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Faulhaber, Ferreira both advance into halfpipe ski finals at Winter Dew Tour

Basalt’s Hanna Faulhaber competes in the women’s halfpipe skiing qualifier for Dew Tour on Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2021, at Copper Mountain. Photo courtesy of Dew Tour.

Aspen’s Alex Ferreira and Basalt’s Hanna Faulhaber each continue to perform like 2022 Olympians, with both advancing through to Saturday’s Dew Tour finals in halfpipe skiing.

During Wednesday’s qualifier at Copper Mountain, each did enough to find themselves among the final competitors in what is the third of four U.S. Olympic team qualifiers in halfpipe.

The 17-year-old Faulhaber, who is hoping to compete in her first Winter Games come February, finished fifth among 16 women on Wednesday, and was first among the Americans. She’s become a consistent presence in event finals and looks more and more like an Olympic lock as contests go by.



China’s Eileen Gu was the top qualifier, scoring 93.50 on her first run before deciding to not even drop in for the second. Estonia’s Kelly Sildaru was second with 88.75 and Great Britain’s Zoe Atkin was third with 87. In fourth was China’s Fanghui Li (85.75), followed by Faulhaber (84.75), Canada’s Cassie Sharpe (83.25), California’s Brita Sigourney (81) and China’s Kexin Zhang (77.50).

Vermont’s Devin Logan was the first athlete to not qualify, taking ninth with 76. Winter Park’s Svea Irving was another spot back in 10th place (74.50).




Ferreira, the 27-year-old reigning Olympic silver medalist, was seventh in Wednesday’s qualifying, scoring 85.50 on his first of two runs. Ferreira is fresh off winning last week’s Copper Mountain Grand Prix and entered Dew Tour as a virtual Olympic team lock. He’s a two-time Dew Tour champion.

Two-time reigning Olympic gold medalist David Wise of Nevada was first in qualifying with 93.50, followed in second by Canada’s Noah Bowman (91.50) and in third by New Zealand’s Nico Porteous (91). In fourth was Canada’s Brendan MacKay (90.75), in fifth Boulder’s Lyman Currier (88.75) and in sixth Crested Butte’s Aaron Blunck (86.75).

Nevada’s David Wise competes in the men’s halfpipe skiing qualifier for Dew Tour on Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2021, at Copper Mountain. Photo courtesy of Jamie Walter/Dew Tour.

Rounding out the finals qualifiers are Canada’s Simon D’Artois (85), Oregon’s Hunter Hess (80.50) and Winter Park’s Birk Irving (79).

Aspen’s Cassidy Jarrell finished 23rd, last among the starters, with 27.75, while Aspen’s Tristan Feinberg was a late scratch after getting hurt in practice on Tuesday.

The women’s ski superpipe final at Dew Tour is scheduled for 12:50 p.m. Saturday, while the men’s ski superpipe final will follow at 2:10 p.m.

Because of the winter storm that brought strong winds to the state, Wednesday’s men’s and women’s snowboard slopestyle qualifiers were both postponed.

acolbert@aspentimes.com