Parkite Nick Page is starting to make a habit of finishing atop podiums, coming in second at this past weekend’s national championships’ solo moguls event. 

The championships, held on Saturday and Sunday in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, followed last weekend’s World Cup finale in Italy, where Page finished third in the dual moguls event for his third podium of the Cup season. Page also finished in sixth in Sunday’s dual moguls event, battling an unexpected snowstorm from Saturday night.

Saturday night’s snowstorm brought around two-and-a-half feet of fresh powder to the resort. Page said skiing the course on Sunday, even being a bluebird day, was incredibly tough due to the knee-high powder. Wasatch Freestyle director Jon O’Brien said he had to tell his athletes to tough it out and remember that they’re used to skiing Utah conditions. 

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“It was a nice way to end the year,” said Page, the top-ranked U.S. mens moguls skier. “Really liked how I skied on the singles day Friday, and that week only seemed to get more challenging.”

Page will now return to Park City and work on aspects of his turns that he was unable to tackle during season. Page will do so at Deer Valley, where he grew up skiing, and is currently a sponsored athlete and ambassador. The official U.S. Ski Team training will pick back up again in May. 

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“I’m really going to be spending a lot of time on the flats. … Really breaking down my turn,” said Page. “Moving that to some natural moguls. … The moguls off of Sultan and Empire lift are both fantastic.”

Page was thrilled for his fellow compatriots who shone bright over the weekend. He said everyone contributed towards showing off the depth of talent that the U.S. freestyle program has. Ryan Tam, Charlie Mickel and Jaelin Kauf each had huge weekends, winning the mens solo, mens dual, and womens solo and dual events, respectively.

While Page and Kauf’s (the top-ranked U.S. womens moguls skier) excellent results were to be expected, Tam’s results came completely out of the blue. The 20-year-old Wasatch Freestyle skier had competed on the Nor-Am circuit this season, one step below the Cup circuit, finishing a season-best 11th earlier this month. Wasatch, who sent 14 athletes to Waterville Valley, had to file a petition to get him into the event, as he hadn’t accumulated enough points throughout the Nor-Am season. 

Page grew up skiing with Tam and was quite happy for him. O’Brien said Tam skied the run of his life and that it was something that makes sports special. O’Brien’s program also had five alumni competing from the U.S. team, including Page. 

“Ryan won the event, and it was a real surprise for everyone,” said O’Brien. “Certainly well deserved. … It was one of those things that really makes sports great — when you have an athlete that isn’t expected to do well and comes out and wins.”

O’Brien hopes Tam sticks with the sport as he’s a very coachable student. Tam joined Wasatch last summer, along with Jack Petrone, who finished ninth and 14th in the weekend’s solo and duals events. Wasatch Freestyle coaches many athletes with other sporting pursuits, like Petrone, who had an offer to play college football this past fall at Montana State University before deciding to give moguls skiing one more season.

O’Brien said much of his team’s success could be attributed to Garrett Lang and Deer Valley, who let them train on their Champion run 10 days prior to the event. Champion played host to a cup and Nor-Am event from February 2-8. The resort supports Wasatch skiers with free lift passes to go train during the season.

Next for many of these skiers is a final FIS event at Snowbird April 20-21, where valuable points can be earned toward Nor-Am and Cup event starts. Everyone will hit the Utah Olympic Park’s water ramps over the summer to practice their aerials maneuvers. 

To review Page’s results this past season and dive deeper into the national championships last weekend and see how many of those participating skiers fare at Snowbird next month, see the FIS’ website: fis-ski.com/. Snowbird will host both mens and womens solo and dual moguls events.