In the second ski pipe event of the evening, the men were boosting above the 22ft monster at the base of Buttermilk Mountain. Much of the field had trouble putting down complete runs though and the word is the pipe was tricky to ride as a result of the recent snow.
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Run 1:
As with slopestyle earlier, the first runs of the day all had varying degrees of issues, including a hefty last hit crash from Gus. Kevin Rolland was the first to put it down clean. He went to the moon on a first hit switch 10 and threw the seemingly near-mandatory both ways dub 12s for an 87.66. Alex Ferreira (now apparently riding Faction skis) stomped right from the off too,w with both dub 12s, left dub 10, a switch 7 and a down-pipe dub flat 9 at the bottom to go first at the end of run one.
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Run 2:
Nico Porteous stomped a huge run, left 10 seatbelt japan, switch right 9, switch dub 10 and b2b dub 12s for second place. Simon D'Artois opened things up with a huge air to fakie and a switch 12 but bobbled slightly on an alleyoop dub 7 at the bottom. Kevin Rolland stepped up his last hit to a dub 14 but couldn't boost his score. David Wise went down for a second time on his switch left dub 10 meaning only Nico changed the standings this time around.
Nico Porteous: Bronze Medal Run
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Run 3:
Finn Bilous deserves a shoutout for his background antics during Cassie Sharpe's interview at the beginning of run three. Birk Irving got super unlucky, ripping his heelpiece out of his ski mid-run resulting in a scary looking loose ski. Nico Porteous almost landed a dub 14 seatbelt on his last hit which surely would have sent him to the top of the podium but alas he had to settle for third.
Gus Kenworthy went down on a final hit dub 14 for the third time in a row after a huge run all three times. Noah Bowman couldn't put down the run he wanted on the day either, but his zero spin blunt up top is still the most beautiful trick in pipe skiing. Alex Ferreira went both bigger and cleaner than run one, boosting his score to 92.66. Last to drop, David Wise finally landed a run, but it wasn't the cleanest, only enough for second, meaning Alex Ferreira took his first hometown X Games Gold, on rockered skis no less.
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Results:
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