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ContestHappening 12 2016/17| Crunch Time

Difficult snow conditions are still causing problems for FWT and FWQ

by Tobias Huber • 03/12/2017
D. Daher
Reine Barkered
D. Daher
Reine Barkered
The FWT calls the event in Fieberbrunn 'Crunch Time' and that's exactly what it was. Contests in Nendaz and Axamer Lizum had to be canceled due to the high risk of avalanches. Read all about the latest ContestHappenings here:

Fieberbrunn | Crunch Time

If you want to watch the event again, you can find the livestream replay here:

While the organizers of the FWT have addressed the criticism from last year and the face on the Wildseeloder was completely blown up this time, the basic problem of the third tour stop as a preliminary round and the Fieberbrunn Face in general remains. And, interestingly enough, only became more than clear in the men's ski race. Here, some skiers were crushed in their attempt to stay in the tour and continue their aspired career. At the top end, the face offers only a few opportunities to stand out from the rest of the field of riders. And none of these opportunities allow for mistakes. In the intermediate section, the debris from the blasting actions was the undoing of many a rider (like snowboarder Sascha Hamm last year, who has been unable to move his arm ever since). As the men's contest was neither pretty to watch nor exciting, all that remains to be said about it is that with Turdell, Barkered and Pehota, there were riders on the podium who were sure of themselves and good on their skis.

D. Daher
Lorraine Huber
D. Daher
Lorraine Huber

Of course, some skiers also chose smart lines or completely avoided dangerous action after the helicopter had already been there 3-4 times to get their friends out of the face. It is now well known that the third tour stop can get out of hand. The organizers can assume that at least a few will always go for it. They should definitely react to this, as Fieberbrunn will continue to be an FWT partner for the next three years. And perhaps it would be better to name things afterwards and stand by them and not just market everything as "extremely spectacular" - on the other hand, the event is called "Crunch Time" right from the start. A contest like this can neither get people excited about freeriding, nor motivate the next generation of contest riders to ski properly, nor offer a healthy career perspective.

In the men's snowboard competition, Sammy Luebke showed how to master the slope safely, with style and yet spectacularly by choosing lines intelligently, while also spending most of the time in powder snow instead of riding on old snow that has been cleared of fresh snow or in avalanche cones. Here is his run:

Jonathan Penfield (USA) came second. FWT newcomer Thomas Feurstein from Schruns (AUT), who came second in the opening event, initially worked his way through an extremely steep, technically demanding section. He finished the upper steep slope with a jump and enjoyed himself in the lower section with several freestyle tricks. This meant third place in Fieberbrunn and second place in the overall standings: "To be on the podium for the second time is a lot of fun and is good for me. When you finish on the podium twice out of three events, that's something! I want to stay fit and healthy for the rest of the season and continue to achieve good results."

The ladies, snowboarders and skiers alike, all adapted to the conditions from the slightly lower starting point and made for a competition worth seeing.

D. Daher
Reine Barkered
D. Daher
Reine Barkered

Lorraine Huber from Lech am Arlberg (AUT), who won the second FWT stop in Andorra, began her run with a double cliff drop and then added three more jumps. Her extremely smooth and fast run earned her 91.33 points and victory. The Vorarlberg native is now heading to Haines/Alaska as the leader of the rankings. Second place in Fieberbrunn went to Eva Walkner (AUT, overall winner last year), who skied a similar line to Huber. Walkner is also in Alaska in fifth place in the rankings. "I chose a very cool line today, but deliberately rode a bit cautiously because it was about making the cut for Alaska and I didn't want to risk a crash. I'm very happy with second place." Third place went to Hazel Birnbaum (USA). Two-time world champion Nadine Wallner (AUT) finished in eighth place, missing out on qualification for Haines.

Marion Haerty (FRA) took victory in the women's snowboard category in Fieberbrunn, just as she did at the second FWT stop in Andorra. She combined beautiful powder turns with stylish airs. Second place went to Shannan Yates (USA) ahead of Audrey Hebert (CAN). The 1998 Olympic halfpipe champion and 2015 Xtreme Verbier winner Nicola Thost (GER), runner-up at the season opener, made her way through a technical chute with a small cliff drop at the top. Her playful run earned her fifth place. As fourth in the overall standings, she could have gone to Alaska, but decided against it because she wants to end her career with the stop in Fieberbrunn.

Manuela Mandl from Vienna (AUT), who came third in the second FWT event, looked for a line with plenty of fresh deep snow and finished the upper section with a small jump. A confident long air in the lower section earned her fourth place. She finished fifth in the overall standings. Although this marks the end of the FWT season for her, she will try to qualify for next year's FWT via the qualifier events.

Nendaz

Manuela Mandl has already laid a good foundation for re-qualification, as she was able to take home the points for winning the 2* and 4* FWQ in Nendaz. The 4* FWQ could not be held for safety reasons, as you can see impressively:

The results of the 2* contest were used for the 4*, but only scored as for a 3* event. Carl Regnér Eriksson won in the men's skiing, Maude Besse in the women's and Ludo Guillot-Diat in the men's snowboarding. Here is the event video

Axamer Lizum

There will be no more contest in the Axamer Lizum this year. The 3* competition planned for yesterday, Sunday, had to be canceled due to the current critical avalanche situation and there will be no other alternative date. However, the 4* contest in Obergurgl from 24 to 26 March will soon be the highlight in Tyrol

.

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.

Show original (German)

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