Aaron Blunck Leaves HEAD After 14 Years to Become Romp Skis' First Pro Athlete

For 14 years, Aaron Blunck skied the world's most daunting halfpipes on equipment built by HEAD, one of skiing's global powerhouses. Now, as he makes what may be his final Olympic run in Milan-Cortina, the three-time Olympian is doing it on skis handmade just blocks from where his grandfather founded the Crested Butte ski school decades ago.

Blunck is the first professional athlete to sign with Romp, making it a big opportunity for the local ski company to put themselves on the map — especially in the freestyle, park and pipe arenas. The partnership, announced late last year, represents a seismic shift for both athlete and brand — and a homecoming that runs far deeper than equipment.

"[With Romp] I'm no longer just an athlete, I'm also an employee," Blunck explained. "I feel like I have a say in the company, what direction we go in and what direction I feel the sport is going in. As a new dad, it's been really cool to have the opportunity to have a little bit more stability and security than just being an athlete."

That last detail — "as a new dad" — reshapes the entire narrative. Blunck recently welcomed his first child, a daughter, and the arrival has fundamentally altered his relationship with Crested Butte and what he wants his legacy to represent. "It made me think twice about the things I care about, and the things I'm doing," Blunck said candidly. "Living in Gunnison, I feel like I'm curating the life I want to show my daughter."

Founded in 2010, Romp Skis has spent the past decade and a half carving out a niche as a boutique manufacturer of custom-built skis in the heart of Colorado's ski country. Beginning in the 2025/26 winter season, Aaron joins the Romp Skis athlete team to collaborate on innovative ski design, including a new halfpipe ski built and tested with Romp's craftsmen in Crested Butte.

The company was purchased just over a year ago by Chase Gardaphe, a friend of Blunck's and fellow local. Together, they're positioning Romp to move into the high-performance freestyle arena — a bold ambition for a small-batch manufacturer competing against multinational conglomerates with unlimited R&D budgets.

"Aaron isn't just one of the best skiers in the world — he's also a true Crested Butte local who understands what it means to live and breathe skiing," said Romp Skis Production Manager Eligh Purvis.

To understand why this partnership matters, you need to understand Blunck's connection to the Gunnison Valley. Blunck's grandfather immigrated to Crested Butte from Switzerland and founded the Crested Butte ski school. Both his grandfather and mother were ski instructors and Blunck grew up in the town and on the mountain of Crested Butte. He started skiing at 18 months old and was competing by age eight.

"[Romp] does feel like family, not just a corporate business that I'm skiing for," Blunck said. "Community is everything to me and I feel so grateful that Crested Butte and Gunnison have always kind of been a tight knit community. I always say they helped raise me in a sense."

Despite rising to become one of the most decorated American halfpipe skiers in history — two-time world champion, four X Games medals, three Olympic appearances — Blunck has never strayed far from his hometown. He still lives there. He bought a home there. And now, he's professionally tied to a company based there.

The timing of the newfound partnership is one filled with potential as it aligns with Blunck's final Olympic run for the 2026 Milan-Cortina winter Olympics happening in February. At 29 years old, Blunck is embarking on what he's indicated will be his last Olympic campaign, having placed seventh at all three of his previous Games — Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018, and Beijing 2022.

The consistency of that seventh-place finish is both a testament to his reliability and a source of frustration — each time tantalizingly close to the podium, yet never quite reaching it. Whether Romp's custom-built halfpipe skis can help him break through remains to be seen, but the narrative appeal is undeniable: hometown kid, on hometown skis, making one final run at Olympic glory.

Blunck is producing a documentary about his relationship with his hometown, his push for the 2026 Winter Olympics, and his partnership with Romp Skis, with the feature film set to premiere in fall 2026.The film will chronicle not just his athletic pursuits but the broader story of what Crested Butte represents — authenticity, community, and a way of life increasingly rare in the commercialized world of professional skiing.

For Romp Skis, landing a three-time Olympian as their inaugural professional athlete is a statement of intent. For Blunck, it's a statement of values — choosing roots over reach, community over corporate, and building something meaningful in the place that made him who he is.