ASPEN — The dust-covered slopes are all but empty this week at Buttermilk Mountain, lacking only Black Bart and a tumbleweed or two to qualify as the desolate backdrop for some sort of winter Western shootout.
It’s a far cry from the crowded chaos of the Winter X Games, where hordes of action sports enthusiasts cram every cranny of the otherwise ancillary Aspen/Snowmass resort now closed for the season. The only remaining reminder of the annual event is seen in the lauded Buttermilk superpipe, standing out in an inverse silhouette of freshly manicured snow towering some 22 feet above silted brown slush.
Within its walls, a select few young guns of American snowboarding are congregating for the season’s final two weeks to take aim at a shot on the sport’s biggest stage, larger even than the X Games. The 2010 Olympic Winter Games are just over 300 days away, and after dominating the Olympic halfpipe since 2002, American snowboarders have their sites firmly fixed.
“Everybody has Olympic rings in their eyes and Olympic medals in their eyes and is looking ahead to those Grand Prix qualifying events to get themselves on the team and get themselves on the podium at the Olympics,” said Mike Jankowski, head halfpipe coach for U.S. Snowboarding. “There’s no doubt that that is the focus. The best man or best woman wins and gets those Olympic spots, and everybody is riding together and pushing each other.”
The team representing the U.S. at the Vancouver Games won’t be determined until the competitive dust settles next January, adding vagary to the entire notion.
The sport’s best for years have taken pride in their independence, a trademark harking back to snowboarding’s rebellious roots otherwise swept away by mainstream acceptance. Inherent closeness of the community aside, an every-man-for-himself attitude has pretty much prevailed since the halfpipe was awarded Olympic medal status at Nagano in 1998.
To some degree, the mind-set still remains.
Reigning Olympic gold medalist Shaun White recently packed up a private training camp after spending nearly a month dialing in top secret tricks in a superpipe built on the remote slopes of Silverton Mountain by his sponsors at Red Bull. Although word of the training session — enhanced by a foam pit dug into one of the pipe walls — quickly spread via Silverton ski and snowboard traffic, it was considered clandestine enough that resort employees risked losing their jobs if they spoke of it in public.
White was invited to join the private session at Buttermilk this month but declined because of fatigue and surgery at the Vail-based Steadman Hawkins Clinic to repair an injured thumb.
“He’s been riding pretty hard, and I think he’s feeling it,” said Bud Keene, U.S. halfpipe coach at the 2006 Games who now heads up U.S. Snowboarding’s freestyle development program. “He did just have that great Silverton opportunity. This is our version of that. It’s a golden opportunity.”
Two weeks of private access to a pipe the caliber of Buttermilk’s is a first for U.S. Snowboarding (although the resort has promised another week of exclusive use between Winter X and the Winter Olympics in 2010). And although Jankowski says the team would conduct the camp whether or not the Olympic clock was in its final countdown, the unprecedented opportunity is reflective of the significance snowboarding now plays in the U.S. Olympic mission.
The four halfpipe medals won by American riders in 2006 accounted for nearly half of the hardware brought home from Turin by U.S. skiers and snowboarders combined.
“Everything we do every day for these riders is trying to put them in good places and provide good opportunities for them so they can do what they do best, which is ride at a very, very high level,” Jankowski said. “The more U.S. Snowboarding can do to support them, at the end of the day the results really show.”
Current and former U.S. Snowboarding team riders — including Olympic medalists Gretchen Blei-ler, Hannah Teter, Kelly Clark and J.J. Thomas and 2009 Grand Prix (Olympic qualifying series) champions Louie Vito and Steve Fisher, among others — are filtering into Aspen in waves over the course of the camp.
Every night the pipe rated best in the world by readers of Trans-world Snowboarding is freshly cut for sessions that can last upward of three hours at a time. Two dedicated snowmobile drivers carry riders back to the top with their boards still strapped to their feet for rapid-fire laps. Jankowski and Keene offer real time feedback on tricks, and cameras are set up for video analysis. Trainers and wax techs offer additional support.
“It’s the best training opportunity ever,” Keene said.
And the unified approach to training appears to work well for the riders.
“We’ve got such a good crew of people here. The Silverton thing is cool for Shaun, but what’s better than riding with this crew of people? They get me fired up to do stuff I wouldn’t do by myself,” Vito said. “That’s what’s so cool about being out here. It’s competitive, but it’s more about riding with friends and pushing each other. You kind of feed off their energy.”
Luke Mitrani, a former team rider invited to train with his friends at Buttermilk, wouldn’t have it any other way.
“To be honest, I think (White’s private training) is kind of crazy,” said Mitrani, 18. “I don’t see how you could snowboard and ride by yourself. It’s like, why would you want to? What’s so good about winning the Olympics if you’re not having fun doing it?”
Scott Willoughby: 303-954-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com
