Gretchen Bleiler Wins Winter X Games 12 Halfpipe Final

The age old battle of stylish amplitude versus technical trickery was viciously fought in the X Games women’s halfpipe arena. The combatants were Kelly Clark, Torah Bright and local girl Gretchen Bleiler. While there were six girls in the finals, including Torino Gold Medalist Hannah Teter, the competition really came down to the three before mentioned icons of she shred.

Kelly Clark struck the first blow in the early running of the three run best of showdown. Clark seems to have an extra gear when she rides. Her ability to boost above the rest of the field definitely sets her apart from the pack. In addition to these nosebleed boosts Kelly set down the biggest fs 900 ever thrown in women’s halfpipe competition. This run gave her an early lead and definitely set the pace for the two to follow.

Torah Bright can go big but where she shines is in her progressive tricks. Torah has combos that are unmatched in ladies' pipe riding. The Australian uses a blind tailgrab to fakie on the frontside wall to set up for a cab seven tail grab and then two hits later throws a backside 3 indy to switch backside seven. Awesome. Rounding out the first run ringer parade was Gretchen Bleiler. The ESPN cover girl splits the difference of Bright and Clark with healthy amplitude and a few clutch tech tricks. Gretchen dropped into the first hit to a high consequence fs 900. She stuck it solid to set her run in motion, which included a double overhead crippler. Unfortunately Bleiler fell on her last hit leaving room for her to improve.

In the following two runs each of these ladies stepped it up. Torah started her third run with a huge McTwist and Kelly went for a 1080. Still it was Bleiler's second run in which she landed all of her tricks clean, that sealed the deal and earned Aspen's favorite daughter her third X-Games halfpipe gold.

RESULTS:

1 - Gretchen Bleiler
2 - Torah Bright
3 - Kelly Clark
4 - Hannah Teter
5 - Soko Yamaoka
6 - Lizzy Beerman CLICK HERE FOR MORE WINTER X GAMES COVERAGE