Bleiler ramps down halfpipe to explore 'new territory'

On the eve of the opening to the U.S. Halfpipe Grand Prix tour, Olympian Gretchen Bleiler announced a move as big as her signature crippler 720 and one that wlll turn heads from Aspen all the way down to Australia.

“... I've decided to eliminate most of the halfpipe competitions from my schedule this season,” she wrote in a blog on ESPN W yesterday. “... Competing in the halfpipe is what I know and love, and what I've been great at for the past 10 years, which is exactly why it's time to forge into this new territory.”

She kept the “new territory” she will explore vague.

“It's time to learn and time to grow. Seeing snowboarding differently, seeing the mountain differently, and riding with creativity and style -- that's my new goal,” she wrote. “And the steps I'll take to get there will be riding more than ever, pushing myself more than ever and learning more than ever. It kind of looks like it's time to bring it back to the way it all began for me, and I'm really excited.”

A four-time winner of the Winter X Games halfpipe competition and a silver medalist at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy, Bleiler has been a bedazzling pioneer of the sport in the decade she's been riding pro.

She wrote that she has accomplished “almost every single one” of her athletic goals. But then she noted (in parentheses) that “there is one result” that she has “not yet attained.” She didn't name it.

“That's another blog altogether!” she wrote (again, in parentheses).

Her blog — titled “Creativity Over Competition: A Year of Change” — is the first in what will be a series of them for the new women's sports site ESPN W. Presumably she will reveal the one accolade she is chasing in a future blog.

That is, if the press doesn't get it out of her first. The U.S. snowboarding team's 2010/2011 season debuts today in Copper Mountain. Bleiler is expected to face Kelly Clark and Torah Bright in the Grand Prix halfpipe.

“I'm a little uncomfortable, and a little scared, but that just means I'm on the right path … a path that might just lead me to that one last elusive achievement, too,” Bleiler wrote of her reasoning to cut out many of the other halfpipe competitions from her schedule this winter.

In calculating her decision, she explained she was at a similar crossroads in high school when she decided to forgo college and become a professional snowboarder instead of a student.

That worked out pretty well for her.

Will this?

River Name / Location	Stream flow, ft3/s	Gage height ft
Gore Creek
At Upper Station, Near I-70 Twin Bridges	n/a	4 ft
Booth Creek	n/a	4 ft
Abv Red Sandstone Creek At Vail	190	6 ft
At Mouth Near Minturn	223	7 ft
Beaver Creek
At Avon	21	2 ft
Lake Creek
Near Edwards	79	1 ft
Cross Creek
Near Minturn	100	4 ft
Homestake Creek
At Gold Park	127	5 ft
Eagle River
East Fork Eagle River Near Climax	n/a	2 ft
At Red Cliff	30	3 ft
Near Minturn	234	4 ft
Wastewater Treatment Plant At Avon	671	5 ft
Below Gypsum	826	5 ft
Colorado River
Near Kremmling	404	4 ft
Near Dotsero	1,630	3 ft
Below Glenwood Springs	3,140	5 ft
Near Cameo	3,740	6 ft
Below Grand Valley Div Nr Palisade	2,080	5 ft
Near Colorado-utah State Line	4,120	4 ft
Near Cisco, Ut	4,060	3 ft
At Lees Ferry, Az	12,100	9 ft
Near Grand Canyon, Az	12,200	9 ft
Yuma Main Canal Ww At Yuma, Az	987	10 ft
Roaring Fork River
Abv Lost Man Cr Near Aspen	n/a	n/a ft
Ab Difficult C Nr Aspen	53	1 ft
Near Aspen	78	1 ft
Near Emma	476	6 ft
At Glenwood Springs	1,160	3 ft
Hunter Creek
Near Aspen	56	2 ft
At Aspen	47	4 ft
Frying Pan River
Near Ruedi	113	2 ft
Crystal River
Abv Avalanche Crk, Near Redstone	540	2 ft
Arkansas River
Ef Arkansas R At Us Highway 24, Nr Leadville	47	3 ft
Near Leadville	86	5 ft
Below Empire Gulch Near Malta	156	3 ft
Below Granite	453	4 ft
Near Nathrop	451	4 ft
At Parkdale	464	3 ft