Cover photo: Bucholz/FIS

We're not going to profess to understand pipe skiing anymore. Sure, we can (mostly) count the rotations, but pipe is now so far removed from our collective experience that at this point, every run looks impossible. There are some cool new tricks on show though. We like watching Birk Irving and Noah Bowman. Nico Porteous and Hunter Hess are bringing the closest things to something new to the plate... but when was the last time you actually rode a halfpipe? If you aren't from one of a small subset of resorts, we bet it wasn't any time recently. All that said, the pipe season kicked off in China last week, but Copper was the first event on North American soil and the first event with pretty much everyone there... and it was a good one. Conditions were prime, and the crowd was pumping. Nick Goepper made his halfpipe debut and plenty of hammer runs went down. Li Fangui was a highlight too, she didn't win but we're a sucker for a big air to fakie.

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Women's Highlights:

It's kind of crazy to see the Chinese ex-gymnasts quickly catching up to top level pipe skiing. That's the nature of an Olympic sport, and especially on the women's side, they are learning the spin four ways, grab your grabs formula and starting to challenge. Li Fangui actually put a super sick run down though with a huge mute air to fakie followed by back to back switch hits and her 87.25 set the early bar. Hanna Faulhaber is still our favorite women's pipe skier and she boosted as always, but missed a couple of grabs. Eileen Gu put down a very clean safety run (for her) with back to back 9s and a sick alleyoop flatspin. The buick grab on the first 9 was by far the most technical of the day and honestly, she is just light years ahead. Zoe Atkin threw a heavy run too, super technical and she looks like the closest competition to Eileen right now, but it wasn't quite enough amplitude. The second run saw Hanna stomp way cleaner and boost even bigger, the bottom hit 1080 was dope too. Enough for provisional second. Eileen Gu added a second alleyoop flat 5 and bumped her score further, but Zoe Atkin couldn't improve. The final run saw little change to the leader board, with Zoe going down on a flatspin trying to boost her amplitude.

Results:

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Men's Highlights:

It might have ceased to make much sense but the level of pipe skiing is bonkers right now. Andrew Longino put down a clean run and his dub 10 up top was pretty rad, and he had both way dub 12s too, set the bar in the 80s. Nick Goepper put down his first ever halfpipe finals run, opening with back to back dub 12s and ending with a rare switch 10. His grabs were both varied and proper... he's definitely going to become a serious pipe threat if he keeps going. Birk Irving had a sick dub flat 7 at the bottom of his run but only scored an 84. Luke Harrold came out of nowhere at the first world cup in China and his run is sick, opening with two switch alleyoop dubs. The grabs were slightly whiffed though which hurt his first run score. Hunter Hess put down some sort of psycho misty 5/9 mute at the bottom and a sick switch down the pipe flat 5 to take the lead. Alex Ferreira went to the moon, spun to the future... it was technical rather than pretty... complete opposite of Hunter's run but insanely sick too.

The second run saw more of the same. Plenty of boost but no change at the top. Goepper bumped his score a little, as did Hunter Hess, going a little bigger and grabbing a little better but Alex Ferreira's 97 looked unassailable. Run three saw Dylan Ladd step it up hugely with a double 14 absolutely stomped, not enough to challenge the podium but a big step up. Nick Goepper couldn't improve, landing too deep in the pipe on a couple of hits but it's coming for sure. Birk Irving tidied his run up too and it was enough to bump Nick off the podium. Aaron Blunck incorporated a dope slash into his run but didn't get a great score. Hunter Hess couldn't improve but the tweak on the first hit switch 5 was so sick. David Wise, as ever, put it down at the death. A tickled grab probably cost him the podium but the mental strength is clearly still there. Alex Ferreira stomped again, two switch dub 10s, two dub 16s... insane. Didn't get all the grabs perfect but still a huge run. Jon Sallinen couldn't really get a clean run, it was close but not his day, leaving the podium as...

Results: