Photos by John Vandervalk

The first stop of the second annual Winter Dew Tour kicks off today in Breckenridge, Colorado with the Ski Superpipe Open Qualifier at 1pm MST.

One of the strongest fields in the history of competitive freeskiing has descended on Summit County for what will surely be one of the most exciting events of the 09/10 ski season, and will undoubtedly set the tone for this winter's intense competition circuit.

The boys have been training hard for the past few weeks in Copper Mountain's superpipe and Keystone's Area 51 terrain park to get ready for the big show, and earlier today the Dew Tour course at Breck officially opened for practice. And to say that everyone was going off would be an understatement larger than the oversized novelty cheques that six lucky skiers will be holding by the end of the weekend.

AJ Kemppainen

According to numerous onlookers, Kevin Rolland and David Wise may just be the guys to beat in pipe on Saturday night, as both are throwing numerous and back-to-back doubles with grabs and amplitude, along with more spins than a washing machine.

Kevin Rolland...mid double cork 12.

David Wise, taking a break from the pipe to get his licks in on the slopestyle course.

And speaking of slopestyle, it seems next to impossible to predict who will top the podium on Sunday afternoon, as everyone who will be in the start gate has been giving it their all in preparation, which has been highlighted by early and exciting standout performances in practice by the likes of Bobby Brown, Elias Ambuhl, Tom Wallisch, Russ Henshaw and Matt Margetts, who on top of slaying the stunt ditch threw down three doubles in a row on the slopestyle course today.

Banks Gilberti

Bobby Brown

Russ Henshaw

Matt Margetts

In the end though, it appears as though it will truly be anyone's game, and although it's more than uncertain who will be victorious this weekend, it’s without a shadow of a doubt that it will be one hell of a thing to watch.

To further prove that point, here's the extensive and impressive list of skiers who will be competing this weekend in Breckenridge...

Ski Superpipe Open Qualifer Athletes

Brent Abrams

Colby Albino

Christian Allen

Kris Atkinson

Noah Bowman

Bobby Brown

Joss Christensen

Michael Clarke

Ian Cosco

Matt Duhamel

Karl Fostvedt

Banks Gilberti

Mitch Gilman

Rob Heule

Scott Hibbert

Erik Hughes

Gus Kenworthy

Brian Kish

Thomas Krief

Marshall LaCroix

John Leonard

James Machon

Dan Marion

Jon Marks

Mike Mertion

David Oliver

JL Ratchel

Cristhian Ravelo

Guillaume Sbrava

Cam Schuster

Evan Schwartz

Andre Simonpietri

Kyle Smaine

JP Solberg

Isao Sonehara

Derek Spong

Geoff Straight

John Strenio

Jack Sullan

Kiyoshi Terada

Parker Thomson III

Benoit Valentin

Corey Vanular

Jeremie Veilleux

Evan Walls

Kolby Ward

Brett Weiss

Beau-James Wells

Hans Wiener

David Wise

Walter Wood

Ski Superpipe Pre-Qualifed Athletes

Duncan Adams

Xavier Bertoni

Justin Dorey

Simon Dumont

AJ Kemppainen

Matt Margetts

Peter Olenick

Tucker Perkins

Tyler Peterson

Mike Riddle

Kevin Rolland

Taylor Seaton

Lyndon Sheehan

Byron Wells

Jossi Wells

Colby West

Ski Slopestyle Open Qualifer Athletes

Colby Albino

Andri Ambuhl

Elias Ambuhl

Aleksander Aurdal

Adam Battersby

Xavier Bertoni

Josh Bibby

Kim Boberg

Willis Brown

Joss Christensen

Michael Clarke

Ian Cosco

Ahmet Dadali

Sean Decker

Adam Delorme

Taylor Felton

PC Fosse

Karl Fostvedt

Fridtjof Fredricsson

Vincent Gagnier

Banks Gilberti

Nick Goepper

Patt Goodnough

Oscar Harlaut

Elvis Harsheim

Erik Hughes

Pekka Hyysalo

Gus Kenworthy

Marshall LaCroix

Chris Laker

Charlie Lasser

Sean Logan

Matt Margetts

Benedikt Mayr

Luke Nutting

Peter Olenick

Tucker Perkins

Tosh Peters

Tyler Peterson

Kevin Rolland

Grant Savidge

Alex Schlopy

John Spriggs

John Strenio

Dale Talkington

Dane Tudor

Corey Vanular

Kolby Ward

Beau-James Wells

Byron Wells

Jacob Wester

McRae Williams

David Wise

Walter Wood

Ski Slopestyle Pre-Qualified Athletes

Anders Backe

Bobby Brown

Sammy Carlson

Phil Casabon

Simon Dumont

Charles Gagnier

Alexis Godbout

Andreas Håtveit

Russ Henshaw

JF Houle

Sean Jordan

AJ Kemppainen

Nick Martini

Mike Riddle

Oscar Scherlin

TJ Schiller

Derek Spong

Tom Wallisch

Jossi Wells

Colby West

Newschoolers is on the scene at Breck, and will be providing you with daily coverage of the first big contest of the year, so be sure to stick with us over the weekend for all the goods. And if you're lucky enough to be in Breck and are planning on checking out all the madness live and in person, here's the schedule of events on the ski side of things that will be going down this weekend in a big, big way...

Thursday, December 17th

Ski Superpipe Open Qualifier - 1:00pm – 4:00pm

Friday, December 18th

Ski Slopestyle Open Qualifier - 9:00am – 12:30pm

Ski Superpipe Prelims - 4:00pm – 5:30pm

Saturday, December 19th

Ski Slopestyle Prelims - 2:00pm – 4:00pm

Ski Superpipe Final - 5:30pm – 6:30pm

Sunday, December 20th

Ski Slopestyle Final - 10:30am – 12:00pm

*All times are MST

And if you happen to have the USA Network, you can check everything out on TV from the comfort of your living room after it happens at the following times...

Saturday, Dec. 19 – Ski Superpipe Finals – 9pm - 10pm PST/Midnight - 1am EST on the USA Network

Sunday, Dec. 20 – Ski Slopestyle Finals – 11pm - Midnight PST/2am - 3am EST on the USA Network

On behalf of everyone at NS, good luck to all the boys competing this weekend, and be sure to keep checking back with us for up to date coverage on anything and everything that's going down at the first stop of the second annual Winter Dew Tour.