Winter X Games 13

Courtesy of ESPN

With the Winter X Games 13 just around the corner things are about to get very, very cool.

Easily the biggest event in winter extreme sports, the Winter X Games brings together the best snowboarders, skiers, and snowmobilers every year to strut their stuff.

Starting on Jan. 22 at Colorado’s Buttermilk Mountain, the Winter X Games includes events like boardercross and skiercross, SuperPipe, snowmobile style, and of course the big air contests.

Since he burst on to the world snowboard scene back in 2003 with his first two X Games gold medals, Shawn White has been the man to beat in the (kwlink 5857>X Games(/kwlink> SuperPipe. White collected his seventh gold medal in Winter X 12 and there is no reason to think he won’t make it eight this year.

“He can do tricks other people do, and they can do the tricks he can do,” says Pat Bridges, the editor of Snowboarder magazine. “But he can do it when it counts.”

This year, the SuperPipe will be the biggest in X Games history. It’s one of only three SuperPipes in all of North America with 22-foot walls. Organizers expect that athletes such as White will be able to catch up to 30 feet of air on the new pipe.

Hot on the heels of White is 21-year-old Kevin Pearce, who defeated White in the last Burton European Open, which was one of the most exciting SuperPipe events in history. Pearce says he thinks this is the year he can knock White out of the X Games spotlight.

"Shaun's never been in a position where he does the perfect run and doesn't win," Pearce told ESPN after defeating White in the European Open. "That was the first time. Now I know I can beat him. And he knows it too."

Related Stories: