The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“I definitely exceeded my goals”
Crested Butte Mountain Resort athletes Aaron Blunck and Christian Allen closed out the 2012-2013 halfpipe skiing season ranked in the top 15 in the world in the FIS (International Ski Federation) rankings.
Blunck’s season has been off the charts, opening with a second-place finish at a FIS World Cup event at Copper Mountain. That finish set him up for further success in the big time of halfpipe skiing as he was invited to compete in the Winter X Games in Aspen and placed seventh.
The rest of Blunck’s winter reads like a whirlwind global tour as he took fifth at another World Cup halfpipe event in Park City, Utah, took part in a World Cup stop in Russia, won the Aspen Open, placed sixth at the FIS World Championships in Oslo, Norway, and competed in the Winter X Games in Tignes, France.
“The season was really good,” says Blunck. “One to remember. It was my breakthrough season.”
Heading into the year, Blunck set two goals—ski better than last year and make a couple of finals at the big name events. In the end, he far exceeded his goals and is currently ranked fourth in the world in FIS and fifth worldwide in the Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP) standings.
He credits his success to his growth both physically and psychologically.
“The difference this year was that I’ve grown, gained more muscle mass and matured more and that played a huge role,” explains Blunck. “I definitely have more confidence now.”
Blunck will finish out his season in Whistler, B.C., competing in a slopestyle and Big Air at the Whistler Ski Invitational, and then he’ll take a break—although he admits, he’s not looking forward to time off of his skis.
“I don’t want to stop skiing,” says Blunck.
As for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, it’s still up in the air as far as Blunck knows but he’s set up for a shot and it may come down to a couple of events at the start of the 2014 season.
Allen had a tremendous start to his season, placing fifth at a World Cup halfpipe event in New Zealand back in August.
Since then he’s had a mixed bag of results, competing both in the U.S. and Europe on the World Cup. He finished the qualifier day at a World Cup at Copper in sixth place but fell back to 22nd in the final standings. He placed 22nd at a World Cup in Park City and then 17th at the World Cup stop in Sochi, Russia. Allen closed out the season ranked 15th in the world in FIS points for the halfpipe.
