by Mickey Smith



     Two snowboarding brothers from Stowe will be competing in the Winter Dew Tour's Pantech Invitational event at Killington over the upcoming weekend, Thursday through Sunday, January 19-22.
     The Pantech Invitational includes some top skiers and snowboarders from around the country and will be airing on NBC on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
     Younger brother Nils Mindnich, 17, is pre-qualified for the superpipe event, while older brother Hans, 19, will be competing in the last chance qualifiers for both the superpipe and slopestyle events.
     Hans is just breaking into the contest scene, while Nils finished third in the U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships in 2007.
     The four day event opens Thursday with the mens and womens qualifying events. If Hans gets through Thursday's last chance events, he'll join Nils in the semifinal event on Friday.
     The snowboard slopestyle final will be on Saturday at noon, with the superpipe final on Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
     The Killington event is the only east coast stop of the three meet challenge. The event opened in Breckinridge, CO, in December and will close next month at the Toyota Championships in Ogden, UT, February 9-12.