XPLORE: Winning on a tragic day

Question and Answer with Utah's big mountain freeskier Kent Hyden, winner of the World Freeskiing Championships in Alyeska, Alaska.

Age: 29

Hometown: Cottonwood Heights

Skis: Fat*ypus A-lotta 140cm underfoot

Home mountain: Alta and Snowbird for past six years

Q: Why live in Utah?

A: "Because the snow's better. I just wanted to go somewhere where I could ski more powder."

Q: What are the biggest developments in the world of Freeskiing recently?

A: "The skiing is getting better every year. Guys are throwing down harder, throwing huge tricks off cliffs and they are starting to market it to the public a little bit better, too, now so that the general public starts to understand what freeskiing is and they are watching it on TV."

Q: What did it take to win the finals?

A: "Just skiing faster. I picked a line that I was able to see from the top that I was going to have no problems, and I didn't really have to approach anything slow. I could just ski fast the whole way and point it over three drops."

Q: What was the terrain like?

A: "It's steeper and bigger than what I'm used to."

Q: Go through your run from top to bottom.

A: "I watched a couple of guys go and I noticed the snow on the right hand side was mankier (not as good) and the snow on the left hand side seemed to be better. You know, I wasn't really completely sure what I wanted to do."

"As soon as I landed from my first air, I realized the snow was plenty soft and good enough for what I wanted to do and so then I just started pointing it toward the right. As I went to the right it got a little bit faster and I pretty much just stayed on top but it was all pretty much untracked and smooth enough that I could just point it and get off the third (cliff) clean."

Q: How competitive has the sport become?

A: "The final day start list any guy could win. You know, that's how deep the sport has gotten is that anybody could win on any day. There's just so many guys throwing down at a super high level. One day you could think you have a good run and end up in 39th and the next day you have a good run and you're in first. There's not a whole lot of space in between, it's like tenths of a point separating guys now instead of before where there would be like five point differences. There's a lot more really good skiers now."

Q: John Nicoletta died the day of the competition. What was it like to win on such a tragic day?

A: "As soon as I saw Nicoletta's run, I knew something bad had happened and all my attention just turns toward that as well as everybody else. The event was the last thing in any of our heads. The next day we went up and had his memorial and the event continued on and later that day I found out that I'd won. I really didn't know what to think about it. I just had super mixed emotions about the whole thing. Nicoletta is still on my mind now so I'm still not really sure what to think. The enjoyment that I have gotten out of it is knowing that I have worked hard for it and just having all my friends and family be happy and having them congratulate me. Obviously with Nicoletta going down like that, that's what I'm always going to remember about the event. We're always gonna' miss him."

Q: Has freeskiing come to the point where you have to be close to death to win?

A: "I don't think that's the case. This was just an accident, and we're really calculated. We look at lines really carefully before we decide which one we're going to do. I backed away from two other lines that day myself before picking the one that I ended up skiing. We're always trying to stay safe and trying to stay healthy. This was just an unfortunate accident. There is some risk that things like that could happen, but I think they're pretty small risks and we're always trying to make good decisions on what lines we ski to keep the risk as small as possible."