Last Sunday, Feb. 24, was a day of firsts for Whistler freeskier Rhegan Williamson.
The 19-year-old snagged first place at the Lake Louise Freeride World Qualifier (FWQ) in Alberta—despite the fact that it was her first competition of the 2018/19 season.
“The podium was definitely a goal, for sure. I knew I was capable of getting there with the experience that I’ve had—I like to push myself as much as I can,” she said.
Her line choice, fluidity, control, technique and style at the Freeride World Tour qualifying event were strong enough to earn her a combined score of 61.1333 over the two days of competition; higher than anyone else in the female ski category.
After contending with “horrendous” visibility during Saturday’s qualifying round—“It was honestly just (like) a classic day up on the Whistler peak, you couldn’t see anything” she said with a laugh—a smooth and flow-y final run in perfect bluebird conditions helped push Williamson into the top spot.
That final run also saw Williamson become the only female competitor to brave one of the near four-metre cliffs available to athletes during the event—“a larger drop than I typically would (attempt),” she explained.
“It was pretty fun to see everyone’s reactions when I came down. They were like, ‘No one else hit that!’”
After competing at Lake Louise on three separate occasions as a junior, 2018 marked the big-mountain skier’s first time competing in the FWQ series as an adult. This year, “I got to come back and refine what I wanted to do and ended up with first place, which was pretty cool,” she said.
Sunday was also the 19-year-old’s first time back in a competition bib since suffering a brutal fall during the 2018 Wrangle the Chute FWQ event at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort last March.
“I qualified for the four star (event) there, which was really awesome just to be able to go. It’s a pretty big event,” she recalled.
“I went in super stoked, I was really happy with the line I had picked out, I came off my first air and I just hooked myself on a little snow snake—it was probably just like a tiny little tree stump—and I completely rolled over a cliff and rag-dolled down the rest of the venue, which was a bit of a terrifying moment. It scared the living daylights out of my mother.”
Despite “smoking” her back on exposed rock, Williamson said her back protector likely saved her from breaking her back. Instead, she suffered a badly pulled hip, which earned her a couple of months of physiotherapy, crutches and an early end to her season.
“It was definitely crappy to see the end of the season then, but I’m happy that that’s all it was and it wasn’t something worse,” she said.
Since the accident, “I’m definitely more aware of what dangers are around me when I’m picking a line and choosing more wisely as to where I’m ending up and what’s going to happen after I hit a drop,” she said. “I was definitely a bit shaken from it, but I think going forward it’s pushed me, in this comp at least, to prove that I can still keep doing this sport.”
It wasn’t just recovery that’s kept Williamson off the competition circuit this winter: She’s currently in her second year of full-time studies in the architectural engineering technology program at Kamloops’ Thompson Rivers University.
Trying to balance skiing and school may be “tricky, but I manage to escape most of the time and at least ski once a weekend,” Williamson explained. “I tend to come home for the most part, back to Whistler, but sometimes I’ll go up to Revelstoke or even go touring. Sun Peaks is OK sometimes—it’s not quite the same as Whistler Blackcomb.”
Next up, Williamson is hoping to get back behind the start line for the Crystal four star FWQ event in Washington at the end of March.
With two years left to complete her degree, “I want to definitely push more in the competitive realm after (graduation) and hopefully, maybe, work a whole summer into fall and then take a whole winter to just compete and ski,” she said. “That would be pretty awesome to do.”
Other Whistler-based athletes also landed on the podium at last weekend’s Lake Louise FWQ: French snowboarder Iyoma Fugain took home second-place in the female snowboard event, while France’s Hugo Serra earned silver in the male snowboard division.
For full results, go to https://www.skilouise.com/support/pdf/FINALS_SUNDAY.PDF.
