Aaron Blunck back on track for halfpipe World Championships

Wins Aspen Open

After a tough run at a World Cup halfpipe ski event in Sochi, Russia, Aaron Blunck returned to the states to dominate the competition and win the Aspen Open title last weekend.
He headed over to Russia two weeks ago to compete in his third World Cup event and also get a glimpse of the venue slated for the 2014 Winter Olympic games.
Blunck has seen his fair share of success on the World Cup circuit but struggled in Russia falling victim to fatigue.
He opened the event with two top-notch qualifying runs to finish in third place and advance to the finals. But a steady rain and a long day in the pipe ultimately took its toll on Blunck as he fell in both finals runs to finish in 12th place.
“I was pretty tired going into finals because it was qualifiers and finals all in one day,” says Blunck. “It was a pretty long day and I was pretty run down.”
Blunck admits he dwelled temporarily on his demise but managed to shake it off quickly upon further reflection.
“I wasn’t too bummed because making it to finals was pretty big,” says Blunck. “There’s plenty of more comps this year and I got to ski in Russia which was crazy.”
Once back in the U.S., Blunck had a day to recover and then drove to Aspen to compete in the slopestyle at the Aspen Open. He had just one slopestyle comp under his belt this season and decided to give it a try but when he fell in both qualifier runs, he decided last minute to throw his hat in the ring on the final day of the event and compete in the halfpipe.
“I decided I needed to redeem myself and get back on the podium,” says Blunck.
The Aspen Open is a prestigious event among up and comers but typically void of some of the bigger names in the halfpipe skiing world. As a result, when Blunck decided to jump in, he received some backlash from other competitors. Nevertheless, Blunck used that to motivate him to make a run at the title. In addition, it was Blunck’s fifth time at the Aspen Open and he had not stepped up on the podium once in four previous tries.
He used the qualifier runs to make a statement landing back-to-back clean runs and finish qualifiers in first place.
“They were probably some of the cleanest runs I’ve ever done,” says Blunck.
His first place finish allowed him to go last in the finals. After watching the other finalists on their first run, Blunck held off a little bit to focus on laying down another clean run.
But on the second run, a couple skiers upped the ante so Blunck changed his game plan accordingly.
“I decided to lay it all on the line,” says Blunck. “I decided to add a trick I learned in Russia.”
Blunck nailed his run to seal the win and gain some momentum with the World Championships in Norway coming up in a week.
“I was stoked,” says Blunck. “It was a huge confidence booster going into Norway.”
Blunck is one of four halfpipe skiers picked to represent the U.S. at the World Championships. The other two are David Wise and Torin Yater-Wallace who took first and second respectively at the X Games. The final spot has yet to be chosen. The rest of the world will be sending their top halfpipe skiers from their respective countries as well.
“Hopefully I can land two solid finals runs and put up a top five finish,” says Blunck.