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ContestHappening 2 2019 | Start of the season!

It's about to start!

by Tobias Huber 01/15/2019
Only three days to go until the start of the FWT in Hakuba, Japan. The organizers hope to hold the contest on Friday, 18.01.2019. Injuries and wildcards are causing further changes to the rider field, which is gradually arriving in the Hakuba Valley on the Japanese main island. Everything you need to know before the first tour stop of the 2019 season can be found here:

Hakuba hopes for good weather

The snow situation in Hakuba is not easy at the moment. Although there was a lot of fresh snow recently, the snow depth is currently below average by Japanese standards. However, as the organizers are doing everything they can to hold a contest in open terrain this year, at least on the third attempt, if you include the FWQ from two years ago, they want to go ahead with the contest on Friday, 18.01.2019. This is one day before the official weather window and not all riders are happy about it, as a short journey can lead to jet lag or lost ski luggage. There are two faces to choose from, one with lots of backs and spines that all end in a ditch, and the "petit triangle", presumably the bad weather option with a few trees and less vertical extension. You can see these slopes in the photo gallery at the end of the article, but these pictures are not up to date!

Injuries and wildcards

There are still a few changes to report in the field of riders. First of all, Sam Lee (fractured tibia) and Konstantin Ottner (the dislocated shoulder suffered in the early season has to be operated on after all) are out due to injury. From a German-speaking point of view, the loss of Konstantin is of course a loss, but he can probably hope for an injury wildcard for the coming season. PowderGuide wishes him a speedy recovery and congratulates him on this sensible decision! For officially unknown reasons, Eva Walkner has also canceled her participation in the FWT 2019, presumably she is focusing on filming this season.

In addition to the reported withdrawals, two other riders have been given wildcards for the first two events in Hakuba and Kicking Horse. Taisuke Kusunoki (JPN) and Logan Pehota (CAN) will each compete as locals at the events in their home country. The Japanese rider Taisuke Kusunoki was able to convince the spectators with a nice riding style and interesting lines, but unfortunately not the judges and will get another chance this year. Logan Pehota had actually decided to sit out the 2019 FWT and concentrate on filming, but didn't turn down the invitation for his "home event" (he actually lives in Pemberton, BC).

Livestream

As usual, the event will be broadcast via livestream. As the time difference for Hakuba is +8 hours, you can expect the event to start in the night from Thursday to Friday from around 00:00-02:00 - which corresponds to 08:00-10:00 local time - if the conditions play along.

In order to bridge the remaining days until the start of the FWT, the ContestHappening recommends watching the recently published season edit by last year's women's skiing winner Arianna Tricomi (ITA):

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Photo gallery

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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