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Event report | FWT Fieberbrunn 2016

Day wins, starting positions in Alaska and shattered dreams for the 2017 season

by Lukas Zögernitz 03/10/2016
After a 2-year break at the legendary Compface Wildseeloder, day wins, the tickets for the fourth stop of the FWT in Alaska and the starting places for the FWT 2017 were awarded in bright sunshine. In difficult conditions on the face, many riders showed great performances. The event in the Tyrolean Alps was well attended despite being postponed to Wednesday.

After the Freeride World Tour had been unable to hold its Austrian stop in Fieberbrunn for two years in a row due to poor snow conditions, everything seemed to be in place after the postponement from the planned contest day on Sunday to Wednesday. In bright sunshine and covered in the fresh snow of the last few days, the Wildeseeloder presented itself from its most beautiful side at first glance. On the way up the mountain, however, it quickly became clear that the wind had done a great job. The flags in the well-attended viewing area blew in a stiff breeze throughout the entire contest. Even on the face, it was easy to see from the widespread wind signs that the wind had blown enough snow to build up tricky drift snow packs. During the first forerunners, it also became clear that precisely these packs can be triggered by the additional load of a skier. New Zealander Craig Murray, who comes from the junior series, and Tyrolean freeride legend Matthias "Hauni" Haunolder triggered snowboards in several places during their runs. Nevertheless, the women's ski contest started as planned.

Ski Women

Two-time world champion Nadine Wallner from Austria was the first to start. She chose a line in the slightly less snowy left part of the face. In doing so, she triggered a medium-sized slab of snow in steep terrain and obviously stopped short in shock. Hazel Birnbaum (USA) was second at the start. She triggered a snow slab above a gully and unfortunately skied into this gully a few turns later and was swept away by the snow. She lost both skis and was rescued unharmed by the helicopter. After these scary moments, the race organizers stopped the competition for the time being to have the slope secured again, so snow slabs were deliberately triggered so that they no longer posed a danger to the riders later on.

The statements of the commentators on site and in the live stream were somewhat disconcerting, as they all consistently spoke of sluff and never of snow slabs. On all four riders before the abort, snowboards were clearly recognizable (leading edge, slabs, etc.), yet they only ever spoke of sluff, which has to be dealt with in freeride sports. Based on their experience and reputation in the sport, the two expert commentators Martin "McFly" Winkler and Matthias "Hauni" Haunolder will also have been aware that in most cases these were snowboards. This made the trivializing choice of words all the more surprising and critical. There was speculation that the organizers might have given certain instructions regarding the comments, but this could not be confirmed. When the contest was restarted after around 30 minutes, the ladies showed some appealing runs from their slightly lower start.

In the end, Italian Ariana Tricomi came out on top, taking her first win in her first season. She impressed the judges above all with the fluidity of her run, in which she incorporated many jumps after a technical part. Second place went to Nadine Wallner, who kept a cool head after the restart of the competition and took second place with strong technique and a fast run. The women's podium was also completed by a newcomer to the tour: Lauren Cameron (CAN) took third place with 78.33 points ahead of Lorraine Huber from Lech am Arlberg (AUT), thus also securing her ticket for Alaska. The current overall leader Eva Walkner from Salzburg showed a very high jump in her run, but only landed with a backslap. Despite her tenth place, Eva remains in the lead in the overall standings.

Snowboard Women

France's Elodie Mouthon (FRA) took victory in the women's snowboarding category ahead of Anne-Flore Marxer (SUI). Marion Haerty finished in third place. This was the third podium finish in a row for the Frenchwoman in her debut season. All the runs on the women's podium were playful and fluid. In an interview, Bertrand Dervaud (FWT Head Judge) not inappropriately described the runs as "fun lines". Estelle Balet (SUI) skied the technical and potentially highest rated line. However, the current leader in the overall standings crashed and was therefore unable to change the result

Ski Men

In the men's race, it quickly became clear that the majority of skiers would choose a line in the right-hand part of the face. After a drop over the so-called Hollywood Cliff in the extremely steep upper section of the slope

, many riders moved further to the right to incorporate another jump over a wide cliff band before performing a few more tricks in the somewhat more playful final section of the face. Dennis Risvoll (NOR), who crashed in the last two competitions, risked everything to keep his chance of a ticket to Alaska alive and showed a high cliff drop and two backflips in his run to take the win. Loïc Collomb-Patton (FRA), the former world champion, showed a creative line in the middle section and was able to incorporate a 360 into his run alongside a few other drops to take second place. Third place went to Felix Wiemers (GER), who secured his starting place in Alaska and the 2017 season after poorer placings in the first stops. He performed 2 backflips, one of them in very technical terrain, and scored 89.66 points. Many of the men's skiers who attempted the left area of the face fell victim to the significantly worse snow conditions there.

Snowboard Men

Sammy Luebke (USA) repeated his success from Chamonix in Fieberbrunn.

He showed an exceptional run in which he was the only snowboarder to stand on the Hollywood Cliff and was the first to ride a line in the lower right area of the face, into which he incorporated a stylish backside air, a 360 and many beautiful powder turns. Jonathan Penfield (also from the USA) came a distant second with 82.33 points. The all-American podium was completed by Christopher Galvin (USA). Unfortunately, Johannes Schnitzer (GER) crashed, meaning he did not qualify for the 2017 season. The snowboard men's category was overshadowed by the crash of Sascha Hamm, who fell in the upper, technical part of the face and suffered several broken bones. It was very pleasing to see how quickly Sascha was treated on the face. A doctor was with him in a matter of seconds and the helicopter also only needed a few minutes to treat him.


During the evening beer, however, the focus was not on the contest itself but on the overall standings. As the FWT will be reduced in size next season and therefore fewer riders will be taking part, the cut is particularly tough this year and many big names that are hard to imagine the Freeride World Tour without will no longer be at the start next year (should they not qualify via the qualifier series). One of the riders even went so far as to say that the FWT will no longer be the same after the stop in Fieberbrunn in 2016. Chrisitine Hargin (SWE) and Loraine Huber, for example, fell victim to the strict cut in the women's skiing. In the men's event, the names are even more resonant: contenders for overall victory from previous seasons such as Sam Smoothie (NZL) and Samuel Anthamatten (CH) (both ski men) as well as Emelien Badoux (FRA) and Jonathan Charlet (FRA), among others, will probably not be competing in the snowboard men's event in 2017 without a wildcard.

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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.

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