Photo: Trevor Brown Jr./ESPN

The average human being would laugh in your face if you showed them the Winter X Games 16 Big Air jump and told them to straight line into the lip and huck themselves towards the sky. The competitors last night would laugh in your face if you doubted that they would be absolutely sending it without hesitation off said jump.

Under the bright lights, a select group of snowboarding's top riders dropped into an 80-foot step up jump in attempts to earn X Games gold.

The acrobatic contest quickly moved towards, "who is going to land a triple cork" contest with Torstein Horgmo, Sebastien Toutant, Seppe Smits, Eric Willett, and Mark McMorris throwing down their best for the massive crowd.



It was McMorris who earned the winning score and his first X Games gold medal by stomping a gigantic backside triple cork mute 1440 even though Torstein Horgmo was giving him a run for his money earning a perfect score of 50. However, his overall score wasn't enough to take down Mark. To round out the podium, McMorris' fellow Canadian Sebastien Toutant snagged the bronze with a clean double cork cab 1260.

The 2012 Big Air finals demonstrated the level of progression that snowboarding has reached. These riders are hungry and dedicated - providing excellent shredding and impressive competitions.

Nothing like some ridiculous snowboarding with Torstein Horgmo to ring in the New Year. Oh, and the fact that we got to 2012 without seeing the apocalypse. That was pretty cool too. Horgmo wants to wish everyone a Happy New Year with some not-so-traditional riding - aka some "figure snowboarding". We're pretty positive he just made that term up.

Anyway, thanks to Torstein for his usual hilarious on-hill antics and Happy New Year!

Spraying anyone in the face is funny. Well, it's actually hilarious. Anyone facing uphill is fair game. Now, when this someone is a skier...it's pretty much a double whammy. This is where pro rider Torstein Horgmo and his acclaimed game of "In Your Face" come into play.

Torstein has made himself famous with his "In Your Face" edits where he challenges friends and riders to a trick-off if you will, and whoever loses gets a gigantic slash directly to his dome - goggles off, no blocking allowed. In the latest duel, Torstein has challenged kiwi and legendary two-planker Jossi Wells - the first skier ever to participate in "In Your Face" with Horgmo.

Watch as they attempt to come up with tricks that the other can understand and watch Horgmo's mind get blown with ski terms and tricks that they can actually pull off. Yes, skiers can go backside and usually they prefer the term "backwards" instead of "ass-first". Thanks Torstein, bridging the gap between skiers and snowboarders one challenge at a time.

See who ends up with a slash of snow blasted to their face below:

'It's the most wonderful time of the year.' Yes, that lyric holds true for this week, not only because of holiday season, but because the Winter Dew Tour kicks off the Nike Open in Breckenridge, Colorado. For the fourth year in a row, world-class athletes will descend upon Colorado's picturesque mountain town for a week of action-packed shredding and shenanigans that has come to be known as the Dew Tour.

Snowboarders and freeskiers will be competing in halfpipe and slopestyle for piece of the Tour's hefty prize purse, and for the chance to win points towards the coveted Dew Cup. Also cued up for the week is the Nike Chosen Rail Jam and a concert by the one and only Yelawolf.

It's gonna go off in Breck, so keep it locked to GrindTV and Snowboarder Mag for all the breaking action.

Burr Ridge, Ill. - Dec. 2011 - The Winter Dew Tour will kick off its fourth season this week in Breckenridge, Colorado, December 15-18. The weekend's events will bring the top names in snowboard and freeski superpipe and slopestyle to the mountain, while helping to celebrate Breckenridge's 50th anniversary.

Included in the list of names returning to the mountain is Kevin Pearce, who will ride his snowboard for the first time since his December 2009 injury. Hitting the slopes at the Winter Dew Tour on Tuesday, Pearce will be joined by Frends, family and well-wishers for some leisurely riding. An interview with Pearce will be broadcast on NBC Saturday, December 17 at 2:00pm EST, during snowboard superpipe finals.

Louie Vito enters the 2011-12 season eager to repeat his championship performance in the superpipe. He will find stiff competition in Shaun White and Danny Davis, who both return to the Dew Tour this year after a competitive hiatus. Sage Kotsenburg will take to the slopestyle course intent on reclaiming the Dew Cup he won in 2010 from 2011 winner Torstein Horgmo, redeeming his 13th place finish at the end of last season.

