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The gnarliest crash of Winter X Games Aspen 2012 may have been Justin Dorey's gut-wrenching slam into the deck of the halfpipe during the men's final. Dorey, a medal contender from Squamish, B.C., was trying a switch double cork 1080 on his fifth and final hit after sticking a double flat-spin 720 on his prior hit. He had never landed the highly technical combo in competition, and had he done so at Buttermilk, Colo., many felt he would have medaled.

When Dorey crashed spectacularly into the icy pipe lip, he absorbed the impact like a rag doll then plummeted eight feet onto hard snow and slid to the flat bottom. Remarkably, after a few minutes on the ground, Dorey limped away from the crash nursing just his shoulder.

Reached by phone Tuesday afternoon in Whistler, Dorey said he expects to return to skiing by March 1 and hopes to compete at Winter X Games Tignes two weeks after that. He earned a silver medal last year at the same contest.

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Imagine if you will this scenario. In 2004, freeskier Josh Dueck crashed doing something he'd been comfortable doing a thousand times before. He woke from the slam only to find he'd lost half of his bodily control, paralyzed from the waist down and mentally devastated to find himself no longer able to do what he once did.

Now imagine this. Imagine that same skier believes he can return to flight. Imagine returning with half the body to the exact same flight that had changed his life forever. Imagine the fear that comes along with the thought, "The last time I did something like this, I ended up in this wheelchair." And then imagine saying, "But this time, I've got it."

That's what Josh Dueck just did. In 2004 he was left paralyzed after an overshot frontflip over a jump in Vernon, BC. On February 3, Dueck became the first person to perform a backflip on snow in a sit ski.

Dueck, the 2011 gold medalist at Winter X Games Mono Skier X, recently earned a bronze medal in Mono Skier X at the 2012 Winter X Games in Aspen, Colo. He was also the star of a recent film, "Freedom Chair," which earned Best Documentary at the 2012 Powder Video Awards.

You're in for an awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping sight. Enjoy.

When I got home from Winter X Games Aspen, the first question I heard came from a snowboarder friend of mine who wanted to know why skiers didn't try triples in Big Air the day after both Mark McMorris and Torstein Horgmo had landed them on snowboards. Here's a guess: because Dane Tudor wasn't there.

A week before Winter X, the 22-year-old skier out of Rossland, BC, released a video edit that featured him landing a switch triple rodeo 12, not on a park shoot-caliber, 110-foot tabletop, but on the last jump in the Breckenridge public terrain park. Listed as the third alternate for the competition, Tudor campaigned to no avail for an upgrade to the competitor list for the Winter X Ski Big Air. If he had brought his public park-sized triple to the slightly larger than public park-sized Big Air jump, we may have watched a totally different contest with other competitors forced to try their own triples. One thing is for certain: Tudor's recent triple proves that those tricks are attainable on much smaller jumps than previously accepted, and that the age of the triple is rapidly approaching. I recently caught up with Tudor, a standout athlete in recent releases from Poor Boyz Productions, to learn more.

What was going through your head when you tried that triple in Breck? Did you want it for contests or was it just a new goal for yourself?
It was both. I wanted to go to the X Games and I'd been really wanting to do one for a while. I was just feeling it that day, so I decided it was time. I also wanted it for the backcountry this winter on a big booter.

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Joshua Duplechian/ESPN Sammy Carlson competing in Slopestyle elims at Winter X 2012.

Sammy Carlson crashed during the Winter X 2012 Big Air finals on Saturday night, causing a torn MCL in his right knee. He was escorted out of the venue by X Games medical staff. This is Carlson's first major ski injury.

"Lucky, it's just partially torn, so I won't need surgery," Carlson said on Wednesday. "I think by the spring I will be back on my skis."

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ASPEN, Colo. -- Shaun White scored the first perfect score in Winter X Games history in Men's Snowboard SuperPipe finals on Sunday, winning his fifth consecutive gold medal -- a first in Snowboard SuperPipe. The victory comes after a left ankle sprain that plagued him earlier in the week forced him to miss the Slopestyle event he had hoped to compete in.

