It's hard enough to survive an avalanche. It's even harder to survive one and go on to win a contest that same week. Last weekend Torstein Horgmo did just that, putting the icing on his 22nd birthday cake by earning 1st in slopestyle as the Dew Tour swung through Northstar at Tahoe.
Congratulations also go to local Truckee native Chas Guldemond, who bagged 3rd in the event.
Making Torstein's win extra impressive was the fact he had to survive an avalanche even to shred the contest. He got caught in one earlier that week thanks to a massive amount of snow falling in and around the Tahoe basin.
After sliding through that sketch situation, Torstein threw down a doozy of a first run to set the tone. With 270 to front boardslides, front 10's, boardslide 450's out, back 9's and switch back 12's all packed into his run, Torstein was untouchable; none of the other riders could touch his score after his first run. Chas came close though, knocking out a solid run (with consistency, as always) en route to his 3rd place finish.
"I was so stoked after landing my first run," said Tor afterwards. "It's always fun to ride with all these guys. Everyone was just killing it."
For some good photos and a video, peep TransWorld Snowboarding's site.
