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ContestHappening 1 2016/17 | Intro to the season

From now on a little different than before

by Tobias Huber • 11/13/2016
This season, PowderGuide has a new "ContestHappening" section. Over the past few years, we have already reported intensively on the various Freeride World Tour competitions, their qualifier and junior events, as well as the ever decreasing number of independent events. We want to continue to do this, just in a different form: Instead of selective reporting, we will provide an overview of the latest happenings in competition-oriented freeriding in a regular, weekly column in mid-winter. Our rider reporters will also continue to provide a direct insight into individual contests.

Freeride competitions have grown in popularity since we started reporting on them and especially in the last 4-5 years, have sprouted up in many places and are now held in most regions of the Alps, the Pyrenees, Scandinavia, North and South America, as well as in New Zealand with a standardized judging and scoring system. Before the days of Open Faces and the like, qualifier events in the Alps could be counted on one hand, but now there are national qualifier series in Austria and France, in Spain and on the US East Coast. Four and three competitions were also held in South America and New Zealand in summer 2016. (Report FWQ summer in New Zealand, Report from spring in Roldal, Norway). With the number of contests, the number of participants has of course also risen sharply and with it the level of riders in all categories.

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    The organizers of the FWT recently announced the new calendar of qualifier events (FWQ) for the 2017 season - these dates can also be found in the PowderGuide.com event calendar. Compared to previous years, a significant expansion is once again visible. A few top-class 4* events have been added to the almost 50 FWQ events with over 1800 starting places: for the first time there is a 4* contest in Hakuba, Japan, a contest in Revelstoke has been upgraded to a 4* event and there is a new 4* qualifier in Crested Butte. In addition, some events in North America are once again being run under the FWT/FWQ franchise and numerous smaller 2* events have been created. The aim here is to appeal to the grassroots and motivate the many newcomers and contest beginners in all mountain regions.

    Motivated beginners are also available in the junior sector, which is why the Freeride Junior Tour (FJT) has been further expanded and there are significantly more tour stops every year. There are almost 2000 starting places for the 73 junior events.

    Here is an overview of all events in both regions (Europe/Oceania & Americas)

    4* events for the 2017 season:

    • The Remarkables, NZL

    • Revelstoke, CAN

    • Hakuba, JPN

    • Hochfügen, AUT

    • Les Arcs, FR

    • Crested Butte, USA

    • Sogndal, NOR

    • Jasna, SLO

    • Taos, USA

    • Nendaz, CH

    • Kicking Horse, USA

    • Crystal Mountain, USA

    • Obergurgl, AUT

    3* events:

    • Silvaplana, CH

    • Courmayeur, ITA

    • Montafon, AUT

    • Kirkwood, USA

    • Chandolin, CH

    • Cortina d'Ampezzo, ITA

    • Kaprun, AUT

    • Vallnord-Arcalis, AND

    2* Events:

    • Cerro Castillo, CHI

    • Los Penitentes, ARG

    • The Remarkables, NZL

    • Mt. Olympus, NZL

    • Hakuba, JPN

    • Verbier (3x), FR

    • Kappl, AUT

    • Chamonix, FR

    • Red Mountain, CAN

    • Grand Targhee, USA

    • Vars, FR

    • Les Arcs (2x), FR

    • Crested Butte, USA

    • Mad River Glen, USA

    • Goldeck, AUT

    • Pitztal (Wild Face), AUT

    • Magic Mountain, USA

    • Taos, USA

    • Sugarbush, USA

    • Sierra-at-Tahoe, USA

    • Smugglers Notch, USA

    • Kicking Horse, CAN

    • Sugarloaf, USA

    • Kirkwood, USA

    • Jay Peak, USA

    • Gastein, AUT

    • Beartooth Basin, USA (2018 season)

    1* Event:

    • Hochkar, AUT

    You can see that the broad base is growing. However, the number of participants in the World Tour has been reduced. The level of the higher-class FWQ events is now enormous, especially in the men's skiing category, and may well overshadow many a very calculated FWT event in terms of level and spectacle. In addition, the strong expansion creates an imbalance between the grassroots and professional leagues and a huge "bottleneck", i.e. a very low level of permeability. Only one participant per season can qualify for the FWT in all categories, with the exception of men's skiing, where there are now three again. More details were discussed in this article on the new FWT/FWQ regulations

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    More and more 4* events are also being broadcast live on the internet. Looking at the developments in streaming technology and the demands of interested viewers, it is to be hoped that in future it will be possible to watch all the events as a replay (in the correct order) as well as the individual runs of all the riders. A replay is particularly recommended because the target group will of course not be spending their mornings at home watching the livestream at the weekend, when most of the competitions take place, but will hopefully be out on the mountain themselves. In future, PowderGuide will announce live broadcasts via social media and in the weekly article. From now on, we will do without static articles here on the site that only contain the livestream, as we assume that those interested will already know where to find the livestream on www.freerideworldtour.com including the individual runs.

    There are still almost two months to go until the start of the first competitions and we can hope that the contest slopes can still fill up well with snow by then. The first qualifier event of the season will take place in Revelstoke from January 9, 2017, the season will kick off for the juniors at Verbier Freeride Week from January 14, 2017, and the first FWT tour stop will be in Chamonix from January 27 (information on the 2017 FWT dates). Until then, there will be sporadic reports on ContestHappening, but from the beginning of January onwards there will be regular updates.

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    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!

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