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ContestHappening 01/2020 | Start of the season

The FWT is in the starting blocks and the first FWQs have already taken place

by Tobias Huber 01/14/2020
Here we go again! The Freeride World Tour 2020 starts next weekend in Hakuba, Japan. The qualifier season has already started, after a few contests in France and French-speaking Switzerland, the German-speaking countries have now also kicked off the season with the 3*FWQ/2*FJT in Kappl.

The first ContestHappening of the 2020 season is dedicated to this event in the Paznaun Valley, followed by information on the final field of riders for the FWT 2020, which will hopefully be competing in Japan.

FWQ/FJT Kappl

Like every season, the Open Faces stop in Kappl in the Paznaun Valley in Tyrol is the start of the season for the Freeride World Qualifier (FWQ) and Freeride Junior Tour (FJT) in German-speaking countries. Anyone familiar with the area and the contest slope will know that it faces south-east. The slope at the Quellspitze can therefore be covered in powder snow at this time of year, as the sun is not yet so strong. Or, if it hasn't snowed for a while, it can be covered in old snow. Depending on the weather and temperatures, this old snow can either turn to snow, which is almost certain to happen in the second half of winter when the sun is shining. But it can also only partially and very slowly firn up, as is the case with the current weather conditions and time of year. This year, the riders were more likely to encounter the latter situation. The organizers tried to run the contest as quickly as possible in order to offer similar conditions to all participants. Many snowboarders had problems traversing over frozen avalanche deposits, many good lines were affected by "snowing" in the cover or unexpected snow conditions.

The winning line of Spaniard Edur Gorospe in the men's ski category gives a good impression of the conditions and the level of the contest. All result lists can be found here and here for the juniors, the re-livestream of the event can also be found there.

FWT 2020

FWT will now kick off the season in the land of deep powder, Japan, for the third time in a row. Once before, the contest had to be held at one of the other venues due to a lack of a good weather window. Things are not looking good for this year at the moment. Locals are reporting the worst winter in Japan "ever". The problem with the extremely low snow conditions is the bushes, which are not sufficiently covered in snow. This is extremely limiting in terms of face selection. There are currently three potential faces to choose from. The participants are currently traveling, the contest is scheduled for next weekend, with an additional time window of one week. The snow conditions in Japan can change significantly from one day to the next due to the very intense snowfall there. We are therefore hoping for snow to fall soon before the contest. Or again, for example, a double tour stop at the other destinations.

The rider field

There have been some changes to the rider field again this year. Especially in the last few weeks, a few more injuries, withdrawals and wildcards have been added. In the picture you can see the (almost) current field, in the following text the situation for the four categories is discussed.

Women's skiing

Arianna Tricomi (ITA), double winner from previous years, already knows her only goal for this season, while the rest of the women's skiers are trying to prevent her hat-trick. The qualified racers are joined by the injury wildcard Rachel Croft (USA) and Maude Besse, who retired due to injury after the second stop in Canada last year.

Men's skiing

Markus Eder, the winner of the 2019 Tour, will not be competing again this year. Instead, the South Tyrolean is devoting himself to a two-year film project produced by the Legs of Steel. New to the tour this year are Carl Rencall (CH), Blake Marshall (NZL), Tao Kreibich (AUT), the brothers Jack and Kevin Nichols (USA) and Isaac Freeland (USA). Yu Sasaki (JPN) and Reine Barkered (SWE) have also received a wildcard. Injury wildcards are available this year for Ivan Malakhov (RUS), whose knee will still not be 100% fit. Yann Rausis (CH) and Konstantin Ottner (GER) will start after their knee injuries and Hank Bilous (NZL) is also fit to compete. In addition, Tanner Hall (USA), who officially qualified for Verbier and thus this season, but did not compete in Verbier, will be back and will probably try to do a double backflip somewhere. Another popularity wildcard goes to film freeskier Tim Durtschi (USA), who should be familiar to some from various film productions by PoorBoyz, TGR or Rage Films.

Women's snowboard

Marion Haerty (FRA) will try to build on her Tour victory from 2020. Unfortunately, the Austrian and 2017 Tour winner Manuela Mandl had to cancel her participation in the Tour at short notice due to an injury to her Achilles tendon. The second-placed female snowboarder in Region 1 (Europe) will take her place with a wildcard: Núria Castan from Spain.

Snowboard Men

Victor De Le Rue (FRA) will attempt to defend his title from last year against the actual perennial winner, Sammy Luebke (USA). The announcement of a wild card for Elias Elhardt a few days ago leads to the assumption that Gigi Rüf may not be competing in Japan, perhaps not even for the whole season. Perhaps the family man Rüf, who is also currently filming a two-year project together with John Jackson with the Pirates, has backed out at short notice due to the conditions in Japan or has kept his participation in the 2020 tour open until the last minute.

As always, every contest will be streamed live. Commentator Neil Williman (NZL) is also on his way to Japan, which makes for interesting commentary! I too am already looking forward to an exciting contest season and good entertainment with hopefully technically flawless livestream experiences!

This article has been automatically translated by DeepL with subsequent editing. If you notice any spelling or grammatical errors or if the translation has lost its meaning, please write an e-mail to the editors.

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