"I've always left Aspen with Buttermilk looking like Buttermilk, then I come back and it's X Games," Bleiler says. "This year we were taking laps as they were building scaffolding. It was awesome to see it all coming together."

Breckenridge-based photographer Nate Abbott took the opportunity to shoot first-time WXG qualifiers Gus Kenworthy and Torin Yater-Wallace, an Aspen high schooler who, at the age of 15, will be among the youngest competitors in WGX history.

Matt PowerOliver Bachrach

"That pipe is always amazing," says Abbott. "And when it's empty, you might as well take advantage. The towers and fences weren't there, but it's legitimately the same pipe as the best skiers in the world will ski later this month."

Kenworthy rode the Buttermilk pipe in last year's Aspen Open and though this year he will be competing in SlopeStyle at WXG, he capitalized on the bluebird skies and prime pipe conditions.

"They say they're still working on it, but I don't know what else they can do -- it's already perfect," says Kenworthy, who hails from Telluride, Colo. "The walls were soft , it's shaped perfectly and we were getting seven hits. It's the best pipe I've ever skied."

Unfortunately the shoot was affected by a bout of post-Wendy's food poisoning.

"Torin was border-line incapable of standing," says Abbott. "He would take a lap, then collapse in the snow and look half-dead."

After only one run of straight airs, Torin was hitting 15-foot 5's with "the craziest double grabs ever," says Abbott. "The tranny on that pipe is so perfect -- he was instantly going huge. He's got that pop thing going. He's really small and you assume he can't go that big, but 15 feet?! I had my camera on a pole and couldn't even get him in the frame."

The WXG15 Superpipe is under construction and will open for the first practice on January 24.