Mount Snow, Vt. - The constantly changing weather here in Vermont has been keeping X Games event organizers on their toes. Once again, this time over on the Inferno Run, speed was an issue.

Thursday's event was the Women's Slopestyle. It got started almost an hour late due to some heavily falling snow. When things did finally get started the competitors had decided to push the runway a bit further up Inferno and many opted for a little extra help in the form of a human tow in.

The idea was to get the girls going fast enough to get them up on the six-feet high "sex change" rail at the beginning of the course. Unfortunately this did not work for all the competitors. As a result the use of the first two rails became a necessity for placing well. It seemed that if you could get on the rails you got a decent score.

Jamie and huge method.

Katrina Voutilainen started things out well with some solid rail riding and a bunch of stylish straight airs. Marni Yamada was up next and threw down one of the most solid runs of the contest. She managed to get on all three rails and capped off her run with a sweet backside 360. The judges awarded her a 68.67, which seemed appropriate at the time.

That is until Shannon Dunn dropped in and made the rest of the field look like amateurs. Shannon started off with a boardslide 180 out, a trick not many of the men were trying, on the big "sex change" rail. She followed that with a super tight switch backside air and then into a half cab method on the next hit. The clincher was the perfect backside 540 she landed off the final hit. She said earlier in the week that she was working on some new stuff and it seemed like the effort had paid off.

Then things started to get funky. At first it appeared that Shannon had not bested Marni's score. People were freaking out. Things were fixed, people were satisfied, and then Jamie MacLeod took her first run. However solid with some respectable rail rides, a huge method and a big smooth backside 360 over the victory kicker, it did not seem to have been anywhere near as technical as Shannon's run. That's why it was a total surprise when she posted a score of 71.5 and moved more than a whole point ahead of Shannon.

This obvious oversight in judging was not boding well for Shannon or Jamie for that matter. With the two most prolific women freestylers in the world about to step up one could only imagine how scores were going to start ballooning.

That wouldn't be the case as both Tara Dakides and Barrett Christy couldn't find their range. Both sketched on some of their more routine tricks. They both managed, however, to throw some super tech tricks. Yet with consistency being the name of the game it didn't matter if you threw a sick trick here and there.

Second round runs did nothing to better anyone's score except for Barrett whose run really was no better. Unfortunately because of the late start, riders were not given a third run to try to better their scores.

Although Tara, arguably the most popular snowboarder at Winter X, did not get a medal she did get plenty of love from the gallery. Hugs went all around to the legions of little boys that shouted her name. She's great isn't she? "We love you Tara!"

Well, you have to imagine that Jamie is stoked. She seemed a little unbelieving in fact. "I just went out and tried to stand up", said MacLeod of her strategy. In the end this seemed to be a pretty good plan. Not only does she take home $12,000, but also her first X Games Gold. Shannon followed with the Silver and Marni Yamada with the Bronze.

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