Our bags are packed, our cameras are charged and we’ll be making our way out to the X Games in Tignes in a few hours time. While yesterday’s practice sessions were apparently a write off thanks to heavy snow and poor visibility, rumour has it that the sun is currently shining out in Tignes and is set to stick around for a couple more days (don’t take our word for it though!).

As you may have heard by now, Shaun White will be absent from the competitions this year in a bid to squeeze some extra training in for the remaining Olympic qualifying events and after his less than Shaun-like performance in the X Games Aspen slopestyle, he certainly isn’t the complete package just yet! Much to our disappointment, 14 year old Japanese pipe prodigy Ayumu Hirano also won’t be showing up for the pipe contest having caught a bad case of the flu back in Japan. They may be superhuman on a snowboard but these guys still get sick with the rest of us!

The men’s pipe is pretty much wide open for the taking with I-Pod, Louie Vito and Scotty Lago all looking to get their 2013/2014 World Snowboard Tour season off to a good start, with the X Games in Tignes being the first 6 star event in the new tour calendar.

On the British side of things we’ve got Jamie Nicholls and Aimee Fuller competing in slopestyle and it goes without saying that we’ll be cheering ’em on from the sidelines. Check out the full riders list and schedule below and stay tuned for our full coverage of the event including videos of the top runs, live blogs and full reports.

Oh and don’t forget to tag all of your X Games tweets and Instagrams with #XGamesNow – you could win a snowboard, bindings and a heap of WL stash for your efforts! 

RIDERS:

HALFPIPE

Men

1. Arthur Longo (FRA)
2. Janne Korpi (FIN)
3. Jan Scherrer (SUI)
4.Benji Farrow (USA)
5.Christian Haller (SUI)
6.Aluan Riccardi (FRA)
7.Taku Hiraoka (JPN)
8.Nathan Johnstone (AUS)
9.Taylor Gold (USA)
10.Scotty James (AUS)
11.Scotty Lago (USA)
12.Markus Malin (FIN)
13.Luke Mitrani (USA)
14.Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI)
15.Louie Vito (USA)
16. Peetu Piiroinen (FIN)

Women

1.Gretchen Bleiler (USA)
2.Maddy Schaffrick (USA)
3.Hannah Teter (USA)
4.Kelly Clark (USA)
5.Kaitlyn Farrington (USA)
6.Arielle Gold (USA)
7.Ellery Hollingsworth (AUS)
8.Elena Hight (USA)

SLOPESTYLE

Men
Ulrik Badertscher (NOR)
Gjermund Braaten (NOR)
Chas Guldemond (USA)
Torstein Horgmo (NOR)
Yuki Kadono (JPN)
Sage Kotsenburg (USA)
Mark McMorris (CAN)
Aleksander Ostreng (NOR)
Maxence Parrot (CAN)
Peetu Piiroinen (FIN)
Ståle Sandbech (NOR)
Seppe Smits (BEL)
Roope Tonteri (FIN)
Sebastien Toutant (CAN)
Eric Willett (USA)
Jamie Nicholls (GBR)

Women

Jamie Anderson (USA)
Sina Candrian (SUI)
Aimee Fuller (GBR)
Silje Norendal (NOR)
Spencer O’Brien (CAN)
Kjersti Oestgaard Buaas (NOR)
Sarka Pancochova (CZE)
Enni Rukajärvi (FIN)

Snowboard Competition Schedule:

(Times in CET – subtract 1 hour for UK times!):

Wednesday 20th March 2013

– 6:30 pm – 8 pm: Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe eliminations
– 8:30 pm – 9:45 pm: Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe final

Thursday, 21st March 2013

– 10:30 am – noon: Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle eliminations
– 6:30 pm – 7:45 pm: Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe final

Friday, 22nd March 2013

– 10:30 am – noon: Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle final
– 1:00 pm – 2:15 pm: Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle final