Taylor wins freeskiing qualifier at Moonlight

Whitefish skier Kyle Taylor placed 10th overall in the 2012 Subaru Freesking World Tour after a top finish at the Moonlight Basin qualifier. Nearly 200 of the best freeskiers in the U.S. competed on the tour.

Taylor is a Whitefish High School graduate, and skied on the Big Mountain Race Team and the Montana State University race team.

At Moonlight on March 23-24, skiers were challenged to ride 1,500 feet of steep and rocky terrain in the Three Forks and Headwaters zones on the north face of Lone Peak. Some of the lines were on pitches of 40 to 50 degrees.

Taylor had clean, fast and aggressive runs both days to push him to the top of the podium. In his final run, Taylor aired off a cliff into big arcing turns through Three Forks, aired a second cliff and finished with a stylish daffy off a jump. His two-day score of 75.33 was two points better than the runner up Dylan Siggers out of Fernie.

Taylor was invited to compete in the Subaru Freesking World Tour Finals in Kirkwood last weekend where he placed 24th. Commentators at the event called Taylor’s style, “pure, clean, homemade alpine ripping.”