He finished the Semifinal in 19 place which was good enough to move him into the LCQ qualifiers. At the qualifiers Birk had a couple mishaps, but ended up finishing his run and still managed to beat a few big name athletes. We are excited to see what the future has in store for young Birk Irving and I'm sure we will be seeing him stand on the podium soon.

For the first time at Dew Tour, the freeskiers were invited to join the mix for the first-ever Freeski Streetstyle competition. The contest was stacked with household names and our very own Robby Franco was on hand to throw down. The course provided two different options with various obstacles and handrails for technical tricks. Being held right in the center of Breckenridge, this event brought out many spectators who were going wild watching flips and big spins. Franco made the crowd go crazy by doing a corked 720 over the truck, which was in contention for the best trick. He ultimately was beat out by Alex Bellemare who took the win in Freeski Streetstyle. 

Having so many Monster Army athletes in the same town, it seemed only fitting to throw a team dinner on Saturday night. It gave everyone a chance to get to know each other a little bit better and talk about their future plans for the season. On hand we had skiers Robby Franco, Ben Smith, Alex Hall, Freddy Brideweser, Ryan McElmon, Carson Kerr and Jake Cummings. The snowboarders consisted off Matt Williams, Spencer Whiting, Jenise Spiteri, and Zoe Kalapos. It was great spending time with each of these athletes on and off the hill and we wish everyone a successful winter!