X Games: Then and Now

Jan 28 2007 / Aspen, CO
Winter X Games 11. I never thought I would find myself still going to the X Games after all of these years, but here I am. Yes, I am dating myself. I can remember the first few years of Winter X Games. One year we were in Mt. Snow, VT, which was not only a freezing cold venue with temps well below zero, but it was also a somewhat frumpy little town. Our accommodations were in this funky hotel that had bad flowered wallpaper and Ancient Motel 6 like bedspreads. It was not so rad. 

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Eventually the Winter X Games moved to Colorado, but to Crested Butte. Beautiful location, but a bit remote. Getting there was a challenge but once there Crested Butte is not only a cool Western town, but the local scene is hopping. People in Crested Butte live for climbing mountains and one-upping each other in extremeness. That year X Games had big mountain skiing and snowboarding as one of the events and a giant ice wall of ice climbing. Ice climber Will Gadd undoubtedly took that one home and then ice climbing went the way of modified shovel racing and was abolished forever more into the ghost of X Games past. 

In 2007 the X Games lives in Aspen, CO. There’s a ten year deal with the ski area, so the event is going nowhere. Aspen is the perfect X Games town. Between the fur shops and the Gucci and Prada stores, the perfectly groomed slopes and the $25-plus per plate meals, X Games is now a mature splashy affair that the world seems to be paying attention to. 

This year so far has proven to be one of the best X Games. The competition level is at an all time high in all fields. We have old heroes and new showing up. Back on the scene is the ever-colorful Shawn Palmer. He made a go at Skier X and Snowboarder X, but only made it in through the boarder X trials. Palmer was seen recently at the Ski Tour competing in skier X as well. 

Some fresh faces are standing on the podium these days. Torah Bright who has been on the scene for years had her night for the women’s superpipe, sweeping the gold away from hometown hero Gretchen Bleiler. Simon Dumont was so close to getting gold. The newest event on the scene is freestyle snowmobile, which is like snowcross with slopestyle. It’s cool. But pretty sketchy as the first elimination round pretty much wrecked a handful of the guys. My personal favorite crash was Levi Levalle who recognized mid-air that he was f#@*ed and bailed his snowmobile. He proceeded to slam into the icy jump in a full body contact move and the sno mo fell on top of him. I am sure he was hurting the next. However he did race the next day in snocross and won his heat. Tough guys. 

Women’s ski halfpipe was amazing, as was the men’s. Sarah Burke took the gold and Grete Eliassen was right there behind her. Kristi Leskinen was surprisingly not on the podium and rumor has it she was struggling with nagging back issues. We know she’ll be out there ruling it next week in Park City and the Queen of the Hill event. 

Simon Dumont and Tanner Hall were fun to watch as they jockeyed for first in the perfectly cut Frank Wells Superpipe. Peter Olenick pulled out his new trick, the double flatspin and the night finished off nicely. 

Winter X Games 2007 is by far one of the best that has happened so far. The event seems to be running smoothly, the weather is superb, rumor of snow moving in will be nice for the locals who get their mountain back after the circus finishes up tomorrow night. 

Still to come we are looking forward to slopestyle, where guys like the legendary Mark Frank Montoya who is back in the saddle competing will go up against rookies like Mason Aguirre. Can’t wait for the men’s halfpipe and all of the skier and boarder X. Who will dominate the podium this year? Same olds or fresh blood?  Things are shaping up here at the Winter X Games. Don’t miss Lat34’s behind the scenes exclusive coverage.