Louie Vito, Kelly Clark and Tom Wallisch Set To Compete in Winter Dew Tour’s Toyota Championship

The Winter Dew Tour culminates next weekend with the Toyota Championships at Snowbasin, a Sun Valley Resort, in Utah.  The best winter action sports athletes will descend on the resort to battle it out for the Dew Cup in snowboarding and freeskiing superpipe and slopestyle disciplines.  With impressive crowds packing the mountain for the competitions, the 2011 Toyota Championships saw the highest attended Winter Dew Tour event on the Tour.  This year, the Toyota Championships will air finals competitions live on NBC at Saturday, February 11 at 2:00PM EST and Sunday, February 12 at 3:00PM EST. 

Salt Lake local Louie Vito will be coming to Snowbasin with one goal in mind – to become the first male winter sports athlete to win the Dew Cup for two consecutive years.  After landing on the podium just shy of a win at the first two stops of the season, Vito will need to take the top spot in Snowbasin to claim the Cup.  He finds his most threatening competition in Iouri Podladtchikov, the winner of Killington’s Pantech Invitational and current leader in the Tour standings by a mere two points.  In slopestyle there is no shortage of fresh faces and up-and-comers eager to make a name for themselves on the international stage of the Winter Dew Tour.  Sebastien Toutant’s pair of second place finishes puts him in the lead for the Dew Cup, but Gjermund Braaten, who burst onto the scene with a smooth and technical run at the Nike Open in Breckenridge, is not one to be counted out of contention.  

Louie Vito

 Men’s Freeski Superpipe is set to be a heated competition, as the season has shown more than one athlete can have what it takes to win on any given day.  Kevin Rolland has a chance to repeat his 2011 Dew Cup performance while holding a narrow lead in the Tour standings, while  Torin Yater-Wallace, fresh off taking the first Dew Tour win of his pro career, can also claim the Cup if he tops the podium again.  Salt Lake City local Tom Wallisch has all but locked up the Freeski Slopestyle Dew Cup with two first place finishes this season, but hot on his heels is Nick Goepper, who has landed on the podium twice this year.  A stellar run from Goepper could bring him the Cup, if Wallisch fails to meet his usual level of perfection on the course. 

Kelly Clark and Gretchen Bleiler will face off in a winner-takes-all battle in the Snowbasin superpipe.  Clark, the former gold medalist and reigning Dew Cup champion, has ruled the women’s snowboard contest circuit, not losing a halfpipe event since the Winter Dew Tour stop in Breckenridge in 2010.  There will be no shortage of excitement as Bleiler attempts to end Clark’s streak at the top.  Spencer O’Brien blew away the competition on the slopestyle course in Breckendrige.  If she is able to repeat at the Toyota Championships, she’ll walk away with the Dew Cup, which she’s had her sights on since she last won it in 2009.    

Tom Wallisch

For the first time in Winter Dew Tour history, the top female freeskiers will be competing for a Dew Cup.  Just a few weeks ago, the ladies met at the Pantech Invitational for a glimpse of what they would be up against for the championship title.  Maddie Bowman took the top spot on the superpipe podium, but with the level of competition so close, the season title in Snowbasin is anyone’s for the taking.  Kaya Turski is coming in hot to the Toyota Championships after winning at the Pantech Invitational and claiming an X Games gold medal on consecutive weekends.  She’ll be fighting off Devin Logan and Emilia Wint for the first women’s Freeski Slopestyle Dew Cup. 

In addition to the exciting competition throughout the weekend, the Winter Dew Tour will host a FREE Mac Miller concert on historic 25^th Street in downtown Ogden on Friday, February 10, at 9:00pm.  Mac Miller grew up in Pittsburgh with a musical aptitude that already far surpasses most other hip-hop lyricists.  His August 2011 debut “K.I.D.S.” took the music industry by storm, earning critical acclaim from well-respected hip-hop magazines and websites.  Mac’s upbeat rhymes are sure to hype the Winter Dew Tour crowd for a weekend full of non-stop action. 

