AS CERASOLI AND I BIDE our time at the finish line of the boardercross semifinals, at the bottom of Dollar Mountain, I ask her if she worries about Palmer, who relapsed at his own New Year's Eve party in December 2007.

"His OD was definitely a fluke," she tells me. "It's a day-to-day fight. I've told him that he sold me tickets to the scariest roller coaster in America, but I'm here for the ride."

A few minutes later, Palmer busts over the finish line, winning the first heat with ease, beating out people less than half his age, including Rob Rudy, an 18-year-old senior from Palo Alto High School. A gaggle of little kids flocks around Palmer for autographs.

"He's so cool!" says ten-year-old Waverly Brown.

Olympian Daron Rahlves, who's competing in tomorrow's skiercross comp, is also at the finish line. He has his money on 30-year-old Nate Holland in the next heat but thinks Palmer will win the overall title.

"It's gonna be a good battle," says Rahlves. "Palmer's a badass. He likes speed, he has a superstrong mind and the attitude that if you believe it, you can make it happen."

Palmer does make it happen, though not quite as seamlessly as he'd have preferred. Nate Holland edges him out in a nail-biter final heat: The two riders slingshot through the course, arms pumping through the rollers, where they bump each other and exchange a few fuck-you's before Holland holds his line, catches a draft, and crosses the finish line first. But Palmer still has enough points to reign as the overall 2008 Jeep King of the Mountain series winner, pocketing the cash prize.

At the awards ceremony, Palmer takes the top spot on the podium dressed in a white silk jacket over a black T-shirt, pointy white leather shoes, and aviator sunglasses and a black fedora. "Hats off to Nate, and I'm happy to be overall tour guy," he says. "2010 Olympics. That's why I'm standing right here, right now."

Between now and 2010, Palmer will be in a constant state of medal-lusting purgatory, training, competing, and trying to stay sober. In May, he will win the Monster Energy MX Crossover motocross event, in Rancho Cordova, California. In early September, he'll crack his head in a bad fall during a training camp in Argentina. The fall will rattle him, but he'll continue on to the Winter X Games, World Cup events in Switzerland and Austria, and possibly January's world championships, in South Korea. It will be another year, during the 2009-10 World Cup season, before the U.S. snowboarding team picks its final Olympic team.

But today in Sun Valley, Palmer is once again on the podium.

"Hey, Shaun," says Uncle E, the local announcer. "Do you remember when you did your first boardercross?"

"I think I designed a course with Glen Plake in '88 in Chamonix," says Palmer.

"So if my addition is correct, your first boardercross course was designed one year before [fellow U.S. snowboard-team member] Callan Chythlook-Sifsof was born? Is that correct?"

"That's about right."

"Remember," says Uncle E, "experience speaks volumes. Not age. Experience."

He then gives Palmer the keys to the Liberty and someone in the crowd shouts, "Start it up, Palmer! Jump the mountain!"

In the confusion, the car alarm goes off and somebody else yells, "Palmer's breaking in!"