Tonight, under the lights, mother nature held off on her snow just long enough for France’s Xavier Bertoni to blow the competition away and take home Superpipe gold at Winter X 13.

The frenchman boosted huge on every hit, spinning every which way, ending with a Switch down the pipe rightside 1080 into a leftside 1080. His mixture of technicality was enough to stave off valiant efforts by Tanner Hall and Simon Dumont. Hall double flipped and precisely executed his run to take home the silver. Simon Dumont boosted higher than any other rider —by quite a margin — to take home the bronze medal.

Justin Dorey, who couldn’t quite put down the run he wanted to, ended up in 4th, while last year’s bronze medalist, Colby West, boosted his entire run to take the 5th spot. Duncan Adams used his signature run, starting off with a huge 720, to take the 6th spot, while AJ Kemppainen took his technical and symmetrical run to a 7th place finish, with Kevin Rolland, who couldn’t quite keep it together, ended up in the 8th position.

This marks the first year that someone other than Simon or Tanner has won Superpipe since another Frenchman — Candide Thovex — did it in 2003. Xavier really took the crowd, and competitors, by surprise. Known as a solid pipe rider, Xavier pushed out of the gate strong and never looked back, beating Simon and Tanner, who he called, “the best skier in the world.”

The crowd was huge, the air wasn’t nearly as cold as years past and the action didn’t disappoint for the biggest night in skiing. X Games 13 has brought skiing into the forefront and the skier didn’t let the crowd go home wanting more. Check back tomorrow, for the women’s superpipe finals coverage.