Ivica Kostelic settled a score with a course that has given him quite a few scars.

Whipping through gates with unshakeable confidence, the Croatian star won the season-opening World Cup slalom Thursday. He had a two-run time of 1 minute, 50.20 seconds to beat Italy’s Cristian Deville by 0.14 seconds. Austria’s Marcel Hirscher was third.

For once, Kostelic conquered the hill instead of the other way around. He has crashed quite a few times at Birds of Prey, twice being carried down by snow patrol on the back of a sled. Three of his nine knee surgeries have come because of wipeouts at the venue, and he also hurt his back on this course.

No wonder he wanted a little revenge.

“It sounds maybe a little over the top now, but I was dreaming of a day when I would beat this course and finally say, ‘Now, we’re even,’” Kostelic said.

So, now Kostelic and the mountain are officially even, right?

“Yeah,” he said, laughing. “This time, I won. It felt good.”