Year in review: Freeskiing

Third Time's A Charm
Last spring, the rumors of triple flips were circulating -- talk of Bobby Brown landing one while filming on a jump at Alyeska, Alaska, with Matchstick Productions. But then in July at Oregon's Mt. Hood, Sammy Carlson scooped everyone by delivering the first triple flip caught on film: a stomped switch triple rodeo 1260. "I didn't do the triple thinking about a contest or anything like that," Carlson said afterward. "I did it for me. I wanted to feel it one time, because I was sure I could do it." This fall, when MSP's new film "The Way I See It" premiered, it was confirmed that Brown had in fact thrown a triple cork 1260 at Alyeska. The footage blew the minds of ski movie viewers everywhere, begging the question: What will they come up with next?

Darcy BachaSammy Carlson at Mt. Hood this summer.

Was That A 1620?
At Winter X Games 14's ski Big Air contest, held last January, TJ Schiller stunned even the announcers when he landed the first-ever double corked 1620 -- that's 4½ rotations -- thrown in competition. "I've got to add this up," the on-air announcer said. "We're doing math here in the booth, folks. Was that a 1620?" Schiller earned himself a perfect score for that jump, but even that wasn't good enough for gold. Bobby Brown took top honors with a switch double misty 1440, a trick Brown had never tried in competition before. Brown's combined score of 100 marked the first time a skier had received two perfect scores in X Games Big Air. Yet again, the bar was raised to a level nobody thought possible.

Nate Abbott/Shazamm/ESPN ImagesTJ Schiller, who earned second place, during the men's ski Big Air at Winter X Games 14.