Snowboarding

SALT LAKE CITY -- U.S. cross-country skier Kikkan Randall already had the pink hair. Just before Christmas, the matching pink jacket came compliments of four-time Olympic alpine racer Sarah Schleper, who took it off her own back and handed it over after a World Cup run.

MONTE CRISTO — A snowmobiler caught in an avalanche Friday, at the start of what forecasters expect to be a dangerous weekend, escaped with just an injured leg.

Though avalanches caused by skiers, snowboarders or snowmobilers have been sparse in Northern Utah, high winds and heavy snow settling on top of weak snow this week led to a slide.

The unidentified man was with three other snowmobilers on Whiskey Hill, just outside of the Monte Cristo trailhead on Highway 39, when he triggered an avalanche halfway up a steep slope around 11 a.m., said Craig Gordon of the Utah Avalanche Center.

SNOWBASIN -- Utah's own Louie Vito reasserted his dominance in the superpipe Saturday at Snowbasin, stringing together four consecutive double-cork tricks for the first time in Winter Dew Tour history on his way to a record-high score and back-to-back Dew Cups in the snowboard superpipe event.

Vito, an Ohio native who now lives in Sandy, trailed Russian phenom Iouri Podladtchikov (nicknamed "I-Pod") by a mere two points in the overall standings heading into Saturday's finals at the Toyota Championships. He earned a record-high 98.00 on his second run after pulling off four consecutive variations of double-cork tricks, which involve two full, head-over-heels flips.

SNOWBASIN -- In just his second year as a professional, Justin Morgan has already had a taste of what every competitive snowboarder strives for.

ASPEN, Colo. -- The news, for Kevin Pearce, was all too familiar and horrifying.

A star in the halfpipe goes down hard during a training accident in Utah and is airlifted to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

But the stories diverge from there: Pearce's had a good ending. Sarah Burke's did not.

Two years removed from an amazing recovery after a training accident in Park City, Pearce is hanging out and doing some TV work at the Winter X Games this week -- games being played in honor of Burke, the freestyle skier whose accident in the same halfpipe led to her death last week.

SALT LAKE CITY -- An inflatable vest meant to keep skiers afloat in an avalanche has taken top honors at a premiere outdoor-gear trade show in Salt Lake City.