Date: 28 – 31 January
Venue: Buttermilk, Aspen/Snowmass
City: Aspen, Colorado
Country: United States of America

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Buttermilk is considered to be one of the best learning mountains in the country. An astonishing 74% of the ski and snowboard terrain is rated beginner or intermediate. Despite this it has hosted the ESPN Winter X Games for a number of years. Buttermilk has trails for Alpine skiing and snowboarding and features two terrain parks and one superpipe. The trails are rated as follows: 35% beginner, 39% intermediate, 26% advanced. Buttermilk also offers child care, and women’s and children’s programs, as well as lessons and equipment rental.

The mountain resort features a summit elevation of 9 900 ft and a vertical drop of 2 030 ft. It enjoys 200 inches of annual snowfall and a large portion of it is groomed each evening. The longest run available at Buttermilk is 15 840 ft in length. The annual X Games competitions are exciting and feature slopestyle, halfpipe, motocross, skier X, boarder X and slalom amongst other things. If you’re lucky and experienced enough, you may be able to try your hand at some of these events shortly after the games have ended.

Buttermilk Ski Resort is open daily between December and April each year but is closed to skiers at night. Of course, inclement weather may delay the resort’s opening, but by and large weather conditions are great. There are also a variety of restaurants available and you can choose your accommodation from any number of providers. Start booking now for a great skiing vacation.

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When competitors and fans arrived, they found that the pipe had become rock hard and icy. It was already big and fast before the event, and all these elements combined to provide one massive challenge with absolutely no room for error. The crowds added to the adrenalin, the media coverage by ESPN added to the importance and the big spotlights over the event on Thursday added to the atmosphere. Who would conquer this 540 ft long, 22 ft deep superpipe behemoth and come out as Superpipe X Games 13 champion? Only time would tell.

Before the event began there was a lot of talk about Tanner Hall and Simon Dumont, who seemed to be the top two contenders for first place. However, Xavier Bertoni quickly dashed these hopes by taking control of the competition early on, scoring a splendid 93.66 on his second of three runs. His remarkable score remained unbeaten for the duration of the competition, resulting in him going home to France with the gold medal. Talking about his win, 19-year-old Xavier Bertoni said: “We trained really, really hard for this. This pipe was huge. I am so excited about tonight.”

Tanner Hall was not far behind. While many other competitors, including Winter Dew Tour wonderchild Justin Dorey, failed to land one completely clear run, Hall managed to tackle the superpipe and even pulled out all the stops to go bigger and score better. On his third run he scored 92.00, bringing home the silver medal. Simon Dumont came in third place with 91.00. As odd as it may seem, Dumont was punished for going too high. By the end of his run he had only managed to land five tricks since he traveled most of the length of the pipe in mid air. However his clear runs and flawless tricks did mean that he could take home the bronze. In true sportsmanship, Hall was genuinely happy for Xavier’s win and he gave him heartfelt congratulations on the podium. It was a great event with an unforeseeable but fantastic outcome, and fans no doubt went home smiling and amazed at everything that transpired.

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