[Event Schedule]

In the fourth annual Winter X Games, more than 300 athletes will huck, chuck, bike, sled, and fling themselves in the name of winter fun at Mount Snow, Vermont, and and we'll be there to document the outcome.

The X Games concept originated somewhere amidst the ESPN programming department and was first realized in the Summer X Games of 1993. Winter X started in 1997 at Crested Butte, Colorado, and is now perhaps the largest gathering of alternative winter sports.

This year, more than 250 athletes will be fighting for a total of $445,200 — an unprecedented purse. Sixteen separate events are scheduled in the five featured sports: snowboarding, skiing, skiboarding, snowmobiling, and snow mountain biking.

Snowboarding Highlights
SuperPipe – This is not the halfpipe of yore. Thanks to a technologically superior grooming dream-machine, the walls are in the 14-foot range and it's now longer. Call it an endurance pipe. Expect to see Michele Taggart (1st in '99), Natasza Zurek, Barrett Christy, Tricia Byrnes, Tommy Czeschin, Rob Kingwill, Daniel Franck and Luke Wynen trying to combining amplitude with fluidity and upping the ante.

Snowboarder X – What was "Boarder X" is now "Snowboarder X" — same thing, new name. Heats of six riders will compete in each round and the top three advance to the next stage. Gone, say organizers, will be that nasty flat spot in the middle, which plagued so many riders last year. It's snow-derby time, and you can bet that Shaun Palmer will be protecting his throne.

Big Air – Competitors will have two jumps per round, with only the best score taken. There's three rounds, and the rider who goes biggest wins.

Skiing Highlights
Skier X – This year's Skier X will hopefully have all the thrills as last year's, and none of the ACL-tearing spills. (Alison Gannet actually blew out both her knees last year. And she wasn't the only one on crutches. It should have been called Carnage X.) This year, expect to see Kent Kreitler, Enak Gavaggio (1st last year), Josh Loubek, Jonny Moseley, Heather Paul, Asia Jenkins, Aleisha Cline (1st last year), and Charlotte Moats out on the battle-course.

Big Air – Skiers will have two jumps per round, with only the best score taken. There's three rounds, and the skier who goes biggest wins.

Other
Snocross – Vermont is snowmobile country, so this event, to be held on a long course with lots of hits and potential for some very big air, promises to be a real crowd-pleaser.

UltraCross – The top 16 skiers and snowboarders from Skier X and Snowboarder X will compete in this relay-style race with teams of one skier and one snowboarder, head-to-head. The buck just might stop here.