Action in Aspen comes to a close with halfpipe wins for Karker and Blunck
Mar 22, 2021·Freeski Park & Pipe
It was all eyes on the halfpipe as two weeks of action in Aspen - first at the Aspen 2021 FIS Snowboard and Freeski World Championships, then at the FIS World Cup Aspen Land Rover US Grand Prix - drew to a close on Sunday. There the sun came out after a little overnight snowfall, the best skiers in the world took to the perfect Buttermilk Mountain pipe, and Rachael Karker (CAN) and Aaron Blunck (USA) finished the season with victories.
Karker unstoppable to claim first career World Cup win
Karker has been knocking on the door of her first World Cup win for the past few seasons, and on Sunday she was finally able to make good on her promise with a determined and incredibly consistent effort. Though her route to the top of the podium was no doubt made a little easier by a last-minute withdrawal from the competition by top qualifier Eileen Gu (CHN), there’s no question as to whether or not Karker earned her victory, as she stomped all three of her runs for scores of 93.00, 93.00 and finally 93.25 for her victory lap.
Always showcasing some of the biggest amplitude in any competition she enters, Karker kicked things off with a big left side flair, before then getting technical with a right 900 Japan into left 900 Japan combo, and then a right flair, a left cork 720 safety, and a switch left alley-oop 540 safety to finish things off.
“We only had three events this season, but I’m really happy to land a spot on all three podiums,” said Karker, who also took second place at this season’s X Games and silver last week at the World Championships. “This is the perfect way to end the season. I was a little nervous coming into today because I really wanted to finish off with a podium, so I’m happy I was able to come in and stay calm and put it down smooth.”
Second place for the women with a score of 91.50 went to Zoe Atkin (GBR), on the strength of a run that included a left 540 nose, left alley-oop 360 Japan, switch left 720 mute, right 540 tail, left 720 octo, and switch right 720 safety, giving the 18 year-old her second podium in Aspen after she took World Championships bronze last week.
Rounding out the podium in third was the USA’s Brita Sigourney, who was shut out of the Aspen 2021 podium but got a little redemption on Sunday with a run of a left 900 tail, a left alley-oop mute, left 720 mute, switch left alley-oop 360, left 540 tail, right cork 720 safety, for a score of 89.00.
Blunck stomps five double corks in final run for victory
Over on the men’s side of things it was the USA’s own Aaron Blunck finishing off a the season on a high, as the 24 year-old used his third and final attempt of the day to put down a spectacular run that included five different double corks.
While Blunck’s season began with a potentially life-threatening crash, his competition on Sunday also began with some adversity, as he went down in his first run and had to be attended to by doctors int the finish area after appearing to injure his ribs. However, he was right back at the top of the pipe for second run, and by his third run he was back to the form that has seen him on top of so many podiums in the past few seasons.
Starting things off in his third run with a mindbending right side double 1440 tail, Blunck then went for a switch left double 900 Japan, into switch right double 1080 Japan, and then a left double 900 safety, before finals finishing things off with a right double 1260 mute. With five double corks in one run, Blunck earned himself a huge score of 96.50, as well as his own bit of redemption after he was unsuccessful in his bid for a third-straight World Championships title last week.
“After that first run fall I needed to completely regroup and remind myself that I wasn’t even really supposed to start skiing again until this month,” Blunck said after the awards ceremony, “I needed to remember to just be grateful even to be out here and go do it. After my second run, it wasn’t the best, but I landed it, and I was like, ‘Ok, if I can land that run I can go for broke in the third, for sure.’ So third run I knew what I had to do and I wasn’t going to let that get away from me. I knew I had to land it, I did it, and I couldn’t be more stoked. Came in clutch and came out on top.”
With Blunck’s huge score in the books it was down to the likes of top qualifiers Brendan Mackay (CAN) and Nico Porteous to try to knock him from the top.
Mackay dropped second to last, just before Porteous, and gave it everything he had, opening things up with a huge switch left alley-oop double 900 safety, into a switch left double 1080 safety, then a right 900 tail, a left double 1260 tail, and finally a right double 12 safety, and while he was able to up his score from the previous run his 95.00 would fall just short.
Finally it was Porteous’ turn, and while he was somehow, incredibly, able to land the right side 1620 to left side 1620 combo that has become his signature - despite landing deep in the pipe on the right 16 - the instabilities between those two tricks and some lower amplitude further down the pipe kept him at his score of 94.50 from his second run and in third place.
Porteous’s full run was switch right 900 mute, switch left double 1080 safety, right double 1620 mute, left double 1620 safety, left alley oop double 900 Japan
And just like that, the one and only FIS Freeski halfpipe World Cup competition of the season was over, and once the awards were handed out and the interviews wrapped it was off the hill at Buttermilk and making the long way back home for most. And though there were no crystal globes to hand out in this pandemic shortened season, the winter of 2020/21 ended on a high nonetheless, as the fact that we had all been able to be there for two incredible weeks in Aspen to celebrate freeskiing was accomplishment most never would have counted on at the season’s outset.
Kudos to everybody involved, from the athletes on hand to the staff, volunteers, and organization at Aspen Snowmass, and to our friends at the US Ski & Snowboard Team for making such a remarkable set of events an overwhelming success.
QUICK LINKS
US Grand Prix virtual media hub (extended quotes and more)
