Gjermund’s lucky to escape this encounter with a pole with his head still attached to his shoulders. This is a damned close call.

The latest addition to our slowly swelling Near Death files sees Norwegian ripper Gjermund Bråten dice with decapitation at Snowboarder mag’s Superpark last spring. We heard he’d taken a bit of a beating and were expecting to see it in one of those edits everyone’s encouraging each other to vote for on the internet, but till now we didn’t realise how close a call he had. Not sure how wise it is to have poles on the deck of booters, but one thing’s sure – without his cat-like recovery skills this could have been way worse…

Where: Livigno, Italy

Yale Cousino in the wide expanses of Livigno. Photo: Fizza

If we haven’t lost you to the alpine skiing and figure skating broadcasts of the Olympics, you might know that today saw the first day and the slopestyle format of the annual River Jump event in Livigno, Italy. This year, the contest had been upgraded to a 5-Star TTR event, and the riders laid down their action accordingly.

It was American Eric Willett who took home the Brux Slopestyle title and 850 Swatch TTR ranking points this Thursday at the Burn River Jump. With high level snowboarding seen from the 67 riders gathered from all over the world, it was the talented rookies Gjermund Braaten (NOR) who grabbed second place and Roope Tonteri (FIN) who took third. All of today’s top ten riders who have not yet received an invitation or wildcard will compete in Friday’s straight jump format, the Burn River Jump.

Today’s event saw the guys rock the perfectly shaped Mottolino park in the beautiful APT Livigno and SkiPassion Snow-Ski Area. Willett’s stellar winning run included a Switch Backside 1260, Frontside Double Cork 1080 and a Backside Double Rodeo. This scored him miles ahead of his opponents. With his second place today Gjermund Braaten entered the TTR Top 10 and now sits in world no. 9.

Straight Air Format Brings A Night Spectacle to Livigno

The second 5-Star format,  the straight air, will take place in the center of Livigno on Friday evening, where the contestants will be jumping over the Spoel river. We will see the qualified riders from today’s slopestyle, 12 wild card entrants and 8 invited riders competing for victory. With Switzerland’s Christian Haller looking to improve on his TTR World No. 6 ranking and Roope Tonteri, Eric Willet, Mikkel Bang (NOR), Ville Uotila (FIN), Kevin Backström (SWE) and Mark McMorris (CAN) all aiming for a result that will see them rise into the TTR Top 10, you are guaranteed to see some hot riding.

Don’t miss any of the action and tune in to the live webcast on our website or on ttrworldtour.com.

Slopestyle Result Top 10

1. Eric Willet, USA

2. Gjermund Braaten, NOR

3. Roope Tonteri, FIN

4. Yale Cousino, USA

5. Janne Korpi, FIN

6. Mark McMorris, CAN

7. Tor Lundstrom, SWE

8. Victor De le Rue, FRA

9. Ville Uotila, FIN

10. Kevin Backstrom, SWE

Eric Willett netting the victory. Photo: Fizza.