The stereotypical California weather was alive and well today during the Superpipe qualifiers for the last stop of the Dew Tour. The sun was strong and the temperatures reached into the high 30s as 29 of the best freeskiers in the world battled for their spot in Saturday night’s finals.

Simon Dumont, Tanner Hall and Justin Dorey were all pre-qualified for the finals as they are the current Dew Tour points leaders. Today’s 29 skiers tried for their place among the remaining nine spots, to compete at 6pm on Saturday under the lights. Watch it on TV on the USA Network at midnight, Eastern time.

A large crowd was gathered today to watch the event, which saw Mike Riddle take the top spot after a sick first run. He’s been rumored to be killing it in slopestyle, too. The man’s on a mission.

X Games gold medalist Xavier Bertoni took a close second with solid amplitude, while Colby West rounded out the third spot as he led the first heat of two.

Advancing to Saturday’s Finals:

1. Mike Riddle
2. Xavier Bertoni
3. Colby West
4. Kevin Rolland
5. Tyler Peterson
6. Matt Philippi
7. Matt Margetts
8. John Strenio
9. Matt Duhamel

For full results, click here to download the PDF.

After the pipe contest, there was a quick break, then slopestyle practice started up. The course is a bit smaller than some of the other Dew slope courses, but everyone went off today. It’s going to be a really close contest tomorrow (10am) with an absolutely stacked field. Pretty much every name in slope skiing is here, and they weren’t holding back today. No double flips reported yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some were busted out tomorrow as people vie for the hefty $15,000 first place prize.

Check in again tomorrow as we bring you the latest from the Dew Tour at Northstar-at-Tahoe, California.

SKI TV SCHEDULE

Saturday, Feb. 21
NBC: 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm EST — SKI Slope Men Finals
USA Newtwork: Midnight-1:00am EST — SKI Pipe Men Finals