The 3* FWQ on Corvatsch took place on February 7th in perfect snow and freeride conditions in the Engadine in beautiful sunshine. The 100 freeriders from 19 nations offered the spectators a spectacle in a class of its own: the winners of the World Tour Qualifier are Juan Bergada from Argentina in the ski category and Anna Khankevich from Russia in the women's category. In the men's snowboard category, the winner is Alexandre Alfano from France, who impressed the judges with his fluid run. Anna Orlova completed the Russian double victory in the women's snowboard category. PowderGuide rider reporter Nico Göz was on site and gives us his impressions...
Participating in this year's Engadinsnow Contest from February 5-9, 2014 was certainly an absolute highlight for many riders this year - not least because of the perfect snow conditions. Due to the somewhat difficult weather conditions, the originally planned program had to be changed somewhat and the final on the Corvatsch Northface could not take place separately for the FWQ riders (instead, a separate contest was held on the Corvatsch Northface on Saturday and Sunday, in which only invited riders and some participants who achieved podium finishes at the 3* FWQ were allowed to take part). For a good placing on the very beautiful Forkla Face, you had to put all your eggs in one basket on one run: Difficulty and fluidity of the line with the best control as well as air &style.
Initial situation
If some readers from the northern Alpine regions are wondering where all the snow is this year, a look at the Engadin or other southern Alpine regions will tell you. At the first Riders Meeting on 5.2.2014, we learned that there had been just 7 days of sunshine since Christmas and otherwise mainly snowfall, meaning that the snow depths of over 2 meters down to the valley are extremely above average for this time of year. No one had ever seen such snow-covered roofs and the snow quality was super "fluffy" (dry and light), making it very nice to ride. But see for yourself:
The action
Just looking at the face makes you realize how many different cool and stylish lines are possible. Due to the great snow conditions, some lines were also skiable that would probably not be an option in many average snow years. For example, the winning line by Argentinian skier Juan Bergada was absolutely breathtaking: from a spectator's perspective, he skied a terrifyingly spectacular line with several thick cliff drops in the lower right-hand section of the face, covering around 40-50 vertical meters in flight with several very short touchdowns in between (perhaps a "quadruple", similar to a double or triple). There was also a big surprise for the snowboarders with the French double lead of Alexandre Alfano (1st) and Sebastien Jam (2nd) ahead of Dutchman Irian van Helfteren. All 3 riders chose lines that were quite difficult with long jumps and a very high speed. The Olympic host nation Russia was also able to impress with two first places in the women's event (Anna Orlova, snowboard and Anna Khankevich, ski) and a 2nd place for Ivan Malakhov in the skiers' event. The very good promotion of the Russian pro freeriders thus seems to be paying off. From a German perspective, it was pleasing that snowboarder Petra Schwarz was able to secure 2nd place ahead of Austrian Daniela Hochmuth. Among the female skiers, the Italian Arianna Tricomi achieved 2nd place ahead of the Norwegian Anja Gardli with a flowing run with several jumps and a clean 360. The standard at this wonderful contest was at a very high level, which was partly due to the excellent snow conditions and partly due to the line-up of riders, some of whom were Freeride World Tour riders. Once again this year, all kinds of tricks such as spins, grabs and flips were unpacked. In addition, there were the aforementioned runs, which were great to watch due to a very exposed line, extremely high or wide cliff drops or high speed, but which could also lead to a feeling of heaviness.
Conclusion
A really great freeride contest in the southern Engadine impressed with the difficulty and beauty of the contest faces and the freeride spots in the surrounding mountains. This year in particular, a visit to the rustic, snow-covered vacation region, where Rhaeto-Romanic is still spoken in places, is really worth a visit. We definitely enjoyed it a lot and are already looking forward to next year and perhaps a spontaneous short trip or two to go freeriding! The contest went quite well for me too and I had a lot of fun riding the Forkla! I'm pretty happy with my result, 8th place, so I don't want to withhold my run from you from a helmet camera perspective. Links to the contest with more pictures and videoshttp://www.engadinsnow.comhttps://www.facebook.com/ENGADINSNOWMy 8th place contest run from a helmet camera perspective
Down under tons of powder! Niko
