The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“It was an X Games caliber run”
At just 14 years old, local skier and Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team (CBMST) athlete Aaron Blunck is already taking big steps toward the big time in halfpipe skiing, as in X Games big-time.
“I’ve coached a lot of kids and he’s the first one I’ve seen that has a chance,” says veteran CBMST freeride coach Ben Somrak.
It only makes sense with his skiing DNA. Blunck’s grandfather is the late Robel Straubhaar. Straubhaar made skis in Switzerland, was Crested Butte’s first ski school director who headed the school from 1964 until 1989, and skied until the age of 99.
Last weekend, Blunck headed over the Elk Mountains to compete in the Aspen Open. The event is a slopestyle and halfpipe competition held on the exact same venues as the X Games slopestyle and Superpipe two weeks ago.
In addition, the Aspen Open attracts the top “unknown” skiers in the nation and is one of the final stepping stones to the X Games.
“The level of competition is unbelievable,” says Somrak. “It’s the names you’re going to see in the X Games next year.”
The week started for Blunck with several days of training sessions on the monster venue, as the Aspen Open has the biggest features and halfpipe Blunck sees all season.
“We had to get him over there and get him on some real stuff,” says Somrak.
Blunck opened the weekend of competition with the slopestyle on Thursday, February 10. While Somrak admits slopestyle is not his premier event, he still placed a respectable 52nd out of 127 skiers, putting down one of his best slopestyle runs.
But, the focus for both Blunck and Somrak was Saturday and Sunday’s event, the halfpipe.
Blunck held himself in check during his qualifying runs on Saturday to take seventh place and make it to the finals on Sunday.
“That day was just about qualifying,” says Somrak. “He said, ‘I’m going to save some stuff for the finals.’”
On Sunday, Blunck went off. Matched up against athletes mostly ages 18 to 22 years old, Blunck had three runs with the top score from all three determining his fate. After a hiccup on his first run, Blunck returned to the top of the halfpipe and stomped his second run.
His trick list ran as follows and in order: right side 900 tail grab, left side 900 tail grab, right side 1260, flat spin 540, 1080 to land backwards and finish with a switch Alley Oop 7.
“That was the best run I’ve ever seen him do,” says Somrak. “He was ‘riding the pipe,’ super smooth and fluid. It was an X Games-caliber run.”
It was that second run that ultimately stood out, not only for him but also among fellow competitors and fans including the parents of this year’s X Games Superpipe Silver medalist and 15-year-old phenom, Torin Yater-Wallace.
“Torin’s parents came up to me and said, ‘Now Torin’s got some competition,’” says Somrak.
Blunck finished the day in seventh place overall, with his pocket Hercules stature the main thing that held him back from the podium and out of the cash. While Blunck was sending it 12 feet out of the halfpipe, the winners were hitting an amplitude of 18 feet.
“The tricks are all there—the one thing we need to work on is amplitude,” says Somrak. “His body weight is not letting him go 18 feet.”
Blunck did manage to leave Aspen with some cash in his pocket, winning the “Best Trick” at an ancillary rail jam session with a switch lipside 270 onto the rail off an adjacent sand castle.
Next on the list for Blunck: defending his Big Air on Elk title. From there he heads to compete in the Junior Olympics March 7-13.
