It’s the most wonderful time of year! X Games Aspen is back at Buttermilk Ski Area for the 23rd consecutive year.
Ski and snowboard will be the featured sports at X Games Aspen 2024, and 16 total disciplines will be contested. There will be men’s and women’s divisions in both ski and snowboard for slopestyle, big air, superpipe, and knuckle huck.
In December, it was announced that the X Games concerts, which featured stars such as Yung Gravy, Kaskade, and MOD SUN in past years, will be discontinued. Additionally, paid viewing has been added to the Games. For more information on tickets, go to the X Games Ticket Info page.
If you can’t make it to Buttermilk or prefer to watch from the comfort of your home, the X Games will be available to watch on XGames.com, YouTube, Twitch, and ESPN and ABC.
To read the Aspen Times coverage, check the schedule, browse the photo gallery, or meet the local athletes, keep scrolling!
FRIDAY, JAN. 26
1:30 p.m. – Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle
5:30 p.m. – Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe
7:30 p.m. – Thayers Men’s Snowboard Knuckle Huck
8:30 p.m. – Pacifico Men’s Ski Big Air
9:30 p.m. – Monster Energy Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe
SATURDAY, JAN. 27
10:30 a.m. – Men’s Ski Slopestyle
12:30 p.m. – Thayers Women’s Snowboard Knuckle Huck
1:30 p.m. – Thayers Women’s Ski Knuckle Huck
2:15 p.m. – OKX Snowboard Street Style
5:00 p.m. – Women’s Ski SuperPipe
6:30 p.m. – Pacifico Women’s Ski Big Air
8:00 p.m. – Pacifico Men’s Snowboard Big Air
9:00 p.m. – Thayers Men’s Ski Knuckle Huck
SUNDAY, JAN. 28
11:00 a.m. – Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle
12:45 p.m. – Women’s Ski Slopestyle
5:00 p.m. – Men’s Ski Slopestyle
6:30 p.m. – Pacifico Women’s Snowboard Big Air
SLOPESTYLE
Slopestyle is based on terrain parks that are found at many winter resorts. X Games slopestyle courses usually are comprised of between 6 and 8 feature sections broken down into 3-4 “jibs” (sometimes known as a rail garden) and 3-4 jumps. Jibs are rails, boxes, cannons, and other artificial obstacles designed to slide and trick onto/out of.
X Games jumps are huge, usually covering 55 to 70 feet in distance from takeoff to knuckle, which means athletes sometimes travel around 90 feet from takeoff to a jump’s landing’s sweet spot.
BIG AIR
The X Games big air course is a single jump that lives up to its name — the booter is always one of the largest jumps athletes will face all season.
At X Games Aspen 2023, competitors began on a scaffold drop-in ramp 50 feet above the snowpack. The drop-in was followed by a long run-in to a 24-foot-wide jump. The takeoff launched them 70 feet to the 60-foot-wide landing’s knuckle, or more than 80 feet to the landing’s sweetspot.
Depending on the year, X Games big air competitors take 4-6 attempts, with their best two jumps comprising their total score. Each trick/jump is judged on a 0-50 scale, so an athlete’s best possible big air score is 100.
SUPERPIPE
Known as half pipe at the first three X Games events, the discipline’s name was changed to superpipe for X Games Mount Snow 2000 to reflect its super growth.
Sometimes called the U-ditch or frozen taco, superpipe is a long, U-shaped course with steep walls and tightly compacted snow — competition pipes are rock hard to allow competitors better launch and more consistent takeoffs and landings.
The X Games Aspen 2023 superpipe was 590 feet long, 70 feet wide and had an 18-degree pitch. While the length and width can change a little from year to year, a pipe isn’t super unless its walls are 22 feet high.
Athletes traverse back and forth across the pipe, throwing tricks above the pipe’s “deck.” Competitors can soar more than 20 feet above the deck, or around 45 feet above the pipe’s flatbottom. That’s more than 4 stories high! Depending on the angle of their approach and the distance traveled down the pipe with each trick, superpipe competitors usually log between 4-6 tricks in a full run.
KNUCKLE HUCK
Slopestyle, big air and superpipe/halfpipe all were part of the first X Games winter event in 1997. Knuckle huck is the new kid on the block — snowboard knuckle huck was added for X Games Aspen 2020. Ski knuckle huck joined in 2021. Women’s classes will be part of the discipline for the first time at Aspen 2024.
A “knuckle” is the knoll at the top of a transition; it’s the spot where one angled (or even relatively flat) surface meets a suddenly much steeper decline. Skiers and snowboarders “pop” off the knuckle and land down the transition. Think of it as a mellower way to get airborne than an intimidating jump. Every snowsports resort is filled with knuckles, and it’s often where you’ll see adventurous sliders hucking themselves. Thus, knuckle huck.
X Games knuckle huck is where personal expression meets skill. Athletes unveil unique, creative tricks; it’s not just about who spins the most (although that can help, too).
Definitions are from XGames.com.
Basalt’s Hanna Faulhaber is a rising superstar in halfpipe skiing. She won X Games bronze as a rookie in 2022, and made her Olympic debut in 2022, finishing sixth in Beijing as the top American. Faulhaber also is the reigning world champion, having won in March 2023 in the country of Georgia. Faulhaber will miss this month’s X Games competition after sustaining a season-ending knee injury while training.
Aspen’s own Alex Ferreira is a two-time X Games champion in halfpipe skiing, taking home gold in both 2019 and 2020 to become one of the world’s foremost stars in the sport. He’s also a two-time Olympic medalist, winning silver in 2018 (Pyeongchang) and bronze in 2022 (Beijing).
