Pictured: Mammoth’s John Teller poses with a few of his fans from the Mammoth Mountain Ski Team at the Mammoth Mountain Community Foundation’s Teams Headquarters Grand Opening earlier this season./

On Jan. 26, Mammoth’s John Teller and Tyler Wallasch joined Team USA Ski Cross athlete Joe Swensson (Niantic, CT) to race as Team USA in the second edition of the Red Bull Kronplatz Cross. The event with its challenging 820 meter course with an altitude difference of 350 meters, 12 curves, 18 obstacles, a parabolic positive and a negative, a tunnel and a double woops, was made even more difficult as it was held at night.

Swensson added a few details about the race, writing on Facebook, “It was a 3 person team pro/am ski cross race and one of the most fun events I’ve ever been to. The first skier had to press a button in the finish arena, which opened the gate for their teammate, the 2nd skier would do the same thing for the third guy and then the 3rd guy would finish the job. Waiting in the start for the gate to drop made a minute feel like a lifetime. There was no way of telling when your teammate got close to the finish and all you could do was hope your gate opened up first. Nice job Tyler Wallasch and John Teller.”

Team France proved undefeatable, winning in front of Team Switzerland and Team Red Bull.  The sensational Kristian Ghedina, a participant in last year’s Mammoth Invitational, helped Team Italy to the semifinals, while Team USA captured fifth place.

Wallasch wrote on his Facebook site, “Did a massive spread eagle in front of Kristian Ghedina (former Kitzbuhel winner) last night in the small final. Wish we could have gone for the win in the Final but still had a blast!”

After the race, Wallasch and Teller surprised Mammoth’s Stacey Cook with a visit. Cook had just wrapped up racing in the downhill and Super G FIS World Cups in Cortina d’Ampezzo Italy, where she finished 15^th in the downhill. Cook was recently named to represent the United States in the 2013 FIS Alpine Ski World Championships, Feb. 4-17 in Schladming, Austria.

(Photo: Susan Morning/Mammoth Mountain Community Foundation)