YOUR AD HERE »

X Games Day 1: Summit slopestyle snowboarders highlight schedule

Chris Corning, Red Gerard hope to qualify out of loaded field

ASPEN — This winter’s X Games Aspen at Buttermilk Ski Area got off to a soft, snowy start Wednesday evening when Longmont native and Dillon resident Chase Blackwell qualified through in the final position to Thursday night’s primetime men’s snowboard superpipe final (8 p.m. on ESPN).

For Blackwell, it was a dream come true at his first X Games years after he and his father made it a tradition to attend the event.

Thursday’s primetime men’s snowboard superpipe final, which is taking place with a new jam format this year, is far from the only event going on at Buttermilk on Thursday’s first big day of the X Games. At high noon, Summit County snowboarders Chris Corning and Red Gerard will compete in a talented and deep men’s snowboard slopestyle elimination round.



Corning and Gerard will look to make the cut to Saturday’s snowboard slopestyle final (1:45 p.m.) from a 16-rider field that features one heavy-hitter after another. Names like Sebastien Toutant, Sven Thorgren, Max Parrot, Stale Sandbech and Darcy Sharpe litter the elimination round roster. Then there’s talented young riders like Brock Crouch, Judd Henkes and Luke Winkelmann, who are also competing.

Needless to say, it’s no guarantee Gerard and Corning make it out of qualifiers. The good news for the Olympic gold medalist Gerard and the reigning FIS World Cup season champion Corning is that they will drop in 13th and 15th, respectively, meaning they’ll have a good idea of what they need to execute on the Buttermilk slopestyle course.



Here’s the rest of Thursday’s schedule:

  • Noon-1:30 p.m. Men’s snowboard slopestyle elimination
  • 1:30-2:15 p.m Men’s ski big air elimination
  • 7-7:30 p.m. Ski knuckle huck final
  • 8-9 p.m. Men’s snowboard superpipe final
  • 9-9:45 p.m. Women’s snowboard big air final

Competition previews:

More X Games coverage:

The lead-up to X Games:


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.

Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The full project is expected to cost about $165,000. All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project.

Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.