It’s cliche, but “all good things come to a close” and today it was Kelly Clark’s unprecedented 16-straight winning streak that reached its final stop. Kelly’s riding was, as always, a thrill to watch with massive air and stylish flow throughout her runs, but it was South Lake Tahoe’s Elena Hight who managed to squeeze an extra .31 points out of the judges and come out on top with a score of 86.50. Kelly held on to the second place position and twenty-year-old Ellery Hollingsworth followed in third.

Hot on their heels was 15 year old, Arielle Gold of Steamboat Springs, who took 4th and was also awarded the Nokia Newcomer Award. While she may be young, today this girl proved she can shred, so watch out ladies.

Elena Hight unseated reigning champ Kelly Clark, the first to do so since Fall 2010.

Kelly Clark took home second place.

Ellery Hollingsworth picked up third.

By the time the men stepped up, the sun was on full alert beaming down on the pipe and softening the pipe walls and slipping out riders left and right. Despite the changing conditions, Shaun White put down a solid first run of 90.44 that secured him the first place position. Louie Vito followed in second and local boy Benji Farrow, out of Ludlow, VT brought up third.

Shaun White had no problem clearing the 20 foot mark out of the pipe.

Louie Vito landed second place.

Benji Farrow of Ludlow, VT took home the bronze medal.

In traditional Open fashion, pipe poachers kept the crowd stoked up between runs, airing out with huge methods. Gotta love it. Here’s to another 30 years.

Even the dudes poaching were going HUGE!

Ross Powers sending it at the 1999 US Open at Stratton. Photo: Jeff Curtes/Burton Snowboards.

It may seem like today’s snowboarding competitions are all about how many back-to-back flips or 1080s a rider can throw, but style points haven’t completely gone away. Used to be that just straight airing it with a hearty, tweeked grab could land the top qualifier spot or even a medal. (Unlikely we’ll see that at the 30th Anniversary Burton US Open finals this weekend, but you never know.)

In 2002 at the Salt Lake City Olympic Games, Vermont’s own Ross Powers threw a method on the first wall of the halfpipe that secured a position in snowboarding lore. Three years before that, however, he was showing his home crowd what was to come with this method en route to his first US Open Halfpipe Championship in 1999.

If we’re lucky, maybe Ross will make his way down south for the Washed Up Cup and duke it out for the biggest method with his fellow Open veterans.

Each Thursday we present a photo from the annals of snowboarding history in Vermont.

When I was a kid growing up (yep, in Vermont) we’d be lucky if we could get the fuzz on the TV clear enough to watch our Saturday morning cartoons on a “local” station out of Maine. Nowadays, thanks to the advent of the world wide web, we can watch just about anything we want instantly and in crystal-clear high definition. And for us snowboarding bums stuck at work this week, it means we can check in on the Burton US Open action LIVE from our desks, with no bunny-ear tuning necessary.

If you didn’t get to tune in today, (or make it to the mountain… where it was a sun-drenched 50 degrees) the men and women’s slopestyle semi-finals were packed with monstrous runs on this year’s beastly course, crafted by the snow wizards known as Snow Park Technologies.

This ain't your grandma's backyard park. Photo Courtesy of Stratton Mountain Resort.

The Night Jam cometh. OOOAAAHHH! Photo Courtesy of Stratton Mountain Resort.

The Mini feature is mini by no means. Photo Courtesy of Stratton Mountain Resort.

There’s a lot left of the 30th Anniversary Burton US Open at Stratton Mountain and the good folks over at Red Bull TV are streaming it live for you at www.redbull.com/snowboarding-live during the following days/times:

LIVE WEBCASTS: U.S. Time Zones (EST)
Halfpipe Semi-Finals, Thursday, March 8 — 9:15 am
Slopestyle Finals, Friday, March 9 — 9:15 am
Halfpipe Finals, Saturday, March 10 — 9:15 am
Night Jam, Saturday, March 10 — 6:45pm

So when you get to work tomorrow, open up an extra window, turn the volume down and keep an eye on Louie Vito, Shaun White, Kelly Clark while you finish up those TPS reports for Friday.

Maybe you’ve heard of this girl. She’s a native Vermonter, raised on the slopes of Mount Snow and oh yeah, she’s freakin’ unstoppable in the pipe. Easily one of the most consistent female riders out there, Kelly Clark is a force to be reckoned with and she proved it yet again this past weekend by annihilating the competition in Winter X Games Superpipe in Aspen.

Check out her victory lap where she threw down a huge frontside 1080, hitting a new height record of 14′ 3″ outta the 22′ Superpipe. Yeah, that’s big.

“I approach every contest, every run, every trick in that moment, one run at a time,” Kelly told ESPN after her win. “I’m coming out here to achieve my goals, not to win the contest, that’s just a byproduct.” (A totally awesome byproduct, not like ones they make McNuggets out of.)

Coming off her recent Gold medal victory at the Dew Tour Superpipe in Breck, Kelly’s win in Aspen marked her fourth Winter X Games gold and the 13th consecutive competition she’s won over the last two years. Bad ass.

“I came off the best season I’ve ever had last year,” she said. “Honestly, I didn’t expect it to keep going. I’m kind of in awe of my streak right now.”

You’re not the only one, Kelly. Sick job and keep reppin’ Vermont with pride.

