X Marks the Spot

Breckenridge’s Keri Herman is a favorite to win the women’s slopestyle event this weekend, when the Winter X Games return to Aspen’s Buttermilk Mountain for the eleventh consecutive year. A current leader on the FIS World Cup Freeskiing circuit, Herman is also likely to be a top candidate to represent...

By Colin Bane

January 24, 2013

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Breckenridge’s Keri Herman is a favorite to win the women’s slopestyle event this weekend, when the Winter X Games return to Aspen’s Buttermilk Mountain for the eleventh consecutive year. A current leader on the FIS World Cup Freeskiing circuit, Herman is also likely to be a top candidate to represent Team USA when her sport makes its Olympic debut in Russia in 2014. But Herman says she can only deal with all that pressure by not dealing with it at all.

“I really just try to come out here to focus and stay me, be me, and just have as much fun as I can,” she said, after winning the U.S. Grand Prix, an FIS World Cup event, earlier this month at Copper Mountain. “The bottom line is it’s about having fun and having a good time, because win or lose, if you’re not having fun, then what is it? You’ve got to have a good time.”

Speaking of having a good time, all of the Winter X Games festivities are free, and the weekend should be a hell of a party, with attendance expected to top over 115,000 winter-sports fans. “Even if I weren’t competing, I wouldn’t miss it,” says Herman. Elimination rounds get under way at 10:30 a.m. today, with ski, snowboard and snowmobile events continuing through Sunday. You can catch Herman in the women’s slopestyle final at 1:30 p.m. that day.

For a full competition schedule and more information, visit xgames.com.
Jan. 24-27, 2013

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