VAIL, Colorado — When you take the biggest jump a freeride or BMX guy has gone off this year, throw fresh snow all over the landing and offer a $10,000 prize for the best trick, you're in for some spectacular crashes. 

That was the case Saturday night at Golden Peak, where Chad Kagy, of State College, Pa., took top honors for his huge back flip tail whip over the enormous kicker in the Winter Teva Mountain Games Best Trick Bike competition. 

Meanwhile, on that very same jump, a new era in telemark freeskiing was ushered in, and if you were among the thousands in attendance, you witnessed the future of the sport in motion. 

That motion was a 70-foot arc over an explosion of fire as Vail's first-ever Telemark Big Air event took center stage alongside the Best Trick Bike competition. 

Several never-before-seen tricks were landed on teles Saturday night, with best trick going to local Chris Ewart for his huge double front flip. 

“It was the first time I've ever tried the trick on a big jump,” Ewart said after landing it perfectly. “Hopefully it's in the bag now.”

Ewart said he had attempted it before in the backcountry but never on a park jump.

Vail Valley local Kjell Ellefson also attempted his third-place winning trick, a switch-misty 900 with a mute grab, for the first time ever that night.

“I wasn't planning on doing the misty part, but the jump was throwing me off axis,” he said after landing the trick. “My friend told me I was practically doing the misty (inverted) part of the trick anyway, so I went for it.”

The crowd absolutely exploded for the locals Ewart and Ellefson, and you don't have to venture far to find the other podium finisher. Second-place honors went to Jeremy Clark, of Summit, who landed a double rodeo 1080, the first double rodeo 10 ever landed in a telemark competition. 

When the bike jumpers weren't making the crowd go wild with their huge crashes, they were having a blast themselves on their unfamiliar playing field. 

“The snow makes it much harder to land, but it doesn't hurt nearly as bad when you don't land,” said Cameron Zink, who finished fourth with a nac nac backflip.

Behind him in fifth was Kurt Sorge, who landed a back flip no-hander with a huge smile on his face. 

“I'm from BC, so I love the snow. I haven't even been on my bike in two months because I've been back home snowboarding,” he said.

When asked if his background in snowboarding helped land a trick on a bike on snow, he said “Probably not that much, actually. Even if you don't snowboard you know you have to stay out of that rut.”

Zink and Sorge were preceded by podium finishers Sam Pilgrim in third and Mike Montgomery in second.

Pilgrim said the snow added a whole new element of fun, and gave him an appreciation for the telemark counterparts he was competing alongside.

“Coming down and landing is actually the most fun part, because you get to do a bit of skiing on your bike,” he said. 

“It's not quite like these guys, though,” he said with an envious eye toward the tele skiiers. “Pretty remarkable.”