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.