At X Games, flipping sleds defy what’s right

ASPEN, Colo. – Nothing about it seems right.

The whir of the engine followed by the ground-shaking crunch sounds like someone revved a motorcycle and rammed into a wall at 90 mph, the kind of noise that sends chills down the spine if you’re not paying attention.

Visually, it’s as if your brain can’t comprehend what’s it’s processing, the sight of a 500-pound machine doing a backflip causing the neurons to fire uncontrollably. Might as well be a Jeep doing a backflip as far as your brain’s concerned.

It doesn’t even feel right.

“The backflip is the most intimidating thing you can do,” rider Chris Burandt said. “Everything you’re doing, your mind says is wrong.”

Freestyle snowmobiling made its debut at the Winter X Games a year ago, shocking fans and even athletes in other action sports by seeming to defy physics.

A year later, it’s still causing sensory overload.

Flying off manmade ramps and snowpacked jumps, the riders gun the throttle hard and pull harder, somehow getting those massive machines to whirl around and land back upright.

Fans stacked dozens deep to see the spectacle, many of them with mouths open and eyes wide as they got a close-up view of something that seems impossible.

The riders opted to bypass the 110-foot jump in the freestyle finals Sunday night because of the blowing snow, but it didn’t stop them from pulling off backflips.

Three of the four semifinalists attempted the trick, including champion Levi LaVallee, who wheeled one around in the finals for 87.66 points to edge Joe Parsons.

“The conditions were pretty gnarly,” said LaVallee, who joined snowboarder Shaun Palmer as the only Winter X athletes to win gold in four different disciplines with his second gold of this year’s games.

“This is absolutely amazing,” said fan Brian Peterson, who drove up from Denver with some friends to see the flipping snowmobiles firsthand. “You watch it and it’s almost like you can’t believe what you’re seeing.”