Words: Jeff Schmuck

Photos: John Vandervalk & Jeff Schmuck

The second day of the first stop of the Winter Dew Tour just wrapped up in Breckenridge, Colorado with men's halfpipe qualifiers and women's halfpipe prelims.

Today’s weather was in stark contrast to both yesterday's blizzard and the weatherman's forecast, as those of us lucky enough to be hanging our hats at the pimp Skullcandy house awoke to surprisingly bluebird skies and more than moderate temperatures.

Skullcandy Team House...

This of course put a wide smile on the face of the multitude of pipe slayers, who had one shot at moving onto future Dew Tour stops in the impressively long Breckenridge superpipe, where extra hits were a plenty.

First up was the men's open qualifiers, where 45 young guns and big shooters squared off against one another in two heats in an effort to snag one of the nine lusted after spots in tomorrow's prelims. Similar to yesterday's format, the top three skiers in each heat would move on, while those with the next three highest scores overall would get the nod as well.

In heat one, it was all about style master Duncan Adams, who dominated the field with his unique approach to attacking the stunt ditch with turtle slow spins and smooth grabs top to bottom that included an all you can eat buffet of switch hits (including his zero spin, which his fellow competitors gasped in awe at), helping him earn the top spot overall in qualifiers.

Duncan Adams

Grabbing second place in heat one was the veteran and all around nice guy Tyler Peterson, who's smile at the bottom was almost as big as his airs, while Canadian wild child Rob Heule made his mark on the pipe and the judges' scorecards in third by showing why he's unquestionably one of the most creative pipe skiers in recent memory.

Tyler Peterson

Rob Heule

Also making it to prelims from the first heat was Walter Wood and Sean Collin, who placed fourth and fifth respectively, which was enough to score them the final two qualifying spots overall.

Walter Wood

Sean Collin

Other notables from the first heat included Bobby Brown, who has been trying his hand at halfpipe skiing as of late, and despite placing 19th in his heat showed his versatility in all competitive aspects of the sport, along with Joss Christensen and Kyle Smaine, who both threw down killer runs but landed just on the wrong side of the bubble.

Bobby Brown

Joss Christensen

Kyler Smaine

Special mention is also in order for Nils Lauper, who busted out an awesome cork 5 screamin' seamen...and who doesn't love screamin' seamens?

Heat two was won by the up and coming superstar from France, Thomas Krief, who stomped one of the only doubles in the contest on his first hit and maintained massive amplitude throughout the rest of his run, which was littered with a formidable display of technicality.

Thomas Krief

Just behind him was the surprising 14-year-old Mitch Gilman, who along with owning some of the biggest airs of the day, solidified his name on the list of young and up and coming skiers who will help lead the sport into the future for many years to come.

Mitch Gilman

In third was Rob Heule's partner in crime Noah Bowman, who came into the season with a ton of momentum following his double podium in New Zealand, and continued it with authority by stomping the bejesus out of his second run after crashing on his first.

Noah Bowman

Also making the cut was the one and only Matt Margetts, who put together a highly technical showing of his own with too many left and right side spins to count, and capped off his run with a cool new trick, a down the pipe flatspin 540.

Matt Margetts

After a quick break for lunch, it was the ladies' time to shine, as 19 of the top female freeskiers in the world cheered each other on during halfpipe prelims as they vied for one of the six spots in Saturday's finals.

1st place Dania Assaly

Taking the top spot was the lovely and always happy go lucky Dania Assaly, followed by Anais Caradeux in second, both of whom put on a fine show consisting of corked out and grabbed 5's, 7's and 9's.

Dania Assaly

Anais Caradeux

In third, fresh off her birthday victory at last week's Grand Prix, was Rosalind Groenewoud, who crashed on her first run while attempting a first hit 9, but pulled it together on her second with a 5, 7, and switch 5 at the bottom.

Rosalind Groenewoud

In fourth was the always-consistent Jess Cumming, followed by another mainstay on the women's competitive pipe circuit, Mirjam Jaeger.

Jess Cumming

Mirjam Jaeger

Grabbing the final spot was newcomer Devin Logan, sister of Sean and Chris (there must have been something in the water in their house growing up), who threw down a great final run that contained the only stomped and clean flair of the day, much to the delight of the supportive crowd.

