The final day of the Dew Tour Mountain Championships was graced with fresh snow and the Men’s Freeski Slopestyle Final started the day with more than just amazing conditions but with big tricks into the softest landings of the entire event.

Bringing back the top ten skiers from the semifinal in addition to the two that slipped in via the last chance quaifier, a total of twelve riders stormed the course through the snowy conditions each taking two runs with their single best score counting for the day.

Nick Goepper’s 3rd place run

Moment of Chaos:

Although powder conditions are typically seen as ideal for skiing, when you are pitted against a field of the best riders from around the globe the fresh snow on the course can cause more heartache than lust. Throughout the entire first round of runs we saw the occasional skiier come up short on the four big booter jumps and in turn hitting the knuckle of the landing rather than landing in transition. 

In the second round of runs, however, we saw the field figure it out and almost every skier stepped up their runs and continued to push the level of what was required to reach podium. Still, Gus Kenworthy‘s first run was the heaviest for the majority of the event and there seemed to be only one person who had what it took to better it… Gus himself. On his second run he upped his insane wallride to 270 out and that secured his win for the remainder of the event.

Oystein Braten’s 2nd place run

Top Tricks:

Oystein Braten — Left 450 to 270 off the Nixon 20+ handrail, misty 450 gap out over the Mountain Dew stairs, switch right 900 tailgrab, right 720 tailgrab, lipslide 450 out of the Toyota rail, left double flat 900 grabbing Japan and a left double cork 1080 safety to end it.

Nick Goepper — Right 270 onto the Nixon 20+ handrail, lipslide on to misty 450 off the Mountain Dew handrail, switch left 720 double Japan grab, switch right 900 grabbing mute, frontside swap to 450 out of the Toyota rails, left double cork 1080 tailgrab and right double cork 1080 mute grab to Japan grab.

Andri Ragettli — Switch gap out 270 on to 270 off the Nixon 20+ handrail, left 450 to switch out on the Mountain Dew handrail, switch right double flat 900, right double cork 1080 grabbing mute, left 270 on to 270 off the Toyota rail, switch left misty 900 tail grab and a left double cork safety grab 1080.

Winner’s Top Tricks:

Gus Kenworthy — Right 270 onto the Nixon 20+ handrail, left 270 onto the Mountain Dew handrail to 450 out, left double cork 1080 grabbing tail, right 900 opposite tail, switch left 270 to lipslide in the top of the wallride to 450 off, switch right 720 grabbing Japan, switch left double flat spin 900 Japan.

Gus Kenworthy’s winning run

Winner’s Quote:

“Everyone scaled back a little bit, we tried to give the best runs we could given the conditions… I guess my strategy was to go as fast as I coud going into all of the jumps, start fast and carry that speed all the way through. I’m a little bit lucky because I weigh 180 pounds, so I have an advantage over a lot of the guys in the field. There was a lot of really good competitors coming after me — Oystein [Braten], Alex Bellemare, [Nick Goepper] — so I knew I was going to have to step my run up a little bit to feel comfortable in my own head. I didn’t change much, I upped the wallride, and it worked out!” — Gus Kenworthy