As has just been confirmed, the contest in Kicking Horse will take place today! There is no further information yet, only that the livestream will be available from around 16:30 Central European Time! The starting order is as follows:
Snowboard men
Snowboard women
Ski women
Ski men
The start list can be found below in the gallery.
The livestream can be found on the FWT website or here on Youtube:
The start of this year's Open Faces Contest series in Kappl was a success, with beautiful weather and good conditions at the Quellspitze. A total of 73 riders from 12 nations ventured onto the World Tour-tested face. Head judge and former Freeride World Tour rider Liz Kristoferitsch knows what it takes to take home the win in the face of such strong competition: "We generally look at the line the riders take and what they make of the terrain. You should simply see that they are having fun with the whole thing."
Three local heroes, among others, put this into practice best: Stefanie Noppinger, a former Austrian freeride champion, was at the top of the podium in the women's skiing category. She beat Valeria Apostolo from Italy, who came second, and Elena Mitrengova from Bulgaria in third place - even though she was competing in Kappl for the first time: "It's a great feeling to achieve such a great result right at the start of the season. After seeing Valeria's run, I didn't think that first place would be possible," said the happy winner. In the women's snowboarding category, Austria's Christine Innerhofer secured first place ahead of Bojana Chalakova from Bulgaria and Barbora Stevulova from Slovakia with an impressive run after finishing second last year.
There was an Austrian double victory in the men's snowboarding category: Matthias Zauner secured victory ahead of his compatriot Simon Holzknecht after a two-year absence from the contest. Third place went to Belgium's Lars Peirtsegaele.
In the men's skiing category, Germany's Tobias Wohlmannstetter stood at the top of the podium: "I didn't expect to win here today, especially as I've only skied the face once before. I just took it easy and rode without any pressure, maybe that was my secret," he explained. The two Austrians Martin Krautschneider and last year's winner Tao Kreibich took second and third place respectively.
The youngest riders on the scene were also able to put themselves to the test on the "Quellspitze" in a 2*FJT competition. Austrian Markus Krispler secured first place ahead of his compatriot Jeremy Graus. As in the previous year, German Luca Schwieder completed the podium in third place. The juniors' competition was also a more than successful dress rehearsal for the Freeride Junior World Championships, which will also be held in Kappl-Paznaun from March 21 to 23. The open faces events continue next weekend: Alpbach welcomes the freeride community to a 1*FWQ and a 2*FJT competition.
Men's ski podium: Martin Krautschneider, Tobias Wohlmannstetter, Tao Kreibich (from left)
Men's ski podium: Martin Krautschneider, Tobias Wohlmannstetter, Tao Kreibich (from left)
ℹ️PowderGuide.com is nonprofit-making, so we are glad about any support. If you like to improve our DeepL translation backend, feel free to write an email to the editors with your suggestions for better understandings. Thanks a lot in advance!
Show original (German) Show original (French)
