Southwest Colorado Series season ends

“We’ll be taking a really good group to Nationals”

The Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team and Crested Butte Mountain Resort joined forces to host the Southwest Colorado Series this winter. The Southwest Colorado series includes ski and snowboard events as feeders to the US Nationals held at Copper Mountain in April.
The series offered a host of events opening with snowboard slalom and giant slalom races back in December, ski and snowboard halfpipe and slopestyle events throughout January and February, finishing with a boardercross and skiercross on Saturday and Sunday, March 14-15.
In the end, the series of events exceeded the expectations of Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team assistant director Christian Robertson.
“We ended up having 440 participants through the course of the winter,” says Robertson. “It seemed like it kept building momentum.”
While a majority of the participants hailed from nearby towns for most of the season, the skier and boardercross races attracted a nationwide field, including athletes from the West and East Coasts.
“A lot of the riders who came here were looking to add points to their national points rankings,” explains Robertson. “It was the absolute last weekend so they all converged here.”
Of course the series would not have been possible without support from a number of entities, from Crested Butte Mountain Resort to local ski and snowboard shops.
“It took a lot of work from the mountain to provide the venues and our park and pipe crew and race staff being there,” says Robertson. “Everyone involved with those staffs took it to another level. It takes a lot of elbow grease. The Colorado Boarder and Colorado Freeskier always had the kids’ backs with equipment and waxing.”
Robertson saw several of the CBMST athletes improve over the course of the season, with 10 qualifying for the US Nationals at Copper from the Southwest series.
“Above all there was a lot of progression throughout the year,” says Robertson. “We’ll be taking a really good group to Nationals. They’re expecting 1,500 athletes there. It’s an awesome event.”
Kevin Healey qualified in the boardercross.
Nora Healey qualified for Nationals in the giant slalom, slalom, halfpipe, slopestyle and boardercross.
Cameron Pool will compete in the slalom, halfpipe and slopestyle.
Thomas Taka will race in the giant slalom and boardercross.
Colleen Healey qualified in all five events.
Maille Cowell, Sean Johnson and Josie Byron all reached the skiercross Nationals.
Aaron Blunck will be in the halfpipe and slopestyle events on skis and Jeremy Clayton will compete in the halfpipe and slopestyle snowboard competitions.