Freeskiing game-changer Simon Dumont has come up short in his goal of winning the superpipe Dew Cup, landing in 2nd place since the Winter Dew Tour's inception. He comes to Breckenridge with visions of the elusive title in his future, competing against Justin Dorey, Kevin Rolland and young phenom Torin Yater-Wallace, who dominated in the Gatorade Free Flow Tour before moving up to the pro ranks in 2010. The freeski slopestyle course will heat up with the technical expertise of Bobby Brown, Alex Schlopy and Sammy Carlson.

The ladies will be showing off their snow skills as well. Kelly Clark dominated the women's superpipe contest circuit last season and expects this year to be no different. Elena Hight and Ellery Hollingsworth will be among the young competition, along with veterans Gretchen Bleiler and Hannah Teter aiming to bump her off the top of the podium in Breckenridge. The slopestyle course will also be lighting up with young female talent, as Spencer O'Brien and Enni Rukajarvi face a wide field of up-and-coming qualifiers to begin an exciting competitive season.

Taking the action off the mountain, Nike will host the first stop of their Winter Chosen Tour with a rail jam competition down at the Riverwalk Center Saturday night. Free for all to attend, it will be a showdown of the top local amateurs, with a DJ spinning to the contest and Nike pros commentating. The action leads right into the Winter Dew Tour concert series, treating snowboarders, skiers and hip-hop fans alike to a performance by one of rap's most buzzed about and unique up and comers as Yelawolf and opening act The Knux take the stage. These Shady Records acts will be the perfect complement to Friday's 50th Anniversary celebration in the town, with 100 percent of the ticket proceeds going to SOS Outreach.

Schedule:

Pre-Qualified Athlete List:

The Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium in downtown Beijing was the place to be on Saturday for the first 6 star TTR big air contest of the season. The second annual Oakley Shaun White Air + Style went down in front of a frenzied crowd of over 15,000 spectators.

Bright lights illuminated the massive man made jump as the world's best riders attempted to spin to win. With an overall prize purse of $100,000, a 1000 TTR points and the coveted Air and Style Ring all on the line, riders were throwing down heavy tricks in hopes of taking home the glory.

Throughout three intense rounds, Norweigans came out swinging and took all three of the of top spots.

Ulrik Badertscher made sure his name is one that won't soon be forgotten as he landed a super smooth backside 1260 rodeo indy grab that earned him first place. Hot on his heels was fellow Norwegian, Torstein Horgmo, who stomped a stylish cab 1080 double cork for second. Stale Sandbech is rapidly becoming a mighty force on the slopestyle scene and landed a backside 1260 mute grab that earned him 3rd place.

With this first big TTR contest under these riders belt, their focus will now turn to the Grand Prix at Copper Mountain which is going down this weekend and will be filled with heavy action both in the pipe and on the slope course.

Ulrik Badertscher's Winning Run



Beijing, China - December 2011: Ulrik Badertscher (NOR) won the Oakley Shaun White Air & Style Beijing competition in the Olympic Bird's Nest stadium tonight, followed by 2 Norwegian wingmen Torstein Horgmo and Ståle Sandbech. Ulrik received the coveted Air & Style Ring of Glory and 1,000 TTR World Ranking points.

Ulrik's winning run was a very clean backside rodeo 1260, which was also awarded Red Bull's Best Trick. Torstein Horgmo commented: 'Norway did OK today. There is no secret to it, we just all got juiced and we just follow some bad ass dudes, we just try to keep up.'

Favorites Sebastien Toutant (CAN) and Seppe Smits (BEL) both failed to reach the podium like last year. Seppe had the best results in the first round, but didn't manage to land his three attempts in the second round. Seb's cab 1260 double cork wasn't good enough to beat Ulrik's smooth double backside rodeo 12 Indy Grab, which gave him the highest score of the second round.

Stale Sandbech is the new leader of the TTR World Snowboard Tour Overall rankings and Roope Tonteri's 12th place was enough to keep him ranked no 1 on the Big Air Rankings. Ulrik Badertscher moved to the 5th position on both the TTR Big Air Tour Ranking and TTR Overall Ranking, a steady result.

The battle for the TTR Big Air Tour Title will have 3 more chapters, with the Relentless Big Air by Quiksilver in Stuttgart following on December 16-17. In 2012 it's on to Davos for the O'Neill Evolution from the 2nd to the 8th of January, and finally the TTR Big Air Tour crowning will take place at the Air& Style in Innsbruck, the final Big Air event of the year.

Torstein Horgmo's 2nd place run:



Stale Sandbech 3rd place run: