Photo by Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
When Tristan Feinberg made his first World Cup final this past winter at Buttermilk Ski Area, he finally had the proof he’d been chasing that showed he belonged.
The Roaring Fork Valley has a long, and very present, history of producing elite halfpipe skiers, and Aspen’s Feinberg has added his name to a list that already includes the likes of Alex Ferreira and Cassidy Jarrell.
“I just wanted to show Aspen who I was,” Feinberg said. “It was very validating for me. I’m not going to say I grew up in the shadow of Cassidy and Alex. They all deserve to be in the place that they are. It’s very special to me that I can perform in a field of people that I’ve been watching since I was 8 years old on TV.”
Hanna Faulhaber airs out of the halfpipe during the women’s freeski qualifications during the FIS World Championships at Buttermilk in Aspen on Wednesday, March 10, 2021. Faulhaber finished fifth and will compete in the finals on Friday. (Tamara Susa/Aspen Snowmass)
Fresh snowfall overnight made for a sticky superpipe in the morning, but it wasn’t enough to slow down Basalt’s Hanna Faulhaber in her world championship debut on Wednesday at Buttermilk Ski Area.
The 16-year-old was fifth in the women’s halfpipe skiing qualifier and will compete for the world title in Friday’s final.
“I feel amazing. It was pretty slow in the beginning, but that last run was super fast and I got to ski how I like to ski, going big. So it really felt good,” Faulhaber said. “It’s so nice to be able to compete at home, just sleeping in my own bed, being around all the people I love, having my family be able to be out here.”
Aspen’s Alex Ferreira airs out of the halfpipe during the men’s ski superpipe finals at the X Games Aspen on Friday, Jan. 29, 2021, at Buttermilk Ski Area. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
Back-to-back contests with a career’s worth of promise on the line have Aspen’s Alex Ferreira fired up. The halfpipe skier has managed to shine on the sport’s biggest stages in recent years and they don’t get much bigger than the world championships.
“It’s definitely going to be intense, but it always is intense. I’m an intense guy, so let’s do this thing,” Ferreira told The Aspen Times on Saturday. “I’m going to take it a little different this time. I’m just going one day at a time and I’m going to put as much positivity with each foot forward and just do my best.”