The 2008 Winter X Games XII were successfully held last January in its regular venue in Buttermilk Mountain, Aspen, Colorado for seven straight years now. For four days, from January 24 to 28, thousands of young and old snowboarding fans trooped to the venue to witness the stunts and tricks of more than 200 athletes, males and females. A total of 72,500 went to see the event, according to official reports.

Broadcast live on ESPN and ABC, the Winter X Games were participated in by top snowboarders from different parts of the U.S. and the rest of the world. Skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiling were the major competitions featured here.

In the men’s division, Tanner Hall and Shaun White both won gold medals in the ski superpipe and snowboard superpipe, respectively. Andreas Wiig got the gold in snowboard slopestyle while Nate Holland topped the snowboard cross. In the ski slopestyle, Andreas Hatveit earned the gold while Daron Rahlves won in the ski cross. Kees-Jan van der Klooster claimed the top spot in the monoski cross.

In the women’s events, Lindsay Jacobellis managed to maintain her top rank by getting her fourth gold medal in the snowboard cross category. She beat Tanja Frieden from Switzerland who defeated Jacobellis at the 2006 Winter Olympics. In the superpipe event, Gretchen Bleiler of Aspen won first edging out Torah Bright of Australia. In the snowboard slopestyle, 17-year-old Jamie Anderson got another gold medal in addition to her already big collection of snowboarding medals.

A new event was introduced during the opening night competition. The Snowmobile Speed and Style is a combination of snocross with trick skill and is timed. Topping the event with a gold medal was Levi LaVallee. Levi’s winning the gold made him the second competitor in the Winter X Games to earn a gold medal in four various events. Tucker Hibbert also won his second gold in snocross.

The big air events also made a come back in a number of competitions. However, only four competed in these events both in skiing and snowboarding. And what’s great about this is that the audience had a say in who would be the winner. So, apart from the votes of the two judges, the fans and the rest of the spectators voted through text messaging for their choice. Only gold medal awards are given for these big air events and Torstein Horgmo got it this year for snowboarding and Jon Olsson for skiing.

Sports aside, the Winter X Games XII also highlighted the environmentality program that encouraged all participants and spectators alike to go green by recycling their trash during the four-day competition. Those caught doing so got great prizes from the Trashed Recycling Store.