SILVERTON, Colo.  To find the secrets to Shaun White 's snowboard success, it's a 63-mile drive from Durango, Colo., along the treacherous Million Dollar Highway to Silverton, a tiny town known for its mining of silver and gold.

At the backcountry Silverton Mountain ski area in a snow-filled gulch sits a perfectly sculpted, 500-foot long, 22-foot deep halfpipe. Above it, a helicopter swathed in a Red Bull logo descends in a steep pitch. From the helicopter, tiny dots become people, and one is moving in a zigzag pattern down the pipe.

That dot is Shaun White, and this is his million-dollar Olympic gold mine.

At 23, White is the face of the Vancouver Games for the action sports generation and the heavy favorite to bring home a second consecutive Olympic gold medal in men's halfpipe Feb. 17.

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The private halfpipe, dubbed Project X, is the manifestation of his power. As the 2010 Winter Games approached, White met with Red Bull's sports managers to discuss ways to gain an edge, especially in practicing a "double cork," a complicated maneuver that requires a double back flip combined with a triple twist.

His rivals also were preparing to unleash their versions, so White decided he needed a place to practice far from their eyes.

"Silverton was amazing," White says. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work on tricks a ways from everyone else, to be able to take chances."

The Project X pièce de résistance was a 20-foot-by-20-foot box on the right end of the halfpipe that was filled with hundreds of high-density foam cubes, each about a foot high and wide, a standard training safety feature used by skateboarders and BMX stunt riders to cushion falls.

"The beauty of Silverton was that I was able to have trial and error with the foam pit," White says. "Once you can get that first throw out of the way, then you can throw it on the actual wall.

"No one had done these tricks on the halfpipe before because it's scary, it's icy, it's hard to know where you are."

White's sessions were recorded with special RED ultra-high-definition video cameras that captured minute details, enabling his coaches to detect the slightest flaws in execution.

After the Silverton project was over, White and U.S. Snowboard halfpipe coach Bud Keene went to New Zealand, where other U.S. riders were training and competing. It was a trip they also made before the 2006 Winter Games.

"Coach Keene reminded me that New Zealand was where I really won the Olympics," White says.

They were surprised to see that some riders were making progress on the double cork. Instead of hiding his new skills, White decided to make a statement.

"I figured I'm going to have some fun and get these tricks to where they're mine every time. Maybe I'll shock some people. I'd never seen so much carnage in the pipe before.

"That was pretty cool to do, to just drop in (and) start cranking these tricks out. I still have some secrets. I can't give it all away."

White's path hasn't been without its bumps.

He took a bad spill during a practice run for the ESPN X Games on Jan. 30. He was attempting a different trick (not the double cork) and suffered a cut chin. Just 45 minutes later, he won his 10th X Games gold medal.

Cashing in on Torino gold

Before the Torino Games, he already was an action sports superstar with a suitcase full of snowboard and skateboard gold medals from the X Games and Dew Tour. But that 2006 men's Olympic snowboard halfpipe gold medal opened a floodgate of opportunities for the slightly built (5-9, 155 pounds) athlete with a shock of shoulder-length red hair.

His eponymous videogames have sold more than 3 million copies. He has a popular line of Target clothing and sponsorship and advertising deals with the likes of American Express, Burton Snowboards, HP computers and Red Bull.

Fortune magazine estimates his annual income at more than $9 million. BusinessWeek magazine rated him as No. 51 in its Power 100 rankings of the most powerful athletes. The only other action sports athlete on that list is skateboarder Ryan Sheckler at No. 100.

While those numbers have created some animosity toward him from the sometimes prickly action sports counterculture, his fame and fortune have enabled him to marshal resources far beyond those of his competitors in the race for dominance.

White has been dominant from an early age.

When he was born in 1986 with a congenital heart defect, an athletic career seemed impossible. But two pediatric open-heart surgeries to repair the condition didn't slow him down.

His father named him after world-champion surfer Shaun Tomson. At 3, he began riding small waves on a pint-sized surfboard.

Not long after, he began learning skateboard tricks from Carlsbad, Calif., skaters inspired by local legend Tony Hawk, a board-sport connection that would become a major influence on his innovative snowboard skills.

His parents loved skiing and began making trips to California ski resorts with 4-year-old Shaun and older siblings Kari (now 25) and Jesse (now 30). Shaun quickly became a speed demon on skis, so his mom ordered him to take up snowboarding in an effort to slow him down.

When Shaun was 7, his parents entered him in a snowboard contest, which led to a spot in the national championships.

"From the very beginning," he says, "it was like this contest setting, and I wanted to be the best."

Keene, who has been training White since his young days and coached him through the undefeated 2006 campaign that culminated in Olympic gold, says, "His bone, body, brain and synapses make him who he is. But there are a lot of natural athletes.

"What sets him apart is his extreme commitment to training, to perfection. He has an uncompromising attitude toward his efforts. He works harder than anyone, and he's the most talented. That's a hell of a package."

Skateboarding connection

In his quest, White also has been served well by another, albeit low-tech advantage: vert ramp skateboarding.

Skateboard king Hawk saw 9-year-old White skating at a local park and took the little kid with big hair under his wing. The experience lit a creative fuse for White that allowed his talent to explode on vert ramps and icy halfpipes.

By 1999, White, 13, became a professional snowboarder and was performing at an elite level. In 2000, he competed in his first ESPN Winter X Games and placed 15th in superpipe; two years later, he won two silver medals, becoming at the time the youngest X Games medal winner.

In 2003, thanks to Hawk's help, he became a pro skateboarder and the first athlete to compete and medal in the Summer and Winter X Games in two sports: skateboarding and snowboarding.

"He's inspiring this generation to be good at more than one thing," Hawk says.

The key component of White's crossover success, however, is his ability to do one more trick than his competition. In vert ramp skateboarding, riders throw down as many tricks as they can in a timed event. A rider who can cram both high-volume and high-quality tricks in a run will usually get a higher score.

"Skateboarding really helps me stay fresh," White says. "The technique is different because your feet aren't attached to the board, but both sports are about controlling your body in space, finding a feeling for the trick.

"I can't really describe a trick as much as I just feel it."