19th FWT Verbier Xtreme 2014 - The decision on the 2014 Freeride World Tour champions
As in previous years, this winter's finale of the highly varied Freeride World Tour turned into an exciting high-calibre event at the legendary Bec des Rosses in Verbier in the Valais Alps. Due to the difficult snow conditions on the extremely steep northern slope of the Bec des Rosses and last-minute changes to the starting line-up, early speculation about the distribution of titles and the day's winners was completely inappropriate. The Verbier Xtreme 2014 freeride competition was correspondingly exciting for spectators and participants alike.
The numerous groups of spectators enjoyed themselves in a festival atmosphere on the sunny Col des Gentianes, almost 3000 m above sea level. With home-baked sausages and typical Valais "pocket fondue", they rooted for their favorites. And it remained exciting right to the end: the spectators' nerves were stretched to the limit and the riders put on a great freeride show. After the postponement of the start by a week, the turbulent overall course of the tour and many cancellations due to injury, the riders' nerves were certainly under enormous strain. Physically impressive and extremely mentally strong, the riders pushed themselves to the limit to convince the judges and spectators on the 500 vertical meters of the "Becs" and to collect the last, coveted points. If you want, you can watch the entire live webcast from Verbier here afterwards.
Women's snowboard
The Mouthon sisters were unbeatable this time and took the top two places on the podium. Wildcard starter Anouck Mouthon (FRA) finished second behind her sister. Elodie Mouthon from France took advantage of the very good snow conditions on the "Mini Bec" and skied to victory with a solid run, peppered with clean jumps and fast turns. Local hero Estelle Balet (SUI) finished third despite an unintentional skip. The leading Shannan Yates from the USA thus wins the tour. Despite a fall in Verbier, her lead was enough to win the overall FWT women's snowboard title.
Women's skiing
The FWT skiers barely had time to catch their breath: aggressive and high-risk, the Mini Bec seemed almost too short for the athletes. Norwegian Pia Nic Gunderssen showed a monster run, and her heavy drop in the middle part of the face made head judge Hugo Harrison rave: "Her jump was a 40-50 footer (12-15 meters) for sure. She cleared it so far, she overshot the transition by a long way, and that's what made that air so big. She took it with a lot of speed, it was perfect." The Norwegian set the bar so high with 83.5 points that Nadine Wallner (AUT) only managed second place after her equally very good run with 74.75 points and the experienced Jacky Paaso, who also skied a very fast line with a high drop and 71.25 points, only managed third place. The favorite Loraine Huber (AUT) crashed twice and missed out on her first FWT title. This benefited her compatriot Nadine Wallner, who was once again the overall FWT Ski Woman winner.
Snowboard Men
Ralf Backstrom (USA) showed that he wanted to make full use of his wild card and, despite the "tricky" conditions, jumped one massive cliff drop after the other very cleanly and confidently surfed to first place. Defending champion Jonathan "Dudes" Charlet (FRA) jumped a huge set from the ascent track into the open snow field above the Dog Leg Culoir. He unerringly headed for another huge jump through the rocks, but received slight deductions after he had to reach into the snow with his hand and ended up in second place with 71.75 points. Third place went to the German Sascha Hamm, who impressed the judges with a powerful drop right at the start of his run in the rarely skied, very steep northern Couloir des Becs. For the Swiss Emilien Bardoux, fourth place was enough after a good starting position - and he became the first Swiss FWT overall winner in the men's snowboard category. Only Jamie Rizzuto could pose a threat to him, but after a mistake at the start he missed all the features and just skied safely to the finish. One place ahead of Bardoux, who also fell slightly, was enough for him. However, the judges did not allow this tactic to work and rated Rizzuto's restrained run lower than Bardoux'.
Men's skiing
The skiers showed no respect for the changeable snow conditions on the "Big Bec" and left the judges very little room for negotiation. While the snowboarders still had some problems getting clean runs down in the conditions, the skiers showed strong performances right from the start, with almost every run being one of the highlights, lines and cliffs that had never been skied before, spectacular falls and tricks attempted and stood. Editor's tip: watch all the runs again in the replay. As announced, the leading Loic Colomb-Patton (FRA) did not ski a tactical safety run, but gave free rein to his creativity: he flew into the valley with big drops and without hesitation. A risky triple from the "Dog Leg Couloir" into the lower section of the "Steve Classen Face" was only enough for third place with 86.26 points due to the somewhat uncontrolled moments during the run. Reine Barkered (SWE) started his autopilot and skied an ice-cold line with a very big drop over the cliff named after him in the top section and a very clean jump in the lower section of the dog leg culoir, which made the 500 vertical meters of the Bec look very small. His top score of 93.25 points was unbeatable on this day and secured him the day's victory. The American Ian Borgeson came second. With a powerful 3 on Reine Cliff in the top part of the face and a huge, but not quite as confident set as Reine Barkered in the lower part, he scored 90.25 points with his run. The title favorites alongside Loic Colomb-Patton were Sam Smoothy (NZL), Lars Chickering Ayers (USA) and Jeremie Heitz (SUI). They invested a lot to prevent the foreseeable ascension to the throne of the high-flyer from France. Sam Smoothy started despite a heavy crash in the run-up to the event (on neighboring Mt. Gelee). However, like Jeremy Heitz, who seemed to be in free fall on the Bec, Sam was unable to crack the 80-point mark. Loic Colomb-Patton is already the new FWT champion in his first year on the Freeride World Tour.
Many more photos and the complete results can be found in the gallery
Snowboard Head Judge Berti Denervaud explains how the respective rankings came about:PowderGuide congratulates all the winners and thanks the organizers and riders for the exciting and thrilling tour and looks forward to the continuation next winter. Respect is due to all riders and those involved in the organization who made it possible to hold the FWT in a winter that was bad for freeriders, despite mostly unfavourable conditions and changes in location and time. As far as the conditions are concerned, things can only get better in the future, the organization including livecast, webisodes and other output have now reached a very good level. We are looking forward to the FWT 2015 (with a few new faces)!
