Bertoni is the X factor with upset in superpipe

Xavier who?

In one of the biggest surprises in recent X Games history, a Frenchman prevailed in the skiing superpipe final.

To put it another way: Americans Tanner Hall and Simon Dumont, who had traded the top spot on the podium since 2003, settled for second and third, respectively, as a light snow fell Thursday night on Aspen’s Buttermilk Mountain.

Hall and Dumont, the icons of a high-flying sport that made its X Games debut in 2002, were brought to earth by Xavier Bertoni, 20, who made his X Games debut last year and finished 14th.

Afterward, Dumont tossed his bronze medal aside. “Watch out for those French guys, man,” he said. “Those guys can ski the pipe.”

Said Bertoni in reference to Hall: “Today I beat the best skier in the world. I can really appreciate that.”

Hall had been going for his fourth consecutive ski superpipe gold, and was trying to win a record eighth Winter X Games gold medal.

Bertoni’s winning score of 93.66 was earned on his second of three runs.

It began with a 540-degree spin 20 feet above the superpipe lip, or 42 feet above the icy pipe bottom, and ended with back-to-back 1080s.

Rice doubles the gap

Travis Rice prevailed in the snowboard big-air competition -- an event decided by fan texting -- on the merit of a double back-flip performed as he soared 85 feet across a gap.

“Yeah, text-in voting,” he said. “I’m pumped on it.”

His victory was vindication of sorts.

He beat Norway’s Torstein Horgmo, the defending champion, whose switch-backside 1260 was the same trick he won with last year.

Torah! Torah!

Australia’s Torah Bright, considered the most technically sound women’s snowboard superpipe rider, posted a score of 97.66 during quali- fying.

It was the second-highest superpipe score -- in qualifying or competition, for men or women -- in X Games history.

The highest: Shaun White’s 97.67, when he won the men’s snowboard superpipe event in 2003.

Hannah Teter qualified third behind Kelly Clark. Gretchen Bleiler, defending X Games champion, qualified fifth with an excuse: flu.

Ellery Hollingsworth, 17, was fourth.

Golden touch

Teter’s popularity stretches to Africa. The 2006 Olympic gold medalist donates all prize money and proceeds from the online sale of Hannah’s Gold maple syrup to the village of Kirnidon, Kenya.

She traveled there recently and “experienced the full range of emotions,” and returned “feeling grateful for the life we have here.”

The villagers are grateful too; they now have clean water, medicine and other necessities. If Teter wins tonight, that’s $30,000 more for her cause.

“The kids like it when I do well,” she says.

Canadian gold

Roxy freeskier Sarah Burke, who tonight will try to three-peat in ski superpipe, was the force behind the drive to obtain equal pay for female skiers -- $30,000 for first place -- and to get women’s ski slopestyle into the X Games.

Both happened this year, at a time when the X Games is reeling from economic setbacks.

“It’s a big step for the females and us women out there, and I think they’re going to throw down and put on a really good show,” said Burke, who is from British Columbia.

Last, but not least

Travis Pastrana’s double-back flip performed in Los Angeles at the 2006 Summer X Games remains the gnarliest trick of the annual action sports festival.

Tonight at Aspen, Minnesota’s Levi LaVallee will attempt the same trick -- but on a 450-pound snowmobile.

Medics will be standing by.

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pete.thomas@latimes.com