Tobias Huber

The first two stops of the FWT have already been completed and although the snow conditions were difficult, the action was impressive. In Andorra, the race was held on the Pic Des Les Planes, in the same face as the 2022 stop. This terrain offers many options for line choice, starting with a steep and technical section and then offering countless small to medium-sized obstacles, mostly characterized by flat landings.

The FWT season starts next weekend. As many have already noticed, the Freeride World Tour has been swallowed up by the FIS. Little will change in the upcoming season, at least for spectators. What this step means for the medium-term future of contest freeriding is still up in the air.

A little insight into the ContestHappening of 2022 will also be provided this year on PowderGuide. The first part of the Freeride World Tour is already over. In a few weeks, you can look forward to an exciting finale including a new format.

The Freeride World Tour kicked off the 2021 season with two contests. In Ordino-Arcalis (Andorra), the two competitions were held a few days apart on the same face. Although the snow conditions and the length of the face did not give rise to any great expectations, the riders delivered an exciting event that was good to watch.

As expected, there was little news presented at this year's online ISPO and at individual product presentations by manufacturers. Many retailers still have stock from 2020, which is why some model ranges are carry-overs for the coming season. This mainly affects the downhill-oriented models.

At a press conference via Zoom yesterday, the planned path of the FWT 2021 for the challenging Covid19 season was presented. There are hopes of being able to hold at least three events - five in the best-case scenario. The countries of Andorra, Switzerland and Austria have agreed to regard the FWT as a professional/elite sport and thus enable it to be held even during a potentially extended lockdown.

The currently unclear situation and the question of how the pandemic will develop in the coming weeks and months also poses major challenges for the organization of freeride contests. Will there be a shortened tour for the elite? Will qualifier events be held and how will they be scored? Answers to these and other questions still need to be found.

The LINE 30 from Evoc is a sports backpack focussing on skiing and snowboarding without an airbag system. With 30 litres of storage space, the lightweight backpack is ideal for almost all one-day mountain adventures.

The final of the FWT in Verbier was of course already canceled 2 weeks ago. The 25th anniversary of the Verbier Xtreme was actually scheduled for these days. The results of the FWT and FWQ were frozen and the current leaders were declared the overall winners. This article summarizes this ranking including the newly qualified from the FWQs.

The conditions at the tenth anniversary of the FWT stop in Fieberbrunn could not have been better: With fresh new snow and the best weather, Marion Haerty (FRA), Arianna Tricomi (ITA), Nils Mindnich (USA) and Craig Murray (NZL) won the fourth and penultimate FWT stage of 2020. Gigi Rüf (AUT) came second in the snowboarder category and Tao Kreibich (AUT) secured a strong fifth place in the skier category.

Third tour stop of the FWT 2020: Hedvig Wessel (NOR), Michaela Davis-Meehan (AUS) and Léo Slemett (FRA) are the winners of the Freeride World Tour (FWT) 2020 in Ordino Arcalís, Andorra.

With the Sanction jacket and Turret trousers, the well-known ski clothing company from Boulder, Colorado, is offering a high-end freeride outfit that is designed to meet the standards of today's hardshell ski outfits. In addition to the Solitaire GTX Pro Shell for women, we have also tested this outfit for men for you this season.