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ContestHappening 7 2023 | Finals in Fieberbrunn & Cancellation in Verbier

And the Winners are...

by Sebastian Müller 03/31/2023
The dream comes true: Valentin Rainer wins the Freeride World Tour, together with Justine Dufour-Lapointe, Ludovic Guillot-Diat and Katie Anderson! After the crazy March weather had already caused a stir at the first part of the finals in Fieberbrunn, the Verbier Xtreme had to be canceled due to safety concerns. This is a bitter-sweet end to the FWT23. We sorely miss the showdown on the Bec des Rosses, and yet this is a strong sign: safety has top priority.

A run from Wildseeloder near Fieberbrunn

After the stop in Fieberbrunn was postponed once by 3 days due to poor visibility, it was made up for and shortened to one run in favor of a qualifier event. It was similar to Kicking Horse: a weak base and therefore very rocky terrain was overlaid with a snowfall of around 40 cm. Visually appealing, but also dangerous! The Wildseeloder as a contest slope is now well established on the tour and offers both "big mountain" terrain in the upper part as well as very playful terrain in the lower part.

Fieberbrunn - Snowboard


Jonathan Penfield impressed with a spectacular transfer on the Häusl Cliff, taking the day's victory. Veteran Ludovic Guillot-Diat, who has been incredibly consistent and controlled this year with lines full of features, and rookie Liam Rivera, who mastered a huge backflip, completed the podium. Katie Anderson won the women's category with a smooth ride and some nice cliff drops. She also secured the overall victory early. Manuela Mandl made her comeback after an injury break and took second place with a variation of the Häusl Cliff and two more jumps. Anna Orlova skied a similar line and came third. A strong performance from the snowboarders:inside!

Ski - Fieberbrunn

Max Hitzig opened the ski show, traversed to the Häusl-Cliff and found a new and very high take-off. He landed as stable as ever, then 360 and backflip, and finally crashed on the last jump, which he took as a 360. The competition can count themselves lucky... Valentin Rainer rode a similar line, a little less stable and spectacular, but it's all very relative these days and in the end it was enough for him to finish 4th. Maxime Chabloz pushed his limits lookers' left and jumped everything very spectacularly, which was enough for him to finish second. Oscar Madin also rode and jumped strongly again: he took the Häusl-Cliff at top speed and with a very cool flatspin he finally came third. But the winner was Andrew Pollard. Creative, fluid and controlled as always, he was finally rewarded with his first victory of the day! The falls of Finn Bilous, Max Palm, Marcus Goguen and Simon Perraudin testify to the rather difficult conditions, as well as to a willingness to take too many risks. The women's race was won by Arianna Tricomi from Italy, who lives in Innsbruck and started with a local wildcard. She impressed looker's left with an aggressive and controlled run and at the end with a few jumps and a 360. Justine Dufour-Lapointe skied a variation of the Häusl-Cliff and came second. Megane Betend avoided a fall with skill and luck and came third. Bravo, cool show!

Now all this and much more in video:

The cancellation of the Verbier Xtreme

It's probably the narrative of the winter. A stable and deep base has not built up and the snowfalls come abundantly but late in the winter. This is now also the case in Verbier. They had tried to start on Monday, but the clouds didn't clear before PowderAlert 10. The Bec des Rosses was covered in a thick layer of fresh snow and unfortunately almost all of it came down as avalanches during blasting. It is fair to say that the tour's safety concept works. Despite the extreme terrain, avalanches happen only rarely and have so far all been harmless. The cancellation of the Verbier Xtreme is a responsible and certainly the right decision. Other potential avalanches and the huge avalanche cone in the run-out made a competition impossible. Congratulations to all the winners! This is certainly bitter from a sporting point of view, as many skiers would have tried to attack the leaders and it would have been Reine Barkered's last competition! Goodbye Reine! But in the end it was the healthiest and most sustainable decision. Chapeau! We look forward to next year!

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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