Vail Mountain, CO (March 1, 2013) Mark McMorris and Spencer O’Brien won slopestyle titles at the 31st annual Burton US Open Snowboarding Championships presented by MINI at Vail Mountain. Both Mark and Spencer will take home $45,000 each as well as a coveted title from the sport’s most legendary event.

While snow fell steadily all day, the riding level remained high with competitors working hard under tough conditions. Mark McMorris took his first ever US Open men’s slopestyle victory with a winning run that included a MINI wallride to gap to lipslide, gap to backside lipslide, double backflip indy grab, frontside 1080 mute grab to a backside 1080 mute grab. Coming in second was Torstein Horgmo (NOR), who arguably had the best rail trick of the day, and rounding out the podium in third was Chas Guldemond (USA).

“Winning the US Open is one of the highlights from my season, and I think everyone is psyched to see it in Vail,” said Mark McMorris. “Conditions were a little rough, but I kept my speed up, and these are the best jumps ever built in slopestyle. I’m having more fun than I’ve ever had and to be sharing the podium with my good friends is really fun.”

Mark’s win today made him the World Snowboard Tour Slopestyle Champion for 2013, and he’ll claim his trophy at the US Open award ceremony following halfpipe finals here in Vail tomorrow.

On the women’s side, event organizers and athletes made a joint decision to cancel today’s women’s slopestyle finals due to increasingly adverse weather conditions as the afternoon went on. As a result, the top three women from slopestyle semi-finals podiumed, landing Spencer O’Brien with top honors, Jamie Anderson (USA) in second place and Brooke Voigt (CAN) in third.

“I’m happy that our safety was considered in today’s cancellation,” said Spencer O’Brien. “Lucky for me, I was first in semi-finals so I’m stoked with the win.”

Additionally, the $3,000 Nokia Rookie Award for slopestyle was presented today to Darcy Sharpe and Brooke Voigt, who both earned the award through a combination of their standings on the World Snowboard Points List, individual competition results and progressive riding.

Finally in other award news, Vail beat out LAAX to win this year’s MINI Feature Award. Designed by Snow Park Technologies, the Burton US Open slopestyle feature offered various rail, wallride and transition options all arranged around a huge 20-foot wallride mounted on a quarterpipe with a MINI parked in the center.

Men’s Slopestyle Final Results:
1. Mark McMorris CAN, BURTON, 83.05
2. Torstein Horgmo NOR, DC SHOE CO, 82.53
3. Chas Guldemond USA, ROCKSTAR, 81.63

Women’s Slopestyle Final Results:
1. Spencer O’Brien CAN, NIKE, 75.33
2. Jamie Anderson USA, BILLABONG, 74.88
3. Brooke Voigt CAN, 32 SNOWBOARD BOOTS, 70.08