Words by Zach Allen
Photos by Bo Bridges



The Winter X Games franchise has a well-earned reputation for producing spectacular successes, terrifying crashes, and plenty of "did you see that?" moments, and the 13th edition of the games certainly lived up to this billing:  Shaun White padded his resume as the greatest freestyle snowboarder in history, a little-known frenchman named Xavier Bertoni shocked the ski world, and Levi LaVallee left everyone's mouths agape by trying an almost unfathomable stunt: landing a double backflip on a snowmobile.   In the words of ESPN's X Games host Sal Masekela, "a whole lot of rad went down over the last four days."  A look back at some of the more memorable moments:

Skiing: The men's ski Superpipe event saw one of the greatest upsets in Winter X Games history, when a 20-year old unheralded frenchman named Xavier Bertoni dethroned Superpipe legends Tanner Hall and Simon Dumont, the two prohibitive favorites going in.  Hall had the last run of the night, but was unable to best Bertoni's 93.66 and ended up with the silver.  “The funny thing is I actually felt nervous," said Hall.  "I did the best I could to throw it down.  This was such a great night for skiing."
 
Over on the slopestyle course, Canadian TJ Schiller completed a spectacular comeback from injury, winning gold after missing nearly all of last season with an ACL tear in his knee.  Schiller wasn't even assured a chance to compete: he was listed as an alternate for the event and only got to enter when another rider dropped out.  Sammy Carlson pocketed the silver and Colby West nabbed bronze.

On the women's side, Sarah Burke won her third consecutive gold medal in the Superpipe.  Burke is widely considered one of the greatest female freestyle skiers ever, but the next generation of women's pipe skiers is not far behind, with silver medalist Jen Hudak narrowly falling short of Burke's score.

But Burke's weekend was derailed badly during the X Games debut of the women's ski slopestyle event, where she crashed spectacularly and was carted off the mountain on by medical personnel with a lower back injury.  Anna Segal picked up the gold in her absence.

Snowboarding: Shaun White further cemented his status as the world's greatest freestyle snowboarder by taking gold in both the Slopestyle and Superpipe events, a feat he has done three times now.  White rode with his usual smooth, technical style, and his two wins give him an astounding nine Winter X Games golds for his career.  Some observers even claimed White's 96-point Slopestyle run was the best in history, but there was some controversy as to whether his Superpipe run deserved to win out over silver medalist's Kevin Pearce

In the Big Air competition, Travis Rice took gold with his signature double rodeo 1080 despite suffering a brutal crash earlier in the week during practice when he failed to clear a 65-foot long, 25 foot-high channel on a jump attempt.   

For the women, Australian Torah Bright outshone the competition in the Superpipe, snatching her second career gold medal in what has become one of the most consistently exciting and competitive events at the X Games.  “Tonight was absolutely amazing,” said Bright. I was able to hit all my tricks and couldn’t have asked for anything more.”  Kelly Clark grabbed second and Hannah Teter third, on a night that saw perennial favorite Gretchen Bleiler withdraw after suffering a concussion on a huge 900 attempt during her second run.

Snowmobiling: Levi LaVallee was the star of the snowmobiling world and perhaps the entire X Games.  In the Next Trick competition, the 26-year-old Minnesotan attempted a double backflip, something never before done on a snowmobile.  It was a moment of intense drama, and LaVallee nearly landed the trick cleanly but the impact of the landing proved a bit too much for him to hang on. "

"I am pumped," Lavallee said.  "I rode away safely and I proved that it is possible to land that trick.  I just need to work on the landing and get out there and try it again."  Dave Ferguson won the competition by default as none of the other riders successfully completed a trick. 

Joe Parsons marked his 21rst birthday on the day before competition, and celebrated by claiming two gold medals for himself- one in the Speed & Style competition and the other for the Freestyle event- putting himself in the company of Shaun White as the only athlete to win two golds at these games.