NEWS: Canadian Takes First in Pipe For Women, Men's Delayed by Shanti Sosienski It was a surprisingly long day on the mountain Friday at the U.S. Open after foggy weather got the super G off to a late start and then cancelled it. The halfpipe practice wasn't even an option until the afternoon with all of the morning's events, allowing the women to barely squeak out their runs before the fog over took the halfpipe completely. Mike Michaelchuck was throwing himself way out of the halfpipe today and the photographers were liking that. In the women's division Canadian rider Tara Teigan busted out with some good amplitude and smooth style for both of her runs taking first place with German powerhouse rider Nicola Thost following closely behind. In general a lot of the women were riding noticeably better than the previous year, pushing the competition up a notch and showing everyone that there has been a lot of progression in the last year. Stine Brun Kjeldaas, Satu Jarvela, Cara-Baeth Burnside, and Tricia Byrnes made impressive showings and had the crowd cheering. Tricia Byrnes was putting together some serious spinning with three 360s in a row followed by a five at the bottom of the pipe, while Cara-Beth showed off her perfect Cabs and lofty height in true skate fashion. Nicola Thost of course was boosting some serious straight airs and back to back 720s. Newcomers on the pro scene like Lauren Mollica, Maelle Ricker and a 15-year-old unknown from Brattleboro named Karla Gembarowski were busting out in a way that was especially noted by all. Catherine had some of the biggest airs in the contest of the day, showing true floaty style that reeked of Burton influence from the Spiro/ Sommers posse. Can you believe we had a chance to send this kid to the Olympics and we didn't? Go figure. After the women got a magical momentary pocket in the fog that gave them ten minutes of sunshine and a clear enough halfpipe to let the judges do their thing, another huge bank of clouds moved in and took over Stratton for the rest of the afternoon. This forced the competition to be postponed until the following morning. The upside of this meant that the crowd lingering around the side of the halfpipe got a three hour halfpipe demonstration with some of the best male riders in the world as the snowboarders waited for the weather to clear again. Mike Michaelchuck definitely had heads turning with the legendary double backflips and unusual variations on tricks. His height was without a doubt, and perhaps much to the dismay of the King hucker Terje, some of the highest. Terje was still floating them like a champ, but rumors of problematic hips had people wondering if he would even ride this weekend. The eternal second place contestant Daniel Franck was finally busting out after hanging low in Wednesday's practice. And Ross Powers, Abe Teeter, Ian Spiro, and the rest of the Burton clan seemed to be showing some prize winning consistency. None of this really mattered at 4:30 however. The judges were pretty much blinded at both the top and bottom of the pipe by thick wet foggage, and riders were having fun, but all seemed in agreement that to hold the contest would be ludicrous. Instead the practice session went on and on, allowing photographers and the audience who stuck around to spend the afternoon enjoying the incredible riding that was taking place at Stratton. Stay tuned tomorrow morning as we bring you the results from the men's qualifiers in the morning, and then the finals in the afternoon. OTHER NEWS US Open Day Two: Fog City Sat. (Mar. 21 @ 8:13:AM est) Super G Cancelled Due To Weather Fri. (Mar. 20 @ 10:02:PM est) Pipe Riders Rule During Practice Fri. (Mar. 20 @ 8:47:AM est) Zangerl and Rauter Take Duel Slalom Thu. (Mar. 19 @ 9:18:PM est) The 16th Annual US Open Snowboarding Championships - Schedule of Events Thu. (Mar. 19 @ 8:42:AM est) US OPEN PHOTO SPECIAL: Check out the latest and finest US Open Snapshots in the all new Photo Gallery Special US OPEN MESSAGE BOARDS: Got news or info about the US Open. Let us hear about it. US OPEN NAVIGATION: News | Results | Photos | Audios | US Open Index SOL NAVIGATION: SOL | Scoop | Hardware | Industry | Circleplus | Push | Travel | Interact | School | Weather | Terrain | Compete | Mediator