The perfect holiday mix. Take one pile of pro snowboarders, add one zupapipe, shake in Red Hot Chili Peppers and blend with some 10,000 screaming fans and you have the likes of an event that would make any skier question why their sport can't be as cool. I say why can't all snowboarding events be soooooooo sweet?

Kier Dillon, once nicknamed "Shaft" for his frequent lack of love from the judges, finally found a first place tonight. More importantly he earned $10 grand and the pride of beating America's best pipe riders here at the sacred "Olympic" pipe. Kier, known for his huge hits, managed to hang on through the finals and flying snow to take the win away from the rest of the Americans. "I didn't get to go to the Olympics, so it was sweet to come out here and compete against all of these guys - I usually don't ride so well in competitions, but something was different about today and I hope it sticks."

Rob Kingwill pulled down second after a third place at last weekend's Vans Triple Crown. It was 16 year old Patrick Moore, however, who was blowing peoples' minds. He was busting some of the fastest, riskiest runs of the evening and stole third place. A few slips from America's medallists kept them from the podium. Ross Powers couldn't keep his speed on the second run and Danny Kass wasn't toying with his usual 900s and 1080s.

The biggest news of the night was that a 15-year-old girl won the women's event. Hannah Teter went from top qualifier to top of the podium tonight for her first senior level win since taking the Junior World Championships earlier this year. She went so big that she didn't need a second run to take the win. Instead she got a victory lap that was still bigger than the rest of the women on every launch. "My brother handed me his phone and all I could hear was my mom screaming, I couldn't even understand what she was saying. To be able to compete in front of 10,000 people was cool enough, but the $10,000 check is pretty cool too."

(See MountainZone.com's exclusive interview with Hannah Teter).

Podium veterans Gretchen Bleiler and Tricia Byrnes pulled out second and third places with ample amplitude. Gretchen pulled back to back 540s with a clean crippler at the bottom. Tricia had solid straight airs combined with a pair of 720s that kept her solidly in the game. Olympic gold medallist Kelly Clark rode strong but lost it near the bottom, costing her the podium (4th). Natasha Zurek kept her run inverted and found fifth place.

Park City did it this evening. They brought snowboarding to Prime Time on NBC's Power Hour and amassed a crowd second in size only to the Olympics. They did it under the lights powered by Chili Peppers and if you were lucky, topped off with an aperitif' of Danger Kitty fresh from LA. If you're not familiar, Danger Kitty is the band that insists (with amazing metal-head idiocy) that THEY will bring Heavy Metal back to the world. They have several convincingly moronic arguments for the case. On the bright side they did covers of Whitesnake, Scorpions, Poison and Black Sabbath and had almost a dozen girls on stage at a time. It's been way too long since a snowboard event was this much fun.

— Hans Prosl, MountainZone.com correspondent