The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Second place at Junior Nationals
and Big Air on Elk
Suffice it to say, 15-year-old Aaron Blunck spent more time in the air this past two weeks than most people do in a year, even in a lifetime. Blunck has been on a whirlwind halfpipe competition tour this winter that just ramped up to include competing against the world’s best halfpipe skiers.
The insanity started with the Sprint Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain February 27–March 2. The Grand Prix is at the pinnacle of the halfpipe skiing competitive world, bringing in the top athletes from the Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP) tour. The same names you saw at the X Games in January were on their skis and dropping into the halfpipe at Mammoth.
Massive winds delayed the competition and seriously limited training time for the athletes all week. By the time the wind subsided, skiers were called to the halfpipe for one training run before the start of the competition.
“We sat in the condo all week, pretty much,” says Blunck. “I woke up not feeling good at all.”
Blunck went through the motions on his first qualifying run to work the kinks out and pull his head together. By his second run he was back on his game and finished fifth in his heat.
“I was able to put down my run and I was so stoked,” says Blunck. “It was the best I’ve ever skied, it felt amazing.”
Ultimately, Blunck was bumped from the finals by a gaggle of pros in the other heat but was no less excited about his brush with greatness at his age, finishing 14th among the sports giants.
“I’m only 15 years old,” says Blunck. “I’ve never been so stoked in my life. I took 14th place at a pro event.”
Blunck was then whisked away to compete in a USASA event at Copper Mountain that weekend where he hit a glitch while skiing in the slopestyle event. Despite pulling off a routine move on one of the jumps, Blunck crashed.
“I just over-rotated and landed square on my shoulder,” explains Blunck.
The injury didn’t slow him down, though. After a couple of days’ rest, Blunck was off to Steamboat to compete in the USSA Junior Nationals on Wednesday, March 7.
Still hurting from his crash in Copper, Blunck held off on his initial qualifying run focusing more on the details of his run.
“I just did a run I’ve done all year and tried to make it more stylie,” says Blunck.
His effort was good enough to put him in second place heading into the finals, where he stayed to finish in second overall, winning the J2 age division.
“My finals run went really well,” says Blunck. “Since I hurt my shoulder a couple of days before, I wasn’t able to do my best run.”
Two days later, Blunck was back at it once again, with a twist, as he returned home to Crested Butte to defend his Big Air on Elk title.
Blunck was the only skier to come into the jump switch on both his final runs, pulling a switch 7, complete with a coat accented with Flashflight LEDs to take second place.
Blunck now has the next two weeks to continue training and resting his shoulder before he heads east to compete in the USSA Halfpipe Nationals in Stratton, Vermont March 20-23. The event could open the door for Blunck to an even bigger stage in 2014.
“It’s not an Olympic qualifier but it definitely gets you noticed,” says Blunck.
