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Day 1 at the X-Games in Tignes
by James Fisher | Ski Video Reporter | published 9-Mar-2010 | last updated 10-Mar-2010
Jenny Jones baring her battle scars
The very first European winter X-Games starts tomorrow in Tignes. Over 100 athletes from over twenty different contries will compete on the specially designed and built courses in Val Claret.
Slopestyle and Superpipe skiers and snowboarders, including 29 Olympiads, will be pushing the sport forwards over the next three days in Tignes and I got so excited about this I went down a day early to have a look around.
The weather in Tignes this morning was beautiful. There was a thin veil of cloud but visability was perfect. The temperatures were nice and low, but the sun was shining bright and underfoot the snow creaked like a well groomed piste should.
There was real buzz in town. Walking down to the slopes I found my self grinning and frequently double-taking as I passed riders I had watched only a few weeks ago in the Olympics.
The competition ground has been immaculately prepared. A team of specialist shapers have been brought in from the States to oversee the construction of both the slopestyle course and the halfpipe. In both cases they are the biggest I have ever seen.
Frank, the head shaper in the pipe, has the Largest pipe cutting machine you could imagine and today was making sure that the walls of his creation were smooth and clean. “We found a slightly rough spot on the wall. So we're going to use a blow torch on it to get it to melt to the shape we want. When it freezes it'll be perfect” he told me.
It's not something you see every day but it seems to be working.
On the slopestyle course the same level of attention to detail is being lavished on all of the modules. Shapers are using spirit levels to ensure completely flat take-offs and a team are ferried to the top of the run in a never ending stream of skidoos after each practice session to return the slope to it's desired state.
By the afternoon the clouds had moved in and light snowfall had begun. This didn't slow the qualification runs of the snowboard halfpipe which took place this evening under the floodlights and the top six in each category have advanced to the finals.
nb. at time of writing the Men's results had not been confirmed
The pipe finals will be held on Thursday evening and if the qualifiers are anything to go by it looks like Torah Bright will be on top of the podium again.
Check out the video from our first day in Tignes and log on tomorrow for our exclusive interview with Kevin Rolland as he talks about his chances of defending his title in the upcoming Halfpipe contest.
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