Mac Miller

The confirmed athlete list for Toyota Championships is as follows: 

Men’s SNB Superpipe	Men’s SNB Slopestyle	Men’s SKI Superpipe	Men’s SKI Slopestyle
Mason Aguirre	Jake Aaronson	Duncan Adams	Elias Ambuhl
Zachary Black	Mason Aguirre	Christian Allen	Aleksander Aurdal
Paul Brichta	Torgeir Bergrem	Wing Tai Barrymore	Alex Beaulieu-Marchand
Bryan Daino	Gjermund Braaten	Xavier Bertoni	Alex Bellemare
Brett Esser	Brendan Hart	Noah Bowman	Willie Borm
Taylor Gold	Seth Hill	Joss Christensen	Bobby Brown
Trevor Jacob	Mark Hoyt	Lyman Currier	Phil Casabon
Kyle Mack	Sam Hulbert	Simon D’Artois	Joss Christensen
Joeseph Mensch	Nick Julius	Simon Dumont	Phil Casabon
Hans Mindnich	Dash Kamp	Gus Kenworthy	Charles Gagnier
Jack Mitrani	Sage Kotsenburgt	AJ Kemppainen	Vincent Gagnier
Scotty Moline	Spencer Link	Thomas Krief	Alexis Godbout
Scotty Pike	Craig McMorris	Nils Lauper	Nick Goepper
Iouri Podladtchikov	Justin Morgan	Matt Margetts	Henrik Harlaut
Spencer Shaw	Charles Reid	Dan Marion	Andreas Hatveit
Louie Vito	Brandon Reis	Tucker Perkins	Russ Henshaw
Ben Watts	Spencer Shaw	Joffrey Pollet-Villard	JF Houle
	Jeremy Thompson	Mike Riddle	Jamieson Irvine
	Ian Thorley	Kevin Rolland	Sean Jordan
	Chris Tierney	Taylor Seaton	Gus Kenworthy
	Sebastien Toutant	Benoit Valentin	Chris Laker
	Eric Willett	Jossi Wells	Tim McChesney
		David Wise	Ole Christian Mustad
		Torin Yater-Wallace	Alex Schlopy
			Dane Tudor
			Matt Walker
			Tom Wallisch
			Jossi Wells
			McRae Williams
			James Woods
			McRae Williams
			James Woods

Women’s SNB Superpipe	Women’s SNB Slopestyle	Women’s SKI Superpipe	Women’s SKI Slopestyle
Gretchen Bleiler	Madison Blackley	Katrien Aerts	Dania Assaly
Xuetong Cai	Julianne Brackett	Dania Assaly	Ashley Battersby
Kelly Clark	Mikaela Casey	Maddie Baker	Rose Battersby
Sarah Conrad	Alexandra Duckworth	Rose Battersby	Eveline Bhend
Summer Fenton	Joanna Dzierzawski	Maddie Bowman	Kirsten Cooley
Natalie Geer	Stephanie Sue Feld	Anais Caradeux	Emma Dahlstrom
Leslie Glenn	Celia Miller	Kendall Deighan	Erica Durtschi
Arielle Gold	Silvia Mittermueller	Annalisa Drew	Keri Herman
Sarka Pancochova	Spencer O’Brien	Rosalind Groenewoud	Dara Howell
Meg Pugh	Taylor Owen	Megan Gunning	Devin Logan
Sophie Rodriguez	Sarka Pancochova	Keltie Hansen	Meg Olenick
Maddy Schaffrick	Kara Rennie	Keri Herman	Maude Raymond
Serena Shaw	Enni Rukajarvi	Dara Howell	Nina Rusten Andersen
Hannah Teter	Karly Schorr	Mirjam Jaeger	Anna Segal
Katie Tsuyuki	Nicki Slechta	Devin Logan	Desiree Touchette
	Rebecca Torr	Keni Maras	Kaya Turski
	Erika Vikander	Charity Mersereau	Emma Whitman
		Manami Mitsuboshi	Emilia Wint
		Ayana Onozuka
		Kimmy Sharp
		Amy Sheehan
		Brita Sigourney
		Shuri Terada
		Davina Williams

