Sharpe and Blunck cap off incredible Mammoth week with halfpipe wins
Feb 02, 2020·Freeski Park & Pipe
Four days of intense competition came to a breathtaking close under perfect blue skies and spring-like warm weather on Saturday in California, where Cassie Sharpe (CAN) made a strong World Cup return from injury, and Aaron Blunck (USA) put down what might have been the greatest freeski halfpipe performance of all time, as both claimed victories at the FIS Freeski Halfpipe World Cup Mammoth Mountain Land Rover US Grand Prix.
While an earthquake earlier in the day rattled the morning’s snowboard slopestyle competition, in the afternoon the rumbling was coming from Mammoth’s halfpipe, where heavy run after heavy run went down throughout the day’s finals.
Sharpe makes triumphant return to World Cup after early-season injury
Reigning Olympic champion Sharpe suffered a concussion at the season’s first event in Cardrona (NZL) back in August, only making her return to competition at last week’s X Games in Aspen, where she finished third.
In her comeback to the World Cup on Saturday Sharpe stepped it up another notch, putting down a first of three runs that included a right side 900 safety, left 900 tail, right 720 safety, switch left 360 mute, right side flare safety, and finally a massive and perfect left side 1080 tail to finish things off, earning her a score of 90.00 and the eighth World Cup win of her career.
“I wanted to just come out here and have fun,” Sharpe said regarding her mindset in the lead-up to her return to competition, “But I’m just so competitive that I can’t just come out here to have fun. I practiced a tonne leading up to the X Games and then when I got third-place there it was the first time I’ve ever been ok with getting a third. Today I’m happy to be back on top, and that everyone’s ok, and that we got to compete in the most beautiful day I’ve ever seen at Mammoth.”
Second place on the day went to Valeriya Demidova of Russia, as the 19-year-old put down a storming second run that included her signature right side flare truck driver, left and right 720s, and a switch alley-oop 360 mute to finish things off.
With the win, Demidova extended her lead atop the women’s halfpipe World Cup standings, and now holds 285 points to Zhang Kexin’s 240 with just one competition left to go in the 2019/20 World Cup season.
Third place, meanwhile, went to Sharpe’s Canadian teammate Rachael Karker, who boosted some of the most consistently large airs of the day - including a right side 900 to left side 900 combo, and a corked left 720 safety - for a score of 88.00 and her third podium in three 2019/20 World Cups.
Blunck with an all-time great performance
Over on the men’s side of things there are simply not enough words to describe the performance of Aaron Blunck on Saturday afternoon, as the 23-year-old Colorado native stomped three consecutive 90+ scoring runs - a 94.20, a 96.20, and finally a 97.20 to as a grande finale - in a day that should go down in freeski halfpipe history.
Loose, relaxed, and smiling at top of the pipe and in the finish area, once in the pipe Blunck skied like a man possessed, putting down three runs that, quite frankly, no one else in the world can hold a candle to right now.
Leading off with a right double 1440 tail grab, Blunck then went into the switch left double 900 japan to switch right double 1080 japan combo that only he can do, into a left dub 1260 safety, only to finish his run off with a massive right dub 1260 tail.
“After the first run today I was feeling it,” said Blunck, “I just thought to myself, why not give it everything I got? I’m feeling really good right now and I don’t ever back down. That’s just not the type of person I want to be. I thought my dad would be extremely proud of me if I continued to give it my all and that’s what I did. Also, to share the podium with Noah Bowman and Lyman Currier is amazing, I look up to them both.”
Coming into competition in Mammoth Blunck and the above-mention Noah Bowman of Canada were locked into a dead heat on the halfpipe World Cup leaderboard with 240 points each, and while Blunck has now climbed into the lead with 340 points, Bowman’s second-place performance on Saturday has kept him in striking distance with 320 points.
While no one was touching Blunck in Mammoth on Saturday, Bowman too skied exceptionally well, earning a score of 88.60 for a deceptively smooth first run that included a switch left double 1260 safety, into a switch left alley-oop dub flatspin 900 japan, into a switch left double 1080 safety - a back-to-back-to-back combo that no one else in the world can do.
Currier rounded out the podium in third with a final run that was highlighted by massive first hit left 900 truck driver and later an equally massive left dub 1260 mute, earning himself a score of 88.20 and his second podium in 2019/20 after missing nearly three seasons of competition due to injuries.
From Mammoth, the FIS Freeski World Cup moves on to Calgary (CAN) for the final halfpipe World Cup competition of the season, which will take place from Feb 12-14, 2020.
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