Mount Hood summer shredders Nick Goepper, Gretchen Bleiler, Scotty Lago, Tom Wallisch, Sammy Carlson, Louie Vito and Kelly Clark are tearing it up with the world’s best in Colorado this week as the Dew Tour offers a preview of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

250 skiers and snowboarders are competing in slopestyle and halfpipe at the Dew Tour in Breckenridge, Colorado. The event carries more prestige (and pressure) than ever because it is officially tied to the coming 2014 Olympics, where snowboard slopestyle, skier halfpipe and skier slopestyle will make their long overdue debut in February.

The level and depth of talent in all fields is mind-boggling, and some of the best riders in the world are bound to come up short of making it to the Olympics.

Mount Hood’s lively summer shred scene will be well represented all week. Among the top Dew Tour athletes who are regulars at Mount Hood are:

19-year-old slopestyle skiing champion Nick Goepper, who moved from Indiana to Oregon to shred Hood and stayed on at Windells Academy. Goepper won the 2013 X Games in Aspen, the Austrian Open, the Dumont Cup in Maine and the Freeski Open in New Zealand.

Halfpipe gold medalist Kelly Clark, who trains on Mount Hood every summer.

Snowboard champ Scotty Lago, who won a bronze medal at the 2010 Olymnpics in Vancouver and coaches a “signature session” each summer for High Cascade Snowboard Camp.

Freskier Sammy Carlson, who grew up in Tigard, trained at Windells Camp with Tommy Ellingson and won the X-Games “Real Ski Backcountry” video contest with an absolutely brilliant edit.

Halfpipe superstar Gretchen Bleiler, who won a silver medal in the 2006 Olympics in Italy and trains on the 22-foot halfpipe at Timberline in the summer.

Snowboarder Louie Vito, who was a Windells camper when he was a kid and has gone on to win 5 X Games medals and 2 Here’s a link to a throw-back Instagram photo showing Vito as a young rider in training on Mount Hood.

Freestyle skier Tom Wallisch, who ran a “take-over week” at Windells in August 2013 and nabbed 4.2 million hits for this amazing Dew Tour GoPro edit:

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2013 Dew Tour highlights will be televised nationally over the weekend on NBC. You can watch live streaming through the Dew Tour site here.

Last modified: December 12, 2013