The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Switch alley oop 9 octograb
Christian Allen came into the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain with a plan—to be the first skier to bust out an Octograb in the halfpipe.
The Grand Prix is a platinum level event on the Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP) tour. In other words, the Who’s Who of the halfpipe skiing world were on hand at Mammoth Mountain.
Allen made the trip to Mammoth after posting a fifth-place result at the US Open in Aspen and after a three-day weather delay, the sun came out for the qualifying day opening the door for Allen’s new move.
“The right wall was soft and slushy and that’s always a confidence booster,” says Allen.
Allen laid down the best run of his career on his first run of the competition, closing it with a switch alley-oop 9 octograb to score an 82.5.
“No one does that in the pipe,” says Allen. “It was my highest score ever and I think it impressed the judges. They’re always looking for something new.”
Allen laid down a solid second run to post a score of 80 and finish the day in ninth place overall, to advance to the finals the next day.
“I was pumped for sure,” says Allen. “That was the first platinum final that I made.”
Allen’s ninth place out of 12 finalists meant that he would go fourth in the line-up, making for a slightly icier halfpipe on his first run.
Nevertheless, Allen came out of the starting area hot, looking to lay down a huge run and go higher than ever before.
Unfortunately, he landed close to the flats on his second hit and crashed, forcing him to change his strategy for his second run in the finals.
“I was pretty bummed because you want to lay down that cushion run first,” explains Allen.
As a result, Allen held off on his second run just to make sure he would stay in the running, and while he had a great run, he remained in ninth place overall.
“I went big but I could have gone bigger,” says Allen.
Allen will close the season at the World Skiing Invitational at Whistler April 18-22. Until then, he will continue tweaking his tricks to make a run at the podium.
“I’m just trying to dial in a few 1080 variations going into that event,” says Allen.
