2* FWQ Artesina Freeride Festival | Report

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Freeriding in Piemonte

Amazing Snowfalls in the Piemonte in Italy, with about 1,5 -2 meters of "Freshies" within only 4 days (!) made the competition, just about 12 hrs after the last snowflakes came down, with stunning blue skys absolutely "perfecto"!!! The Artesina Freeride Festival 2015 went down on Sunday, February 8th and it was a blast for our rider-reporter Nico Göz. Nico decided to write the report in English so that the organizers and the other riders could understand a bit of it.

Conditions Base

Well, the "Artesina" Ski and Freeride Resort in the Piemont mountain area of Italy, already close to the Mediterranean Sea, received its first big snowfalls early in the season. The benefits of a good early season start base of snow, mainly from octobre and novembre 2014 were disappearing with warm temperatures in the South Western Alps, while other parts of the European mountains profited and the snowbase got bigger. The competition had to be canceled in January and until Tuesday, February 3rd, there was a snowbase in Artesina of only 10 to 20 cm snow. Then it started dumping! My arrival on Friday night was already totally whiteout with a metre of fresh snow and the scenery and terrain reminded me a lot to Japan, of what I know from Freeride movies.

By the way, the Piemont is one of the least densely populated mountain regions in the European Alps, so you have plenty of space and really beautiful mountains. But, of course, respect nature and keep the mountain clean!

Now let's have a look at some pictures of the competition face by the organizers:The moning before the contest:

The Competition Day

The contest took place on sunday, 2/8/15. Blessed by impressive snowfalls of generous mountain gods, the date couldn't have been more perfect. While I was riding chest deep Pow on saturday, the snowfall set down real quick and the snow didn't feel that deep anymore during my contest run. It was a "Bluebird" day and the contestspot, East facing, was exposed to the sun. By the time I was riding it felt a bit like spring time conditions and the temperatures were quite a bit over 0° Celsius..

With my Bib No. 88 I had a lot of time to explore the resort and watch the competition face. It has really been one of the best days of my 2015 season, so far! As a rider with a late start number I didn't have so much time to see other riders during their runs, but I think, everybody who was there and I talked to enjoyed riding a lot!

Conclusion

The organizers did a great job with their 4th competition and the 2nd one for the "Freeride World Qualifier" Series. The people around and the contest riders were absolutely "stoked" about the good atmosphere. It was definitly that type of competition with the necessary Rock'n Roll and Reggae Vibes we Freeriders (and PowderGuides) really like! ;)

Outlook

Artesina with a view, on a really clear day (from uphill) to the Mediterranean sea, receives a lot of snow from every Adriatic deep pressure system. In Surfer language: When there's waves in the Adriatic sea in wintertime, it's normally really puking (down snow the sky) in the Piemont Alps. "Pow-Pow" is the result and the amounts are "Japow" style! Artesina is a great base to check out and discover the Piemonte, especially on one of these days!

It was a big pleasure to have been at the "Artesina Freeride Festival" 2015! I'm also happy with my 6th position, even with a "Tomahawk" at the very beginning of my run. I wish you lots of good Freeride contests with deep Pow. See you soon Artesina!

Cheers, Nikolai Göz

More photos of the Action, general informations and sources of the pictures can be found on the following pages. All the photos were taken from the Facebook page of the event and most of the Photo Credits go to: Marco Dalmasso. Mille Grazie!