WORDS & PHOTOS • TAE WESTCOTT (@TaeWestcott)
Ahhhh X Games, that special time of the year when some of the best athletes in the world descend on Aspen to try and earn one of the coveted pieces of hardware and bragging rights on the biggest stage in the extreme sports world.
Throughout the early days of the week leading up to the contest, Mother Nature decided to drop a fair amount of snow on the practice events, but the athletes, like the champions they are, still got out and made the best of it.
Starting things off on Thursday night the ladies took to the massive superpipe under the lights and threw down. Cassie Sharpe took the top spot on her last run with Kelly Sildaru and Rachael Karker rounding out second and third.
When it was the men’s turn to drop, you could feel the electricity in the air from the huge crowd as hometown boy Alex Ferreira stomped a massive run through the pipe, capped off with his signature pole spin at the bottom to take home the gold.
Friday morning kicked off with blue skies and the women took to the slopestyle course. Kelly Sildaru won the gold with back to back switch left and right 1080s to a massive score of 99.00.
The sun dropped below the horizon and the brilliant white lights turned on to illuminate the big air jump as the ladies once again took to the skies. Mathilde Gremaud earned gold with a switch double 1080 safety and a right bio/rodeo 900.
Saturday night was cold and clear and now it was the men’s turn to hit the massive big air jump. Quick sled laps to the top allowed for a good amount of practice before it was go time. Young Birk Ruud dropped some absolute hammers with a right double cork “tail to tail” 1620 and a switch left triple 1620 as well.
The smooth voice of Mr. Tom Wallisch hit the air from the announcing booth as the last day of competition arrived with flat light and weird snow temperatures for men’s slopestyle. In my opinion the rails seemed sticky and the jumps slow, and while competitors struggled to put together full runs through the course, Ferdinand Dahl managed to put down a run and walk away with a bronze, Alex Beaulieu-Marchand five forty switch up’d and triple corked himself to his second silver medal of the weekend. Alex Hall (rocking his signature sweater) went absolutely bananas with some creative and very technical skiing throughout the upper rail section and dropped some hammers on the jumps to take home the gold.
That concludes yet another X Games weekend full of insane skiing, partying and progression of this sport. If you are sad you missed it, dry those tears and book your trip for next year; X Games and Aspen Ski Co. announced that Aspen Snowmass will play host to the games for the next five years.
