Kevin Rolland P: courtesy of Alli Sports

Frenchie Kevin Rolland nabbed the top spot in prelims today at Breck for the men's ski superpipe prelims; beating out the recent Grand Prix winner Justin Dorey. The riders were fortunate enough to receive prime conditions yet again during the competition. The Winter Dew Tour stop in Breckenridge is confidently setting the standards for the rest of the stops regarding the conditions, pipe size, and layout of the slopestyle course.

The top nine finishers from today's preliminary round will join 2009-10 Dew Cup Champion Jossi Wells, as well as Simon Dumont and Xavier Bertoni, the three prequalified athletes based off of the 2009-10 Winter Dew Tour rankings, in the Freeski Superpipe Finals tomorrow, Saturday, December 18.e.

The results are as follows:

1. Kevin Rolland 90.50
2. Justin Dorey 88.50
3. Thomas Krief 86.25
4. Noah Bowman 85.50
5. Duncan Adams 83.75
6. Torin Yater-Wallace 82.25
7. Walter Wood 80.00
8. Mike Riddle 79.50
9. Byron Wells 77.00
10. Dan Marion 76.25
11. Tucker Perkins 72.00
12. Joss Christensen 71.00
13. David Wise 70.00
14. Matt Margetts 62.25
15. Tyler Peterson 60.50

Go here for complete results...

Words: Josh Bishop

Photos: John Vandervalk & Josh Bishop

Pipe competitions thrive on speed, amplitude and perfect visibility. The ability to spot landings, grab rotations and obtain enough amplitude to initiate tricks is drastically hindered by precipitation. At the top of the course, you're nervous, there's very little food in your system, and your sole focus is making it down the pipe.

Hundreds of fans, thousands of online viewers and all your sponsors look on as you slip into the start gate at a nationally televised event. With fresh snow and flat light, differentiating between the pipe wall and the sky is nearly impossible as competitors send their most difficult tricks hit after hit. Some athletes stomp the best runs of their lives, others bobble slightly on otherwise perfect runs, while some struggle with horrific falls, equipment failure and difficult conditions.

As a result, the bottom of the pipe is an endless symphony of high fives, indescribable stress, pain, suffering, pure joy, and genuine camaraderie. Male or female, veteran or rookie, super pro or unpaid, criticized or well liked, all competitors know the sacrifice of skiing their absolute best in front of friends, family, and the world. More significant than medals, podiums, and well-deserved exposure, competitions push the sport, encourage highly talented athletes to ski with absolute perfection, and enhance the bond between individuals who thrive in a sub-culture completely removed from reality.

Head on over to the Newschoolers to check out the full recap and results. Click the picture above to see all incredible action.

P: Courtesy of tignes.net

Colorado native, Eric Willet, finally got his at the European Winter X Games. After taking home the silver in the Winter X Games in Aspen, Willett stomped his run in Tignes to get the Gold. With a tiring and demanding eight feature course at the event, all the riders seemed to be leaning toward the haggard side with their strength running thin. However, after a night of drawing runs and brainstorming, two Americans, Sage Kotsenburg and Eric Willett, landed the top two spots on the podium, followed by Slovenia's Marko Grilc.

Willett's gold-worthy run was made up of a half Cab 5-0 to backside 180 on the "Railway to Heaven", Cab 9, back 7, front double cork 1080, one clean backside rodeo, switch back 9, 50/50, and a double back rodeo. Chasing after him with the silver was the Dew Tour Slopestyle Champ, Sage Kotsenburg.

Men's Slopestyle Final

1st - Eric Willett 91.00
2nd - Sage Kotsenburg 85.33
3rd - Marko Grilc 83.66
4th - Stephan Maurer 82.66
5th - Chas Guldemond 70.66
6th - Christian Haller 67.66
7th - Travis Rice 50.33
8th - Iouri Podlatchikov 49.33


P: Courtesy of tignes.net

What the women's superpipe lacked in faces that have been blasted all over the media with the Olympic frenzy including Kelly Clark and Gretchen Bleiler, it did not lack in banger riding.

