Mike Ladd / Special to The Daily
In his fourth time competing in the Aspen Snowmass Freeskiing Open, Silverthorne resident Dylan Ladd won the halfpipe competition at Saturday’s competition on the X Games halfpipe at Buttermilk Ski Area in Aspen for the first time.
Ladd did so just days after flying back to Colorado from taking part in the qualifying round at the Snow Rodeo in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. To win the Aspen Snowmass Freeskiing Open halfpipe competition, the 18-year-old laced a five-hit run through the pipe on his first of two runs through the course where he dropped in on skier’s left wall.
From there, Ladd landed a twice-inverted double-cork 900-degree rotation toward his leftside, a rightside double-cork 900 with a blunt grab, a leftside 1080 the other way with another blunt grab, a stylish switch (backward) rodeo 720 with a Japan grab and a leftside 900 with a stalefish grab to complete his run.
Ladd earned an 89.40 with that run to win the competition, as he was joined on the podium by Tristan Feinberg of Aspen and Jon Sallinen of Finland. Ladd’s younger brother Connor, 16, finished in fourth place with a second run score of 81.40.
“It was cool,” the U.S. Freeski Halfpipe team rookie Dylan Ladd said of the win. “I definitely had a lot of travel and planning to get here. It’s great to be able to come back and still compete.”
On Sunday the Ladd brothers will fly back to Calgary for a North American Cup halfpipe competition.