MOUNT SNOW, Vt.– Things looked good Saturday morning over at the SuperPipe on the lower part of Sundance. The sun was shining and the pipe looked perfect. After a dumping of overnight snow, things got nice and cold – nice and fast.

There were definitely some favorites in the field. Barrett Christy and Tricia Byrnes have been splitting first-place finishes all year. There was also Stine Brun Kjeldaas, who has won almost every pipe event in Europe this year. We have not seen her stateside this year so things were looking to get interesting in the Winter X SuperPipe.

Shannon Dunn made it look easy.

It seemed like the first run was an adjustment period for the women. First round scores were not up to the usual World Cup level. Byrnes and Gretchen Bleiler had decent runs, but most were pretty stock. The biggest surprise came in the form of Shannon Dunn.

After proving in Friday's Slopestyle competition that her hiatus has been well spent, Dunn continued to impress in the pipe. Here's just a sampling of what she had for the pipe: Frontside 720 to Cab method, a perfect McTwist, and the clincher, a stomped Haakon Flip.

"I just learned that trick, and I can't believe I stuck it," a stunned Dunn said.

Even with a first round fall, Christy looked like she had some tech moves planned. However, it seemed that even if she stuck them all she might still not win.

As second round runs began, the women seemed to find their form. Kelly Clark, a Vermont local, powered her way into second with huge straight airs, a frontside 540, and probably the biggest McTwist of the contest. Her family and friends, which all seemed to be at the event, were stoked for sure.

Fabienne Reuteler stepped it up in her second run and began a charge, which would be capped by a third round score of 89.00. She had multiple spins in her run, including both frontside and backside 540s and a frontside 720.

Barrett Christy.

Things didn't change much in third round as far as standings were concerned. The women were improving their scores, but not enough to touch Dunn's whopping score of 94.00.

Natasza improved a whole bunch in her final run. She finally managed to pull down all the tricks she had been trying all day. With her backflip and McTwist finally stuck, Zurek slid herself up into second with one rider left.

That last rider was the European powerhouse Brun Kjeldaas. Stine's runs just were not anywhere near a podium place earlier in the day. She did improve on her last run, but it just wasn't enough to bump out Reuteler's second round score.

If it seemed like maybe Dunn was robbed of gold in Slopestyle, the SuperPipe was her retribution. Dunn credited her win to Burton team manager, Dave Sypnewski who "helped me focus on snowboarding again, and helped me learn new tricks." This is Dunn's second Winter X Gold and her fourth medal overall.

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