Module: gallery_album
Item: DewTour2011
Displays the photo gallery for a selected Gallery Album.Utah’s best kept secret, Snowbasin, was host to the 2011 Dew Championships this last weekend. Under bluebird conditions 44,000 people attended the 4-day event—shattering all previous attendance records. With Saturday’s Dew Finals Championship mob surpassing 20,000, an Egyptian like frenzy made the air sticky in anticipation of the pipe thunderdome to come. Snowbasin upped the ante too by supersizing it’s pipe walls from 18 to 22 feet.

The corpo-vibe notwithstanding–let’s just say there were plenty of opportunities to shop and no lack of logo placement–the riding was impressive: Luke Mitrani took full advantage of the day coming from nowhere to pull the highest score ever awarded in a Dew tour history at 97.0. His run included double michal chuck, front 9, back 5, front 18 and cab double 10. Greg Bretz placed second with 95 and old guy Steve Fisher (age 28) on the last hit of his final run pulled out a front ten double cork to finish third with a 92.

Contender Louie Vito had a disappointing day’s performance finishing 7th, but ended up winning the over all Super pipe Dew Cup after snagging first in Breckenridge and Killington.

In the female realm Kelly Clark dominated. Repeatedly I heard people ask if she was a dood; not normally a good thing, but it was pure commentary on the hight and power of her riding. Kelly also pulled off a front side 1080, the second time it’s been done in competition. Kaitlyn Farrington took second and 38-year-old Soko Yamaoka from the land of the rising sun third.

The scene that night continued on to dirty downtown Ogden, where Ice Cube showed he’s still got game, performing to a rowdy crowd under Utah stars.

Next day was a little fuzzy. I seemed to have missed the ladies slopestyle. Yes you can get a hangover on 3.2 beer. Eric Willet of Breckenridge was the big winner of the day earning the highest Dew score ever awarded with 97.25. Mark McMorris put in a good run for second, and in classic daytime TV drama, last rider Torstein Horgmo dropped in to bounce Chas Guldemond into 4th.

Torstein’s finish also crowned him the overall Dew Cup Slopestyle Champion. In true viking fashion he was celebrating it up that night with grog and wenches on both arms.

Overall it was a pretty epic throwdown with high scores and good drama. one of the coolest things I overheard in the end was Eric Willet say next year it’s all about going back to 3’s, 5’s and style. After all, nobody wants to see freestyle go the way of aerial skiing…