Thousands stand quiet waiting patiently in Whitefish, Montana accompanied by thirty degree weather and a light snow fall. The sun shines down on two, seventy foot kicker ramps that look as if they aim to shoot something straight to the heavens above. As a two-stroke engine on an Ski Doo 440 comes to life the crowd goes wild in anticipation of one the most extreme stunts about to be performed throughout the world. Immediately after Heath Frisby sparks up his snowmobile which is known to all snow junkies as a “Sled”, he propels himself around the closed off street to further gather the attention of the eager crowd. Once he has everyone’s attention, he lines himself up to the seventy foot kicker and proceeds to hold the throttle wide open catapulting his sled thirty feet into the air and lands flawlessly on a mound of snow setup as a landing. The crowd ignites with claps, whistles and cheers, however they have no idea what awaits them.
After a few jumps from the riders, Steve Miller, the owner of SCS Racing scrambles to the top the massive landing made of fresh snow and announces that a little competition is about to ensue. The name of the game is “S.C.S”, which closely relates to that of “PIG”. Including all three extreme riders; Heath Frisby, Kourtney Hungerford, and Chris Burandt, the first rider is unable to perform the trick of his peers and receives his first letter. Without skipping a beat, Chris launches himself into the air and abandons his 450 pound sled as if it were completely irrelevant to his survival. For a brief moment, he is 30 ft. above the ground, all alone up there with nothing to assist him in his imminent decent. Like an ancient Samurai warrior he is the master of the elements around him and gracefully remounts the sled in mid air to perform a flawless landing. Frisby and Hungerford both perform the same stunt as if it were a walk in the park.
The competition proceeds for the next ten minutes with no one getting a letter, largely in part to the prevalent skill provided by the renowned riders. Hungerford and Burandt are confident they can match each competitor’s trick; however there soon arises one slight problem. One of the three riders Frisby, although not yet confirmed, appears to be clinically insane, clandestinely hides one last trick up his sleeve.
Frisby wanting to put an end to this competition once and for all, kills his sled, gets off and proceeds to rip off his helmet from his head. The crowd goes wild in the background (one of the loudest we’ve seen yet), anxiously awaiting his next trick. He speaks briefly with Steve concerning how much time there is left in the event. Frisby hops on his sled, sparks it to life with one pull of the starter cord, then blasts off. Circling the track once, Frisby explodes off the kicker and mid-air pulls the sled back completely inverting himself. With nothing but 450 pounds of machinery on top of him, and the ground approaching faster and faster, Frisby pulls the Sled all the way around flawlessly landing. The crowd explodes with cheers as they have just witnessed one of most difficult tricks there is; a back flip on a sled. The other riders watch and now know that there is no way to match this and graciously take a letter. Soon after the game ends, Frisby emerges as the winner, as not many can perform this dangerous feat.
The Winter Carnival went off without a glitch, the crowd still recovering from the euphoric wave of adrenalin that washed over them during this extreme show slowly dissipated. As the SCS crew loaded up their sleds, nightfall fell and with the crowd gone they were left feeling completely content and satisfied as they just put on one hell of a show that Whitefish, Montana will remember forever. --Tug Hanley
SCS would like to thank: Parts Unlimited, Red Bull Montana, the city of Whitefish, Western States CAT Equipment, Montaqua, Fun Beverage, Big Mountain and all the fans!