With most riders admitting that it'd be impossible to take on Olympic gold medalist, Torah Bright, it didn't seem like it would be much of a different result than that of Vancouver. However, the spectators and competitors were proved wrong by 20-year-old Dew Tour Superpipe Champ, Kaitlyn Farrington with her first X Games gold.

Going into finals it was head to head with Torah in the lead, but when Farrington laid down her second run loaded with a text book back 9, inverted frontside 7, Cab 7, and an alley oop 5, all was said and done. It earned her a 97.00, moving her above Torah's 95.00 top score. Rounding out the podium with the bronze was France's, Sophie Rodriguez.

Women's Superpipe Final

1st - Kaitlyn Farrington 97.00
2nd - Torah Bright 95.00
3rd - Sophie Rodriguez 87.00
4th - Mercedes Nicoll 82.33
5th - Ellery Hollingsworth 79.00
6th - Kjersti Oestgaard Buass 78.66

France scored a gold and silver at home in Men's Ski Superpipe on Wednesday night when Kevin Rolland and Xavier Bertoni both threw down technical and difficult runs. Rolland's run, however, was unmatched. His winning run was complete with two double flips and double cork 1260 mute grab. He was the first skier to ever throw this in competition at the Winter X Games in Aspen and the only skier to land it in competition. These two frenchmen were more than stoked to claim the number one and two spots.

The bronze belonged to Canadian Justin Dorey with his back to back doubles.

Men's Ski Superpipe Final

1st - Kevin Rolland 95.66
2nd - Xavier Bertoni 92.00
3rd - Justin Dorey 86.66
4th - Mike Riddle 85.00
5th - Byron Weels 84.33
6th - Jossi Wells 82.66
7th - Tucker Perkins 80.33
8th - AJ Kemppainen 75.33


P: Courtesy of tignes.net


More final results to come!

The weather may be cooling off here at Snowbasin Resort in Utah, but the action is definitely heating up. The second day of the Winter Dew Tour unraveled today as the prelims for ski pipe and snowboard slopestyle took off. Men skiers were the first to take the spot light as they broke out the big guns for pipe prelims.


Justin Dorey- Photo by Rocky Maloney

The rider field started 19 strong, then the judges whittled away 8, leaving the top 11 to advance to the finals on Saturday. Canadian Justin Dorey nailed the first place spot with his huge airs, technical spins, and overall stylish appeal. Landing in the second place spot was Kevin Rolland, who was closely followed by Peter Olenick, who rounded out the top three.


Peter Olenick- Photo by Rocky Maloney

Big things were going down on the ladies' side of things as the women's pipe contest was debuted. Implementing this comp into the Dew Tour has been a big step in promoting competitive women's freeskiing, and from the looks of their shredding, the ladies comp should be here to stay. The field was utterly stacked for this first event, as 18 ladies lined up to ride down the pipe. Out of the those 18, only 6 ladies advanced to the finals which will be held tomorrow.

Those six are-
1st-Jen Hudak
2nd- Rosalind Groenewoud
3rd- Sarah Burke Dog video
4rd- Virginie Faivre
5th- Anais Caradeaux
6th- Jess Cumming


Turning over to the snowboard side of things, slopestyle prelims were action packed. The women kicked off the round, and enjoyed sunshine during their midday slay down. With so many contests going off right now, the women's field was actually Pro-packed. 12 top ladies of women's shred showed up to throw down, but only the top 5 advanced to the finals to compete against Jamie Anderson who is pre-qualified.

Jenny Jones is no stranger to slopestyle comps, and her experience shined through as she stomped her way to first. Last year's Dew Cup winner, Spencer O'brien landed her way in second, and Kimmi Fasni was hot on her heels coming in 3rd.


For the Men's Division, it was Norway's Torstien Horgmo who spun his way into first. H-Mo impressed judges and fans with a huge backside 9, and back-to-back 10's on the bottom jumps. Chaz Guldemon took second with his slick spins and stylie runs. Rounding out the top 3 was Mr. Andrea Wiig, who also threw it down.


The contest is set to be pretty ferocious! Check back for more picks and vids and everything DEWtastic!

Also check out this video of RockStar skiers amping their way through the slope course at Snowbasin.