ASPEN — In the same superpipe where Sarah Burke pioneered her sport, a gathering of the world’s best skiers and snowboarders honored the fallen skier with a somber descent in lightly falling snow late Thursday.
The same corral where Burke celebrated four gold medals was a somber scene in the dark as the lights were turned off during a torchlight parade down the superpipe. The same friends who once tackled their queen in celebration of her prowess clung in long embraces, their pain still raw. Burke, a Canadian freeskiing icon with a captivating smile, died last week in a Utah hospital after tumbling in a halfpipe while training on Jan. 10.
Tears streamed down snow-flaked cheeks in the moving celebration of an inspired and inspiring life. Her parents and husband, pro skier Rory Bushfield, joined the shell-shocked tribe.
“She’s bringing the pow tonight. She’s making it fresh for all of us,” said Mike Tierney, an Aspen Highlands ski patroller who gathered at the pipe with his son to honor Burke.
After a moving montage video and stirring words by X Games announcer Sal Masekela — “If you met Sarah Burke once, you had a friend for life. She was a superstar with the humility of a rookie” — the entourage of the world’s best snowriders began a slow descent of the superpipe.
Glowing torches held aloft, the silent crawl down the pipe stirred memories of Burke’s monumental successes in the X Games. Four gold medals in the superpipe. The first woman to ever spin a 720 in competition. The first 900. The first 1080. Unassailable recognition as the best female freeskier ever.
“I’m just doing something I really love to do,” she said at the end of the video tribute, her voice filling the quiet venue.
“It was definitely nice to see all the support that’s here at X Games,” X Games veteran Shaun White said in an earlier interview. “Everybody’s not turning it into a downer, and more celebrating her and all her success and her life choices.”
One of those choices — arguably one of Burke’s most lasting and influential — was donating all her organs.
“She’s a hero. A true hero,” said Chris Klug, who 11 years ago received a liver from a donor and went on to win an Olympic medal in snowboarding.
On Thursday night, Klug wrapped his parka over his dozing, 9-month-old daughter and remembered Burke for her ultimate gift.
“Being on the other side of that decision, it’s pretty powerful,” he said, flitting snow from the brow of his sleeping daughter. “Look at her. She’s here today because someone made the same decision.”
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com
