Birk Irving, Ethan Swadburg & Abigale Hansen Victorious at Aspen Snowmass Freeskiing Open

Author: Tim Remick

Monster Army athletes came out swinging into the Aspen Snowmass Freesking Open. Birk Irving carried his momentum from X games, where he finished 4th in superpipe, into the Aspen Open and took the Win in Mens Halfpipe. Ethan Swadburg came out firing with a Win in Mens Slopestyle.

For our Ladies, Abigale Hansen Emerged Victorious in women's Halfpipe, Followed up by Svea Irving Finishing in 2nd. Overall, a dominating performance from our Monster Army Athletes in Aspen Snowmass! We were able to catch up with Birk and Ethan Afterwards to reflect and review on their outstanding performances.

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So Aspen open AKA mini Xgames, give us a little run down on how things went, your run, the competition what ever you want to say haha.

Ethan: Things went really well at Aspen, I felt like I was skiing better than I have in the park this whole winter and I was just stoked to ski at Buttermilk with a week of perfect weather. I some how managed to break all my skis and bindings before I came to Aspen so I ended up skiing on my pair of all-mountain skis instead of park skis so that was sort of a challenge but it worked out.

Birk: The weather was great. It was warm and sunny and no wind. Pipe was soft

Now about your run specifically, what was it and is it a pretty stock run for you or did you have to give it everything?

Ethan: In my finals runs, I did switch 270 on pretzel 450 out of the down rail, a back 270 out of the rainbow rail straight into a 450 on to forward in the flat-down rail, into a front 630 out of the shark fin rail. It was definitely a step up from the rail runs I have done in the past. Then on the jumps I did switch left double 1080, to other way switch dub 900, into a forward dub 1080. My jump run was the same as last year but I was struggling because I hadn't done most of the jump tricks since last summer at Windells. I definitely felt like I was giving it my all in practice to get those tricks back.

Birk: It wasn’t necessarily a new run with new tricks. I changed up the order of my run and threw my doubles in different places.

how does it feel to ride basically the same course as Xgames? do you compare your run to that of those guys?

Ethan: Riding on the X-games course is so nice, its definitely the best course we get to hit all year. They usually change the rail setup after Xgames but this year they left it for the Aspen Open so that was super rad. I would say my run is close to what the guys are doing in X-games but I'm not quite up there yet. One day hopefully..

Birk: The pipe was a bit more undervert and that made it challenging. I did a similar run as xgames but with the undervert of the pipe it was risky to go big.

What do you think helped you end up on top of the podium? any certain training or specialities that won you the title?

Ethan: I guess what helped me get on the podium was that on my final run I greased up my rail run then I just went as big as I could on the jumps. It was kind of reckless looking back but I decided I might as well go full send since it was finals.

I know you were just at X and killed it, congrats! Do you think that helped you end up on top of the podium

Birk: Yes because I trained my run a bunch and no, because the pipe wasn’t the same as the night of xgames. Since I had already spent time training for pipe, That gave me the opportunity to ski some slope for the first time this year. I had fun competing in my first slope event since 2015 AFP World Tour Finals in Whistler.

How does it feel to end up on top of the podium, is that a huge victory for you or just feels like another comp?

Ethan: It feels like a huge victory for me for sure. The level of skiing at that comp is ridiculous, it's crazy how good all the homies are and how good the kids that are on the come up are. I'm a very happy guy right now.

Birk: It was wicked because I have wanted to win the Aspen Open for a long time. I missed it last year becuase I was at Youth Olympics. I didn’t go to Korea for the test event because of wanting to compete in Aspen.

How does this comp compare to the others from the season? and whats it mean to come out of this one on top for the rest of the winter?

Ethan: So this comp has the biggest field of kids in it, like 120 guys. It' feels so good to do well at the first comp of the year, it definitely gives you a nice confidence boost and some momentum. Travelling, filming, and competing at the same time is a mental battle, so to know that the judges are stoked on what your doing gives you some peace of mind.

Birk: I got some slope points which I have been wanting to get for AFP. It was really fun to be able to compete in both slope and pipe. It was also nice to compete in an event that felt more laid back then what I have been competing in. It was fun.

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FULL RESULTS:

Mens Slopestyle:

Ethan Swadburg 1st

Birk Irving 11th

Ryan Mcelmon 19th

Jackson Hipple 36th

Dylan Ladd 40th

Sam Ward 45th

Pearson Black 91st

Nathan Miceli 87th

Michael Brown 89th