{"id":20518,"date":"2019-12-11T12:29:27","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T19:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=61991"},"modified":"2019-12-11T12:29:27","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T19:29:27","slug":"winter-parks-birk-irving-looks-to-qualify-for-grand-prix-superpipe-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/winter-parks-birk-irving-looks-to-qualify-for-grand-prix-superpipe-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Park\u2019s Birk Irving looks to qualify for Grand Prix superpipe finals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Freeskier Birk Irving, of Winter Park, executes a trick in mid-air at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix halfpipe competition on Wednesday, Dec. 5, at Copper Mountain Resort.<\/strong>
Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n
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Skier Birk Irving of Winter Park poses for a photo Tuesday at Copper Mountain Resort.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

COPPER MOUNTAIN RESORT \u2014 While training with the U.S. halfpipe team in Austria, Winter Park resident Birk Irving bought a $20 shovel in a random corner store. The impromptu find brought the team their most fun skiing day during autumn training in Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustria had amazing terrain: pillow lines, little jumps everywhere,\u201d said U.S. rookie halfpipe team skier and Breckenridge born-and-raised local Jaxin Hoerter. \u201c\u2026 So we went out one day and had some big booters going and luckily got a powder day we could send it on. I love pipe, but it\u2019s always fun to take that day and just go skiing because that\u2019s what it comes down to \u2014 just skiing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAustria was definitely the highlight as far as ski camps I\u2019ve gone on,\u201d said Irving, a U.S. pro team skier. \u201cAustria was the highlight for sure. It was just the most fun I\u2019ve had skiing, just messing around with all of my buddies and building stuff and slamming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irving, Hoerter and rookie team skiers Dylan and Connor Ladd, of Silverthorne, will turn their attention from the fun of preseason training and pow days in Austria to the pressure of competition today at Copper Mountain Resort. At noon, the best halfpipe skiers in the world will drop into Copper Mountain\u2019s 22-foot tall superpipe for the qualifying round of the Land Rover U.S. Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

The Grand Prix is the second International Ski Federation World Cup halfpipe event of the 2019-20 season after Irving won the season-opening competition Sept. 7 in Cardona, New Zealand. Irving did so by earning two 95-plus point runs on the 165-meter halfpipe. Irving punctuated that win with a third and final run score of 95.60 on the strength of landing a seldom seen double-cork 720 and a double-cork 1440 \u2014 a difficult trick that requires two inversions and four, full 360-degree rotations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just, not many people do it,\u201d Hoerter said about Irving\u2019s trick. \u201c\u2026 It\u2019s one of those tricks that people can do the 12(60), but the 14(40) is just that scary factor that no one really sees that often, and I think that\u2019s what the judges love about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Irving is able to land his unique double cork 720 and the double cork 1440 and win Friday\u2019s final round after today\u2019s qualifier, he will have won three consecutive World Cup halfpipe competitions dating back to a victory at the U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain in the spring.<\/p>\n

Mammoth and Cardrona also were great events for Hoerter. Considering he and Irving have been close friends for nine years growing up in the freeski competition scene here in Colorado, it was special that Hoerter earned his first top five World Cup place at Mammoth when Irving won the competition. Hoerter followed that up with a strong seventh-place finish in Cardrona.<\/p>\n

Heading into today\u2019s qualifier, the 19-year-old Hoerter said another top five finish is his goal this week. To do that, he thinks his inventive alley-oop double cork 720 will help set him apart. With French star Simon D\u2019Artois not competing in Copper this week, the Breckenridge native Hoerter might be the only competitor attempting the trick this week. Hoerter likely will save it for his final trick on his six-hit run through the pipe, one hit after attempting his double cork 900. Hoerter did say a six-hit run through the pipe, rather than a five-hit run, might make it more difficult for him to stomp his tricks all the way through, but he\u2019s going for his biggest and best run anyway.<\/p>\n

But before Hoerter dialed in for the seriousness of competition, he found the best wind-drift pile of snow during Monday\u2019s power day, dropping into the pipe for a face shot before each training trip down the run.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am feeling pretty good,\u201d the always-smiling Hoerter said Tuesday. \u201cI ended last season on a high note, so it\u2019s good to come in this season and try to do the same. Get up there, just try to land my run as best as I can and see where she goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The close friends Hoerter and Irving will be competing alongside and against top Team USA freeskiers such as multi Olympic and X Games gold medalist David Wise, who is coming back from a broken femur. The 2019 X Games Aspen superpipe gold medalist and 2018 Olympic silver medalist, Alex Ferreira of Aspen, also figures to be a top competitor this week, as does the winner of last year\u2019s Copper Grand Prix, Aaron Blunck of Crested Butte, and Eagle County local Taylor Seaton, who took fifth place in Cardrona.<\/p>\n

With the absence this week of such international heavy hitters as Nico and Miguel Porteous from New Zealand, Hoerter and Irving said it looks like today\u2019s qualifier and Friday\u2019s final will come down to the loaded Canadian and American teams.<\/p>\n

That group figures to include Noah Bowman and brothers Dylan and Evan Marineau, among others. As for a loaded group of Americans, Silverthorne-based brothers Connor and Dylan Ladd are hoping to qualify for the final, as are some more U.S. rookie team skiers like Cassidy Jarrell of Aspen.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

On the women\u2019s side, when qualifiers begin at 9:30 a.m.today, Birk Irving\u2019s sister Svea will be one of a few Americans looking to take down a strong contingent from China. Canadians Cassie Sharpe and Rachel Karker should again challenge for podium spots.<\/p>\n

As for the superpipe itself, Copper Mountain Manager of Innovative Environments and Progression Noah Schwander said this year\u2019s 540-foot pipe will feature 40 additional feet of length and a more opened-up start zone.<\/p>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Freeskier Birk Irving, of Winter Park, executes a trick in mid-air at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix halfpipe competition on Wednesday, Dec. 5, at Copper Mountain Resort.Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com Skier Birk Irving of Winter Park poses for a photo Tuesday at Copper Mountain Resort.Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com COPPER MOUNTAIN RESORT \u2014 While training with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 12:24:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}