For the week of April 9 - 15, 2003

Freeskiing title to Lynsey Dyer

At The Cirque in Kirkwood

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Ketchum’s Lynsey Dyer, 22, is starting to make a name for herself in the freeskiing world—just as she’s about to graduate from college.

Dyer, who won $3,000 by capturing the Molson Canadian Freeskiing Challenge at Red Mountain Jan. 19, walked off with another $2,750 by winning the North American Freeskiing and Riding Championships Saturday at Kirkwood, Ca.

Lynsey Dyer. Express photo by Willy Cook

Praised for the beauty of her turns and her creativity, Dyer smoked the course at The Cirque with the fastest women’s time by a minute-and-a-half. The Cirque is a super-rocky, super-steep piste section of Kirkwood that is normally closed to skiers and boarders.

"I just skied clean and fast," said Dyer, who was judged on fluidity, aggressiveness, technique and difficulty of line. Just two days before, she was skiing powder at Kirkwood. "It was dumping. They got 60 inches in three days," she said.

Dyer won $750 and another $2,000 for taking the season women’s title—money she said is earmarked for her college expenses at Montana State University in Bozeman.

In Sunday’s Saab Salomon Crossmax Series skiercross at Kirkwood, Dyer finished fifth and was happy with the result.

She said, "It was a huge mental test for me. I had taken some huge air over a car and landed on my back when I tried the skiercross at the U.S. Freeskiing Nationals in Snowbird back in January."

Dyer did a couple of photo shoots for Powder and Skiing magazines this winter, on one trip earning the nickname "Smokahontas," for her knack of taking a straight line. She also won a freeskiing contest at Bridger Bowl in Feburary.

So she’s three-for-three in winning her freeskiing attempts in this her first season.

Now the 1999 Wood River High graduate is concentrating on writing her thesis at Montana State, where she graduates in graphic design May 10. "It’s a road trip book—all the kinds of stuff you can do on a road trip," she said about the thesis.

 

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