Devin Logan

And in an unusual turn of events, despite skiing her big heart out like always, pipe dominatrix Jen Hudak unfortunately just missed the cut after bobbling on both of her runs.

Jen Hudak

The first stop of the Winter Dew Tour continues tomorrow in Breckenridge, Colorado with another busy day, as the men will pull double duty with both slopestyle and halfpipe prelims following tonight's anticipated AFP Awards.

Mike Riddle & Justin Dorey

Kevin Rolland & Xavier Bertoni

Here’s a look at the full results from today, along with the pre-qualified list of athletes for tomorrow’s men halfpipe prelims, and when and where you can watch everything on TV.

Men's Halfpipe Qualifiers Results

Heat 1

1) Duncan Adams - 89.25

2) Tyler Peterson - 79.75

3) Rob Heule - 77.00

4) Walter Wood - 74.75

5) Sean Collin - 72.50

cut-off

6) Joss Christensen - 71.25

7) Kyle Smaine - 68.75

8) James Campbell - 68.50

9) P Adam Crook - 65.75

10) Billy Mann - 64.00

11) Tai Barrymore - 63.25

12) Jonathan Bertoni - 61.25

13) Nils Lauper - 57.00

14) Evan Walls - 54.25

15) Raphael Beazley - 45.25

16) Frederick Iliano - 44.00

17) Ty Wellman - 29.75

18) Kiyoshi Terada - 28.75

19) Bobby Brown - 26.25

20) Alex Gorham - 23.50

21) Brad Bulzan - 21.50

22) David Oliver - 16.75

Heat 2

1) Thomas Krief - 84.75

2) Mitch Gilman - 78.50

3) Noah Bowman - 77.75

4) Matt Margetts - 75.50

cut-off

5) Benoit Valentin - 67.25

6) Patrick Baskins - 64.00

7) Brett Weiss - 63.50

8) Jon Anders Lindstad - 62.75

9) Kris Atkinson - 62.75

10) Christian Allen - 61.25

11) JP Solberg - 60.75

12) Marshall LaCroix - 59.25

13) Mikiya Tanno - 58.25

14) James Machon - 58.00

15) Nicolas Bijasson - 56.75

16) Colin Vaykovich - 56.25

17) Nick Goepper - 53.50

18) Carson Lehouillier - 52.50

19) Alex Mochan - 50.50

20) Joffrey Pollet-Villard - 50.50

21) Evan Schwartz - 38.00

22) Micheal Mertion - 30.25

23) Isao Sonehara - 20.25

Women's Halfpipe Prelims Results

1) Dania Assaly - 85.00

2) Anais Caradeux

- 76.00

3) Rosalind Groenewoud - 74.50

4) Jess Cumming - 71.75

5) Mirjam Jaeger - 71.00

6) Devin Logan - 69.75

cut-off

7) Brita Sigourney - 68.75

8) Jen Hudak - 67.50

9) Keltie Hansen

- 66.75

10) Keri Herman

- 56.75

11) Blake Peterson - 54.00

12) Miyuki Hatanaka - 52.50

13) Kendall Deighan - 50.25

14) Chloe Lee - 47.00

15) Shuri Terada - 41.75

16) Eden Netelkos - 40.50

17) Angeli Vanlaanen - 30.25

18) Hannah Haupt - 18.25

19) Jamie Crane-Mauzy - 18.00

Men’s Halfpipe Pre-Qualified Athletes

Xavier Bertoni

Justin Dorey

Matt Duhamel

Simon Dumont

Banks Gilberti

AJ Kemppainen

Dan Marion

Peter Olenick

Tucker Perkins

Mike Riddle

Jossi Wells

Colby West

Torin Yater-Wallace

Dew Tour TV Schedule

Nike 6.0 Open – Friday, December 17th, 12am - 1am PST on USA Network

Ski Superpipe Finals – Saturday, December 18th, 9pm - 10pm PST on USA Network

Ski Slopestyle Finals – Sunday, December 18th, 11pm - 12am EST on USA Network