In case you didn’t see the Ski Superpipe Finals last night, it was a pretty epic showing. (And coming from snowboarders, that’s saying something.) After Eric Willett killed it on the Men’s Slopestyle Finals, Vermont’s own twin-plankin’ pro Devin Logan went on to take a close second place behind Tahoe’s Maddie Bowman in Women’s Ski pipe. We had the pleasure of interviewing Devin after she stepped off the podium. Stay tuned for that interview as the ladies dominate our blog all next week. (We’re pretty stoked for a little domination, who wouldn’t be.)

The night rounded out with a session of high-flying excitement from the Men’s division. But you knew that because you watched it live on NBC or at least backed it up on the DVR. Here’s the low down from the podiums.

1. Eric Willett, 2. Seb Toots, 3. Justin Morgan. Photo Courtesy of Alli Sports

Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle Final Results
1. Eric Willett :: 91.00
2. Sebastien Toutant :: 85.50
3. Justin Morgan :: 80.25
4. Aleksander Ostreng :: 80.25
5. Jake Aaronson :: 69.00
6. Antoine Truchon :: 66.50
7. Gjermund Braaten :: 60.75
8. Ulrik Badertscher :: 55.50
9. Charles Reid :: 53.00
10. Chas Guldemond :: 53.00
11. Mark McMorris :: 44.25
12. Staale Sandbech :: 41.50

1. Maddie Bowman, 2. Devin Logan (VT), 3. Brita Sigourney. Photo Courtesy of Alli Sports

Women’s Freeski Superpipe Final Results
1. Maddie Bowman :: 87.50
2. Devin Logan :: 86.00
3. Brita Sigourney :: 85.00
4. Annalisa Drew :: 75.25
5. Anais Caradeux :: 73.25
6. Ayana Onozuka :: 72.75

1. Torin Yater-Wallace, 2.Tai Barrymore, 3. Tucker Perkins. Photo Courtesy of Alli Sports

Men’s Freeski Superpipe Final Results
1. Torin Yater-Wallace :: 93.75
2. Tai Barrymore :: 88.50
3. Tucker Perkins :: 85.75
4. Justin Dorey :: 83.00
5. Kevin Rolland :: 80.50
6. David Wise :: 78.75
7. Joss Christensen :: 77.38
8. Duncan Adams :: 76.75
9. Taylor Seaton :: 76.50
10. Gus Kenworthy :: 76.00
11. Noah Bowman :: 73.25
12. Xavier Bertoni :: 46.25

Can’t make it to the mountain today? Tune into NBC for the thrilling conclusion of Men’s Superpipe Finals — LIVE at 3:00PM.

Instead of boring you to death with a bunch of ranking stats and leaderboard numbers (sorry math nerds), we thought we’d just post up some of the highlights from yesterday’s Semi-Final rounds at the Dew Tour in Killington.

High winds put the Men’s Ski Slopestyle semi’s on hold and they’ll be wrapping up this morning before the the guys start calling their drops in the slopestyle course ’round 11:30. Ok, they don’t actually call drops. The Dew Tour’s more organized than that and would probably make a big stink if they went out of turn. Who knows.

We’ll have more live update coverage and heart-warming chit chat on twitter and the blog all weekend. See you at Bear Mountain.

Ross Powers launching out of the pipe at Killington, '99. Photo: Jeff Curtes

Vermont is as serious about its snow sports as it is about Maple syrup. That’s why for decades, the Green Mountain State has been crafting Grade A (fancy) snowboarders who have gone on to kick ass and take names on the national and international stage.

Ross Powers wasn’t the first Vermont snowboarder to ride a halfpipe, he was just the first to do so for a Gold Medal. However, Kelly Clark was right there with him in 2002, when both Vermonters made the state, and the country, proud. Before the world got a look, anyone hiking the pipe at Killington on this day got a good look alongside photographer Jeff Curtes. Once a Vermonter, always a Vermonter Powers now heads the Stratton Mountain School’s snowboard program.

Each Thursday we present a photo from the annals of snowboarding history in Vermont.

Kevin Pearce rides again. Photo by Adam Moran, Transworld Snowboarding.

One day in 1987, a child was born. His name was Kevin Pearce, and he would go on to become one of the world’s fiercest halfpipe competitors.

Kevin grew up in middle Vermont, cutting his teeth in the growing array of superpipes in the Green Mountain State. By 2009, he found himself one of the best halfpipe riders in the world, widely believed to be the only rider who could give Shaun White a meaningful challenge at the 2010 Olympics.

Disaster struck on New Year’s Eve of 2009, though, when Pearce struck his head while training in a halfpipe. He suffered severe head trauma. It was doubtful if Kevin would ever ride a board again.

After nearly two years of intensive rehabilitation and against odds, Kevin Pearce rode a snowboard again this week.

“I used to take this for granted,” said Kevin as he rode a chairlift alongside a terrain park at Breckenridge in Colorado, about to make his first run since the accident. “Now it’s just nice to be up here.”

Surrounded by a small army of boarders, Kevin looked cool and comfortable on his first run back, even throwing a backside 180 and ollying off rollers.

Ride Vermont salutes you, Kevin. Keep riding, no matter what.

~Luke

Photo by Adam Moran, Transworld Snowboarding