The full schedule of events for the Toyota Championships is as follows:

Thursday, Feb. 9^th  – Festival Village Opens at 9:00AM

8:00 AM – 4:00 PM      Practice for all disciplines

Friday, Feb. 10^th – Festival Village Opens at 9:00AM

	10:00 AM – 11:30 AM	Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle Semi-Final
	11:00 AM – 12:00 PM	Women’s Freeski Superpipe Semi-Final
	11:30 AM – 1:50 PM	Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle Semi-Final
	12:00 PM – 1:30 PM	Men’s Freeski Superpipe Semi-Final
	3:30 PM – 4:30 PM	Gatorade Free Flow Tour – Men’s Freeski Slopestyle Final
	4:30 PM – 5:30 PM	Women’s Snowboard Superpipe Semi-Final
	5:30 PM – 7:30 PM	Men’s Snowboard Superpipe Semi-Final
	9:00 PM – 11:00 PM	Mac Miller Concert

Saturday, Feb. 11^th – Festival Village Opens at 9:00AM

	9:00 AM – 10:15 AM	Women’s Freeski Slopestyle Semi-Final
	10:15 AM – 12:30 PM	Men’s Freeski Slopestyle Semi-Final
	11:00 AM – 11:40 AM	Women’s Snowboard Superpipe Final
	12:00 PM – 1:30 PM	Men’s Snowboard Superpipe Final
	2:15 PM – 3:15 PM	Gatorade Free Flow Tour – Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle Final
	3:30 PM – 4:30 PM	Gatorade Free Flow Tour – Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle Final
	5:00 PM – 5:40 PM	Women’s Freeski Superpipe Final
	6:00 PM – 7:00 PM	Men’s Freeski Superpipe Final

Sunday, Feb. 12^th – Festival Village Opens at 9:00AM 

	9:00 AM – 9:40 AM	Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle Final
	10:00 AM – 11:00 AM	Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle Final
	12:00 PM – 12:40 PM	Women’s Freeski Slopestyle Final
	1:00 PM – 2:30 PM	Men’s Freeski Slopestyle Final
	2:30 PM – 3:30 PM	Dew Cup Awards
	2:30 PM – 3:30 PM	Gatorade Free Flow Tour – Women’s Snowboard Superpipe Final
	4:00 PM – 5:00 PM	Gatorade Free Flow Tour – Men’s Snowboard Superpipe Final
	5:30 PM – 6:30 PM	Gatorade Free Flow Tour – Men’s Freeski Superpipe Final

**Schedule is subject to change. To stay up to date on the action, follow live updates via the Dew Tour on Twitter**

Running through the entire weekend, the Festival Village offers something for everyone attending the Dew Tour.  Visit the Pantech tent to test out the newest cell phones, play pool or air hockey at Paul Mitchell, and grab a ride all weekend in one of Toyota’s free shuttles. 

David Wise

For additional Winter Dew Tour event information, visit www.Allisports.com and the Dew Tour Facebook page. 

The complete 2011-12 Winter Dew Tour schedule is as follows: 

Event Date Location

Nike Open Dec. 15-18 Breckenridge Ski Resort – Breckenridge, Colo.

Pantech Invitational Jan. 19-22 Killington Resort – Killington, Vt.

Toyota Championships Feb. 9-12 Snowbasin Resort – Ogden,Utah 

Closing out its fourth year, the top athletes in the world will take part in the 2011-12 Winter Dew Tour, all competing for the highly coveted Dew Cup that will be awarded at season’s end to champions in each of the eight disciplines. The 2010-11 Dew Cup champions include Louie Vito (men’s snowboard superpipe), Kelly Clark (women’s snowboard superpipe), Torstein Horgmo (men’s snowboard slopestyle), Jamie Anderson (women’s snowboard slopestyle), Kevin Rolland (ski superpipe) and Bobby Brown (ski slopestyle).The Winter Dew Tour continues its commitment to progression in action sports, with premier superpipes and the highest level slopestyle courses.