"It's unreal," White said, after scoring 100 out of a possible 100 points on his final run. "I've been wanting that 100 forever. Thank you so much, everybody, tonight. I came here on a mission: I couldn't compete in Slope and it kind of broke me. I didn't know what to do. I was sitting around icing my ankle wondering if I could even ride tonight, and I kind of took out a little bit of that anxiety and anger that I couldn't compete in Slope in the pipe tonight."

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ESPNIdaho's Langely McNeal raced in Sunday's Winter X Games women's Skier X semifinal prior to being disqualified for a clothing violation.

ASPEN, Colo. -- After advancing to the six-woman final at Winter X Games Aspen 2012 Sunday, American Skier X racer Langely McNeal was disqualified for wearing a hair tie around the cuff of her pants.

McNeal was also wearing a band on her thigh as a tribute to fallen freeskier Sarah Burke, who died Jan. 19 after an injury sustained in the Park City, Utah superpipe Jan. 10, but the disqualification was not a result of that band, according to Scott Guglielmino, Senior Vice President of Programming and Global X for ESPN.

The disqualification followed a protest by French skier Marielle Berger alleging McNeal's attire allowed an unfair aerodynamic advantage.

The statement from Guglielmino read: "Langely McNeal was not disqualified for wearing a Sarah Burke band. She was informed by our race director that she was disqualified for wearing an elastic band around each of her pant cuffs that were not Sarah bands but were clearly a violation of the Winter X Games clothing rules.

"The Winter X Games has allowed those Sarah tribute bands to be distributed from the athlete lounge and has allowed athletes to wear the Sarah bands in competition throughout the entire event."

ASPEN, Colo. -- Heath Frisby was unfazed after seeing his friend and competitor Justin Hoyer crash spectacularly on a double backflip attempt in the Snowmobile Best Trick competition on Sunday night. Just moments after Hoyer was carried out on a stretcher with right arm and right leg injuries, Frisby made history with the first-ever frontflip on a snowmobile.

"Guys, it's all right, I've been waiting a year to do this," Frisby said after watching a replay of Hoyer's crash and before taking his own run. "I am my own deal. This is a totally different trick and I'm ready."

Frisby managed to keep his plans for Best Trick quiet until arriving in Aspen on Wednesday, but after word of the frontflip got out, he posted YouTube footage of himself completing the rotation into a foam pit during training. He took it easy during the Snowmobile Freestyle competition on Thursday, settling for a fourth-place finish while focusing on the frontflip.

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Winter X Games rookie Samson Danniels crossed the finish first in Mono Skier X on Sunday at Winter X 2012. Alaskan Gregory Peck took second, holding off defending champion Josh Dueck in third.

"Kids dream of this, I dreamt of it," Danniels said. "I got an X Games gold medal I'm going home with. It's pretty unbelievable."

The lead was handed off multiple times in the final heat as all four skiers jockeyed for position throughout the course. Peck led through the middle section, holding off Danniels nipping at his backside.

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ASPEN, Colo. -- Chris Del Bosco won his second Skier X gold medal in three years Sunday, passing No. 1 qualifier Jouni Pellinen halfway down the course to redeem himself after relinquishing his own lead in last year's final.

Del Bosco, a Colorado native who holds dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship and races for Canada, is the fourth man in Winter X Games history to win two Skier X golds. His victory Sunday would have been his third in a row had he not allowed American John Teller to pass him at the last moment in 2011. Del Bosco now holds two WX gold medals as well as a silver (2011) and bronze (2006).

Slovenia's Filip Flisar took silver and Dave Duncan claimed bronze to make it two Canadians on the podium. When Del Bosco won gold in 2010, he led a Canadian sweep.

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ASPEN, Colo. -- Moments after Marte Gjefsen crossed the finish line to win her first Winter X Games gold medal Sunday, the Norwegian Skier X racer bit down on her gloves and pulled them off with her teeth. She grimaced in pain as the two casts came into view, one on each hand, the result of a horrific crash Gjefsen suffered in training just three days before.

Then the 22-year-old shrieked in jubilation and hugged her Norwegian teammate and Sunday's silver medalist, Hedda Berntsen. They remained glued to each other for 10 seconds, celebrating an improbable 1-2 finish. Not only did Gjefsen win with a broken right wrist and torn left thumb ligament that made it almost impossible to hold onto her poles, she never would have made the final were it not for another pileup in her semifinal heat that wiped out four racers and allowed her to move up from sixth to first.

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