Words by Jeff Schmuck
Photos by John Vandervalk & Christian 'Cheech' Sander

The skiing side of Winter X Games 15 in Aspen, Colorado culminated last night in the biggest way possible with one of the most highly anticipated events of the entire week, Men's Ski Big Air.

Following Women's Snowboard Superpipe Finals, the estimated 20,000+ crowd performed a mass exodus from the walls of the pipe to the base of the jump for the most crowd pleasing event at X Games. Throughout the week and the impressive display of superpipe and slopestyle skiing, talk continuously turned to big air. Would we get to witness tricks that had never been done before like in last year's event?

And most of all, would Sammy Carlson, Bobby Brown or Russ Henshaw attempt a triple, particularly after Torstein Horgmo threw one in Snowboarding Big Air? All of those questions were answered last night and then some during the wild conclusion of skiing at Winter X Games 15.

First up was the elimination round, where two heats of five skiers were given a 15 minute jam session to lay down as many jumps as they could, with their best two scores out of 50 counting and the top two from each heat and the next highest score overall moving onto the five man finals. The first heat included Jacob Wester, Gus Kenworthy, Elias Ambühl and fresh off his gold medal victory in Men's Slopestyle Skiing, Sammy Carlson. Also scheduled to be in the first heat was Russ Henshaw, who unfortunately had to pull out after going down hard on the only attempted triple cork of the night.

During that 15 minutes of pure and unadulterated ski porn, the tricks that made last year's event so historic were thrown down right off the bat, with Carlson unleashing some switch double misty 12's and Ambühl stomping some double cork 16's.

Get on over to Newschoolers for the rest of the story and photos.

The men were charging the course and laying it all on the line for X Games gold.

Words by Jeff Schmuck

Photos by John Vandervalk

The final day of the skiing side of Winter X Games in 15 in Aspen, Colorado is in full swing, as Men's Ski Slopestyle Finals just wrapped up under perfect bluebird skies and a dramatic photo finish.

Eight of the cream of the crop of the skiing slopestyle world laid the incredible course on Buttermilk Mountain to waste this afternoon, proving that the level of competition skiing is without question at an all time high.

In eighth place was Gus Kenworthy, who after qualifying second in Thursday's prelims came out swinging today, with a left double cork 12 to switch right double cork 10 to attempted switch left double 10, but unfortunately flew too high for his landing gears to deploy.

Taking seventh was the style scientist himself, Phil 'B-Dog' Casabon, who was unloading some of the biggest airs of the afternoon with switch 10's and 12's (along with bringing his street skills to the rail section), but had some issues on each of his runs.

Head on over to Newschoolers for the rest of the recap and photos..

Men's and women's ski superpipe finals were all time this year at Winter X 15. Check out Newschoolers' recap of all the extreme activity.

Words by Jeff Schmuck

Photos by John Vandervalk

Winter X Games 15 continued this evening with one of the most exciting events of the year in competitive skiing...Men's Ski Superpipe Finals, where eight of the best pipe skiers in the world waged war in a battle for the ages.

This year's event began a touch earlier than in years past, with the beginning of the big show taking place in the late afternoon as opposed to prime time, but when it came time for the third and final run, the bright lights of Buttermilk came on, sending the capacity crowd into a frenzy.

Taking eighth tonight was 2009 X Games gold medalist Xavier Bertoni, who despite giving it his all had trouble on each of his runs, while the very promising David Wise landed just ahead of the French skiing superstar in seventh after experiencing some troubles of his own, despite launching some of the most stratospheric airs of the evening with textbook trickery and double cork 12's.

Get on over to Newschoolers for the full recap and the women's results. Do it friends!

Words by Jeff Schmuck
Photos by John Vandervalk

Welcome to day two of Winter X Games 15 in Aspen, Colorado, which is the busiest of the bunch with Men's Slopestyle Prelims, Women's Slopestyle Finals and later tonight, Women's Superpipe Finals.

It was yet another beautiful bluebird morning here in Aspen (with more of the same on the way we're told), with mild temperatures, a respectable crowd and smiles a plenty as men's slopestyle prelims kicked off at 10am sharp.
Fifteen of the finest slopestyle skiers in the world (minus Tom Wallisch and Alexis Godbout, who both unfortunately had to miss this year's event due to injury) took to the course for three runs in an effort to grab one of the eight spots in Saturday's finals.

Unfortunately missing the cut today was Jossi Wells, who got bumped on to the wrong side of the bubble by the final run of the day from Bobby Brown after the Kiwi laid down a series of sure fire runs, along with JF Houle, was skiing like the madman he is with tech rail tricks and multiple doubles.

Hop on over to Newschoolers for the rest of the action.

Words by Jeff Schmuck 

Photos by John Vandervalk

Well kids, it's that time of year again. Welcome to the biggest show of them all, Winter X Games 15 in Aspen, Colorado.

Over the next five days, the Superbowl of winter action sports will be going off at Buttermilk Mountain with snowmobiling, snowboarding, and most importantly to all of us, skiing. The proceedings 'unofficially' kicked off this evening with Women's and Men's Ski Superpipe Prelims, and if what went down tonight is any indication of what's still to come, just like each and every year at X Games...we're in for one hell of a show.

Up first were the women, who took to the always immaculate X Games superpipe under afternoon bluebird skies that turned into a crystal clear night, and if the weatherman is correct, check this out...it's supposed to be like that all week.

Head on over to read the rest of the ski story from our friends at NEWSCHOOLERS.