Originally, two halfpipes were planned for the North American Championships at Mt. Snow, Vermont, however, after the cancelled GS on Friday organizers decided to hold one halfpipe and use Saturday as a qualifier for Sunday's finals.

"With the GS cancelled and nearly 40 people on our halfpipe waiting list we decided to combine the prize money and points and allow everyone to compete in one halfpipe," said Brian Snead, mac daddy of the AST Tour.

Because of this the format for the pipe has changed as well. The top 8 and 4 men and women still advance from the first round, then 9 through 32 have a spot in Sunday's semi-finals, while women's finishers 5 through 16 do the same. Competitors 33 through 64 in the men's and 17 through 32 women will take another run on Saturday and the top 8 and 4 will advance to the semi finals on Sunday.

It's confusing, but what it means is that everyone gets three chances to advance into the finals on Sunday, and that the pipe will have double the Paul Mitchell Rider's Cup points.

The AST North American Finals continues tomorrow with the halfpipe finals at Mt. Snow, Vermont.

Bad Weather Cancels North American Championship Giant Slalom (3-14-97)