SKI SICK : INSANE TERRAIN LURES EXTREME SKIERS TO ODD COMPETITION.

Byline: Oliver Staley Bozeman Daily Chronicle 

The skier stands at the lip of the cliff, wedged precariously between the rock face behind him and the tree to his right, skis pointed toward the abyss.

Surely this is a mistake. Clearly, he'll back up, turn around, take off his skis, do whatever he can to extricate himself from this mess.

But suddenly Matt Wakkuri launches himself. He drifts slowly down through the air, diagonally across the cliff face, before exploding, 30 feet later, into the snow.

For a fraction of a second, Wakkuri is buried. Then he reappears, tumbling head over heels down the slope, skis and poles flailing as he tries to arrest himself. Finally he stops, and as the crowd - mostly his fellow competitors at the 1997 Bridger Bowl Big Mountain Extreme Contest - cheers wildly, he thrusts his arms toward the sky in triumph.

They're from places like Michigan, Arizona and Pennsylvania. They live in towns like Squaw Valley, Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Big Sky, Mont. And they - 120 skiers and snowboarders in all - ascended Bridger Bowl's infamous ridge to hurl themselves through the air, flash down icy chutes and crown the kings and queens of the mountain.

A sport in its infancy, extreme skiing is what happens when young daredevils push each other to ski and snowboard off of bigger and steeper terrain.

Formerly just the private province of backcountry showoffs and thrill-a-minute videos, the sport got organized with the World Championships in Valdez, Alaska, in 1991, and has added events around the world since. The event at Bridger was the second in a tour of four similar events, which also travels to Kirkwood near Lake Tahoe, Jackson Hole and Crested Butte, Colo.

The skiers and snowboarders compete for small purses, for bragging rights and to conquer their own fear while staring down incredibly perilous runs.

``Everything's scary,'' said Brie Macdonald, a skier from Vancouver, British Columbia, in her first contest. ``That's the best part about it . . . being on top of some hill and being scared out of your mind and making it down and saying, `Yeah, not only did I conquer that hill, but I conquered my fear in order to get down that hill.'

``It's an opportunity to prove to yourself and other people that you're good skiers,'' she said. ``It's kind of an ego thing. It's a challenge.''

At the opposite end of the spectrum from Macdonald and the other first-timers is Doug Coombs.

Weather-beaten but looking 10 years younger than his 39 years, Coombs, a two-time world champion in Alaska, has reached the sport's modest pinnacle. Still, he retains a cheerful goofiness. He is wowed by the other skiers' stunts on the mountain, and he forgetfully neglects his sponsors.

``I'm supposed to have a sticker,'' he said bashfully, looking at his helmet.

After skipping the last two World Championships, Coombs is preparing for a comeback April 5 in Alaska.

Coombs is sanguine about the prospects of extreme skiing capturing a foothold on the very crowded landscape of American sports.

``I think it's going big,'' he said. ``It's going to take over pro racing. It's right in there where the mogul circuit was in the '70s, because it's such a spectator sport. Everyone just loves watching.''

While Coombs can hack out a living in extreme skiing, he's one of the lucky few. The rest work in ski shops, at ski areas, as waiters and waitresses and, occasionally, at 9-to-5 jobs. No one is getting rich at the sport, not even the promoters.

``We've never made a profit,'' said Mark Phillips, who, with Chaco Mohler, formed Element X Productions, the tour's organizer. ``This is our third year doing this, and we've probably spent about $30,000 of our own money getting it going, because we don't have the corporate sponsorship.''

To minimize the danger, the contests are held at road-accessible areas like Bridger, not remote, backcountry sites. A series of qualifying runs and semifinals also help weed out the inexperienced skiers before they get to the most challenging terrain.

Like Coombs, Phillips sees a bright future for the sport, even if takes years to be realized.

``There's an Olympic sport here, you bet,'' he said. ``This is going to drive the ski industry market into next millennium. This is going to be sport of choice. This is what people are going to think of when they think of (ski) competitions.''

But right now, they're still figuring out the rules.

Competitors have a fixed time to ski or board down a stretch of terrain. They are judged on control, fluidity, aggressiveness, technique and the difficulty of the line down the hill they choose. Jumps are weighed, but not scored specifically. Falls don't disqualify contestants, but it hurts their score. Losing equipment also is a deduction.

Coombs was the men's ski winner at Bridger. He overcame a run-in with a tree to finish out a tricky line and win $800 and assorted free gear.

Macdonald managed to surprise herself with a third-place finish among the women, which, along with cash and prizes, came with a free entry into the next contest, at Crested Butte.

TALK OF EXTREMES

Like all sports, extreme skiing has a language of its own, a mix of skate punk, snowboard cool and time-honored ski lingo.

For the uninitiated, it can be baffling. Here's a sampling of extreme terms and their translations:

Air: Multiple uses, refers to jumps. As in ``big air,'' ``got some air,'' and ``I aired it.''

Chocolate chip: A mixture of snow and rock. Similar to ``cheese grater'' and ``shark's teeth.''

Comp: Competition.

Huck: All-purpose term for jump. Root of terms like ``huckfest'' (competition dominated by jumping), ``Huck-a-Hun'' (jumping 100 feet) and ``hucking-for-dollars'' (winning money in competitions).

Pucker factor: Degree of fear.

Rowdy: Description of challenging terrain. Also ``intense'' and ``sick.''

Sick: Generally flattering term for extreme activity. Used in phrases like ``sick line'' (for a tough route down the hill), and ``that was sick'' (complimenting a run).

Starfish: What a skier can resemble after a fall, i.e. a spineless invertebrate whose arms and legs are indistinguishable as they tumble down the mountain.

CAPTION(S):

Photo, Box

Photo: (color) John Martinsen competes in the Bridger Bowl Big Mountain Extreme Contest near Bozeman, Mont. The competition is designed for test extreme skiers on the biggest and steepest terrain.

Associated Press

Box: TALK OF EXTREMES (see text)