Today just happened to be the pipe qualifiers for the US Grad Prix at Copper Mountain Colorado. This 22 ft beast of a superpipe was slayed by some of the biggest names in the snow world while they threw down their best runs with hopes of landing a top 4 spot in their heat. In total there where 3 heats in which the top 4 of each heat would advance to the finals. Vying for those slots where 686 shreds Louie Vito, Brett Esser, Derek Livingston and Kevin Bronckaers.

With this event being a determining factor for the US Olympics each and every rider had hopes of nailing the perfect run to make the finals and possibly the podium. Brett stomped a solid run landing him in 5th place just out of contention for the finals where Kevin and Derek fell during their runs. Towards the end of the day Louie was sitting in first with Shaun just behind him in second. Louie dropped for his second run and wasted no time throwing back to back double cork 1080’s and stomping the rest of his run. This seemed to secure him the 1st place qualifying position. Or so we thought… Shaun was last to drop and ended up slightly outscoring Louie. I guess will just have to see what Louie has saved for the finals tomorrow.

Qualifying results:

1st – Shaun White

2nd – Louie Vito

3rd – Greg Bretz

Check Louie’s final run below as well as a few photos from the days event.

Enjoy!