The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Catch him at the Big Air on Elk
It’s going to happen at one time or another, and for local athlete Christian Allen, it happened last year.
Heading into the 2009-2010 halfpipe skiing competition season, Allen believed he was primed for a spot in the X Games. Unfortunately, a season ending knee injury early on sidelined him for the rest of the year leaving him to rest and rehabilitate for the rest of the winter and into the summer.
Following a classic Crested Butte rehabilitation regimen, mountain biking, climbing and backpacking, last summer, Allen came into the 2010-2011 season looking to make up for lost time.
Still, the set back had potential huge implications. Not only did he miss the competition season, he missed a year of training in a sport that continues to push the envelope. What is once a show-stopping trick at the start of a season, soon becomes standard issue mid-season.
“I came into the season pretty far behind,” says Allen. “The sport is progressing really fast and everyone’s learning new tricks.”
Allen came into the season with his standard bag of tricks in place focusing more on grabs and improving his amplitude, or getting higher out of the pipe.
“I pretty much improved what I had from the last year with a lot more amplitude,” says Allen. “That’s what the judges like.”
After a slow start, Allen turned the corner on a Dew Tour stop (the pro leagues of the slopestyle and halfpipe world) in Snowbasin, Utah in early February.
He got into the event last minute and took 14th place among the best in the world boosting his world ranking.
“All of the best skiers were there,” says Allen. “You can compare it to the X Games.”
Allen then drove overnight to Aspen to make it in time for a qualifier day for the Aspen Open. Allen qualified eventually finishing in fourth place overall at the Aspen Open.
He carried his momentum to Waterville Valley, New Hampshire for the final stop of the North Face Park and Pipe Open series February 17-20.
Allen had a 13th place finish on the first stop of the North Face series at the beginning of the season but climbed to the top of the podium on the last stop winning the halfpipe ski competition.
“I was on a roll for sure,” says Allen.
Allen then took his show across the pond to compete in the European Freeski Open in Laax, Switzerland last week. Again, Allen was in the mix with some of the world’s top halfpipe skiers and held his own taking eighth place.
“That eighth place was just as big a deal as the win in New Hampshire for sure,” says Allen.
In addition, the eighth place finish boosted his AFP (Association of Freeskiing Professionals) world ranking higher.
Allen will close the 2011 season at the World Superpipe Invitational at Whistler in April and has his sights set on the X Games next year and then the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia.
“I should have a pretty good chance of getting into the X Games next year,” says Allen. “Hopefully my rankings will get higher and I’ll make the U.S. team going to Russia.”
But for right now, his immediate competition plans keep him here in Crested Butte.
“I’ll be hanging out here to do the Big Air on Elk,” says Allen.
