Tobias Huber

A week ago, two FWT stops took place in Kicking Horse (CA). At some qualifiers there were a few organizational uncertainties and disappointed potential participants over the weekend. Here is a short summary of the FWT and more details about the qualifiers in Hochfügen, at Hochfelln and the FWQ and FJT events in Alpbach.

The first stop of the FWT is coming up and will be livestreamed this afternoon (CET)! In addition, the first FWQ in German-speaking countries took place in Kappl (AT) this weekend!

Somehow it's strange: after years, there's enough snow here in the German-speaking Alpine region to be able to hold freeride contests properly, but there are no contests taking place at the moment. Based on experience from previous winters, the dates have probably been placed a little later in the season to be on the safer side.

The FWT hopes to be able to hold the first tour stop in Japan as early as tomorrow or tonight! The 2* FWQ in Kappl, AT, was canceled last weekend due to the heavy snowfall.

ContestHappening is entering its second round and for the first time, it's back in the new guise of PowderGuide 3.0! It's about time: In a few days the first tour stop of the Freeride World Tour (FWT) will take place, and the first qualifier (FWQ) events have already been held last week. We also present the PowderGuide event calendar, which can be filled by users!

With the Catamaran, K2 is introducing another asymmetric backcountry ski alongside the Marksman, which was released last season. The ski with a 120mm waist width replaces the Shreditor 120 (Pettitor) in the playful powder ski category. As with the Marksman, freeski legend Pep Fujas was in charge of the development. Find out what the completely new development has to offer and how it compares to its predecessors and competitor models in this test.

With the last ContestHappening for the 2016/17 season, we take another brief look at the FWT Final in Verbier and the winners of the overall FWT ranking, and take a look at who has won the qualifier categories and qualified for next year's tour. Finally, it's all about the Open Faces final event in Gastein! I'd like to thank the readers, am open to criticism and would like nothing more than snowier winters and safer conditions at the competitions in the future. Then reporting would be more fun than constantly writing about difficulties and bad snow conditions...

The season is also drawing to a close for the contests: the penultimate contest in the Alps was held on the Kitzsteinhorn in very spring-like conditions (followed by the 2* FWQ in Gastein next weekend). The Freeride World Tour has just confirmed that the final on the Bec des Rosses will take place tomorrow, Monday, April 3, 2017.

Contrary to the trend in recent years towards rather mediocre contest conditions at all events, the Freeride World Tour in Haines was lucky once again: blower powder on a beautiful face provided the basis for a contest worth seeing. Only an avalanche on Reine Barkered's run marred the impression a little. Sammy Luebke (USA) and Shannan Yates (USA) won the snowboarder category, while Loïc Collomb-Patton (FRA) and Arianna Tricomi (ITA) won the skier category.

There were no contests in the German-speaking Alpine region last week. The World Tour is waiting for the start in Alaska and Obergurgl is coming up for the qualifiers.

The FWT calls the event in Fieberbrunn 'Crunch Time' and that's exactly what it was. Contests in Nendaz and Axamer Lizum had to be canceled due to the high risk of avalanches. Read all about the latest ContestHappenings here:

The stop of the Freeride World Tour 2017 in Fieberbrunn will take place on Wednesday, March 8, 2017. We can only hope that it has snowed a little in the last few days and that the not-so-safe weather plays along. And of course that the avalanche conditions will allow us to hold a contest worth seeing this time.