Tobias Huber

"Waist-deep powder snow in Ticino, winter camping in Disentis, sunset in the Laax snow park or steep descents around the Keschhütte. Long Season, Short Stories tells six short stories about what winter means for freeskiers. In addition to lots of skiing and snowboarding action, the film shows brief insights into the "everyday life" of the four main protagonists. The film was made out of passion for sport and art, without any commercial intentions. With over 80% Swiss music, snow and snow sports enthusiasts, the film is not quite "Swissmade", but certainly more local than Argentinian "Bündnerfleisch"."

It is with great anticipation that the organizing committee of the Freeride World Tour (FWT) has announced that the fourth stop of the 2015 tour will take place in Haines, Alaska (USA). Since the FWT was founded in 2008, it has been the goal of the organizers to hold an event in one of the birthplaces of big mountain freeriding. The March 14, 2015 stage (nine-day weather window from March 14-22) is set to make that dream a reality and likely a highlight of the FWT season. Like all FWT events, the action in Haines, Alaska, will be broadcast online via livestream and Central Europeans can look forward to a convenient broadcast time due to the ten-hour time difference.

The Open Faces focus on young talent: Two of the three FWT junior competitions taking place in Austria in 2015 will be held as part of the Open Faces Contests in Kappl (18.01.2015) and on the Hochkönig (08.02.2015).

After four successful competitions in Chile and Switzerland, the Skiers Cup returned to Zermatt in 2014. In the fifth edition of the intercontinental freeski duel, Team America is now led by Seth Morrison following the death of JP Auclair. The two teams are currently tied at 2:2. The fifth Swatch Skiers Cup will take place from February 21 to 27, 2015.

The 11th edition of the prestigious 3* Qualifier in Zell am See - Kaprun was particularly impressive due to the extremely high standard shown by the riders from 14 nations on the Lakarschneid Face. As in the previous season, the riders had to hold their own in spring-like conditions on the Lakarschneid. Tyrolean Flo Orley won the snowboarder category, Max Kroneck from Germany took his second FWQ victory, Norwegian Anja Gardli won the women's ski category and Frenchwoman Annouk Mouthon won the women's snowboard category.

After the last-minute postponement, the fourth stop of the FWT in Snowbird/Utah was held on the last day of the scheduled weather window. With blue skies and fresh snow, the riders found suitable conditions on the Silver Fox Face. Lars Chickering-Ayers (USA) won the skiers' competition, Jamie Rizzuto (CAN) won the snowboarders' competition. Lorraine Huber (AUT) and Elodie Mouthon (FRA) came out on top in the women's skiing and snowboarding categories.

The fourth stop of the Feeride World Tour 2014 in Snowbird/Utah started on Wednesday, March 5, 2014 at 10 a.m. North American local time (= MST, Mountain Standard Time). It started with the women's snowboard and ski races, with the men's race coming last.

For the first time, the Open Faces Axamer Lizum was held as a 3-star Freeride World Qualifier, and the performance density and starting field in the Lizum were accordingly high-caliber, as the face unfortunately only offered a few opportunities. For the first time in the history of the Open Faces series, the winners came from four different nations.

The Big Mountain Hochfügen 4* FWQ is now an established contest with a very strong field of riders on a slope that can easily compete with most of the FWT faces. This was one of the reasons why the podium places at the 2013 edition were mainly occupied by current FWT riders, above all Loic Collomb-Patton, who qualified for the World Tour with his victory and has been unstoppable ever since. While the conditions on the slopes were pretty good at times due to the difficult winter in the Northern Alps (PowderGuide tested them on site), the mild temperatures and foehn are currently putting quite a strain on the snowpack. Nevertheless, we hope for a successful competition from 08.02.2014 in safe conditions!

Due to the difficult snow conditions on the Wildseeloder in Fieberbrunn, the third stop of the FWT, also the 10th anniversary edition of the Big Mountain Fieberbrunn, took place this time in the Paznaun Valley on the Quellspitze in Kappl. Despite the last-minute relocation and the unfamiliar slope, the freeriders performed impressively in the sunshine and challenging snow conditions. The winners were Sam Smoothy (NZL) for the skiers, Sammy Luebke (USA) for the snowboarders, Nadine Wallner (AUT) for the skiers and Shannan Yates (USA) for the snowboarders.

After the successful premiere of the "Back On Track - Feel Free Ride Contest" at the end of the 2013 winter season, another edition of the top-class contest format will take place this year. True to the motto "Back on Track" - back to the roots of freeriding - powder-hungry freeriders from Voralberg and the surrounding area will meet up to ride together from April 4 - 6, 2014.

The Austrian Freeride Series kicks off its second season with the 1* Qualifier Open Faces Hochkönig on February 1st. At ten stops in four federal states, freeriders will be battling for no less than 9340 FW Qualifier points and the title of Austrian Freeride Champion over the coming months.