Matt Slingerland, of Rockwell, North Carolina, scores a bullseye by hitting a can of soda with his axe, causing the soda to explode during the axe throw event at the Stihl Timbersports Professional Mid-Atlantic and Southern qualifier at Snowshoe Mountain Resort last weekend.
MARLINTON, W.Va. — The valley below Snowshoe Mountain Resort may be used to the echoes of snowmobiles, but its usually not during the summer. This weekend, the roar of snowmobiles came from the modified chainsaws used in the Stihl Timbersports Professional Mid-Atlantic and Southern Qualifier.
Lumberjacks from across the country headed for the hills of West Virginia to compete in six events for their chance to move on to the US Pro Championship in Norfolk, Virginia, June 20 through 22.
The hot saw event, the loudest of the weekend, gave competitors a chance to show their precision as they used modified chain saws to cut three cookies, measuring less than six inches all together, from a piece of white pine.
Event host Kevin Holtz explained the difficulty of the task as competitors warmed up.
“It might look like six inches is a lot of wood to get these three cuts into, but here’s what you’ve got to keep in mind, every single time that saw passes through the block, it removes a half-inch of wood,” he said. “So in those three cuts, you’ve already gotten rid of an inch and a half of your six inches of wood. Then you divide up what you’ve got left. You’ve got to have very consistent inch and a half thick cookies every single cut. If you get a little bit too wide for that, you are going to quickly find yourself on the wrong side of that blue line…
