The season finale of the FWT 2015, which is traditionally held at the Verbier Extreme, was dominated this year by the 20th anniversary of the Verbier Extreme. In addition to the specially invited legendary participants from the 20-year history of the Verbier Extreme, the FWT riders also showed all their skills with impressive runs in all categories. In addition to the day's winners and the many legends of the sport, who were all around the Bec de Rosses, FWT rookie George Rodney took center stage after securing overall victory with his fourth podium of the season and thus the world championship title in the premier class of men's skiing in 2015.
For many riders, the route to Verbier did not only lead via Alaska in terms of the FWT competition mode. Due to the delayed contest in Haines, many of them traveled directly from Alaska to Verbier. While some managed to catch ferries or flights directly after the competition in AK, others had to wait a day for a connecting flight and therefore only arrived in the Swiss ski resort late at night before the face check. On paper, the conditions were right for an exciting competition: With the exception of the women's skiing category, in which Eva Walkner (AUT) had already clinched the title early in Alaska after a two-year injury break in her comeback season, the battle for the world title was still completely open in all other categories.
Unfortunately, the conditions in the Face, the legendary Bec de Rosses, were not nearly as good. Little snow and an avalanche in one of the main gullies made a start from the summit impossible: and so the start options were the women's start, a start slightly offset to the left from the spectators' point of view and a start offset even further to the top left. On Friday, the day of the face inspection, the sky was overcast and when the first riders arrived for the face inspection, you could only guess where the contest face was. But you couldn't see it through a thick layer of cloud. Cloud windows kept opening up until the end of the inspection at four o'clock, and the riders were able to take a quick look at the Bec and take a few photos down into the valley. Due to the diffuse light, however, no snow structures or similar could be seen and so for many riders it was not clear until the morning of the competition day whether the planned line would be rideable in the prevailing conditions. On the day of the contest, however, the weather was perfect: sunshine, pleasant temperatures and hardly any wind attracted many spectators to the spectator area at the Col des Gentianes at an altitude of almost 3000 meters. Shortly before the start of the competition, there was a hectic hustle and bustle as many of the riders had the opportunity to see the snow conditions in their line for the first time. As the snowboard ladies were flown to the start by helicopter, many of the men were still taking photos and exploring the last details of their line with binoculars. In addition to the men and women who qualified based on their ranking after the contest in AK, Nicola Thost (SNB women, GER), Matthias Hargin (men's skier, alpine WC slalom racer SWE), Daron Ralves (men's skier, alpine Super G world champion USA), Xavier De Le Rue (FRA) and Steeve Klassen (USA) were also at the start with a wildcard. Why Connor Pelton, who was already injured in Haines, was not replaced by Charly Lions (NZL), who is next in the rankings and would therefore also have had the opportunity to ski the legendary Bec, remains unclear.
(Unfortunately, the FWT no longer provides all runs for the final online. Therefore, you will find the best available material from the FWT or the drivers themselves for the various categories below).
Women's snowboard
The snowboard ladies had already put in an impressive performance in Alaska and everyone was excited to see whether they would be able to deliver a similar performance on this technical and steep face. With Estelle Ballet (SUI), a local had the chance to secure the world championship title at home. Estelle also showed an appealing run and secured a good starting position for the title fight with 55 points. Nicola Thost, who came to Verbier with a wildcard, was the last to start. The season so far in the FWT had not gone according to plan for the 1998 Olympic medal winner from Nagano(!), but in Verbier she lived up to the confidence she had gained from the wildcard! Her line was fluid, fast and, unlike many of the riders before her, she jumped all the cliffs directly from the highest point, thus securing her first victory in the FWT with a deserved margin of a few points over the runner-up. As Shannon Yates (USA) was unable to match the performance of the top-placed women in her run, she also had to relinquish the world championship title to the young Swiss rider Estelle Ballet. Results Verbier Extreme 2015:
1. Nicola Thost (GER) 71.00
2. Estelle Balet (SUI) 55.00
3. Shannan Yates (USA) 52.25 Overall result Freeride World Tour 2015:
1. Estelle Balet (SUI)
2. Shannan Yates (USA)
3. Elodie Mouthon (FRA)
Snowboard men
In the men's snowboard event, a duel for the world championship title between Sammy Luebke (USA) and Jonathan "Dude" Charlet (FRA) was already in the offing. The theoretical chances of Collin Boyd (USA) and Flo Orley (AUT) provided even more excitement.
Colin Boyd (USA) showed the most technical line of the contest in the upper section and put an exclamation mark behind his line in the lower section with a clean 360. But as in Alaska, despite a good run, he was denied the podium and thus the chance of the title. Sammy Luebke (USA) was in the lead for a long time after another clean run with a few drops, until last year's world champion Emilien Badoux (SUI) brought his run to the finish. In particular, a triple-cliff drop in the lower section without momentum made him look like a sure winner. However, Jonathan "the Dude" Charlet (FRA) then showed a run with airs with different grabs and a massive drop in the lower section in his run from the highest start gate. This not only secured him victory at the 20th Verbier Extreme, but also snatched the world championship title away from Sammy Luebke, as Flo Orley was unable to stand some of the jumps in his line and therefore missed out on the chance to win the world title. This was the third time the Austrian had finished third overall in the Freeride World Tour. However, the 39-year-old from Innsbruck will take another chance next year and fight for the world title. Result Verbier Extreme 2015:
1. Jonathan Charlet (FRA) 91.00
2. Emilien Badoux (SUI) 85.75
3. Sammy Luebke (USA) 82.75 Overall result Freeride World Tour 2015:
1. Jonathan Charlet (FRA)
2. Sammy Luebke (USA)
3. Flo Orley (AUT)
Women's skiing
Similar to Alaska, the women's skiing competition was characterized by many falls. After most of the snowboard ladies had already chosen their line in the main gully of the slope, the landing was already quite rough in the upper section and many of the ladies failed this challenge. It was particularly bitter for Jackie Passo. She had injured her knee in a fall in Haines and was not fully fit. During the last runs the day before the contest, she was still confident and her knee felt fine. However, when she came to the cliff in the contest (and had already heard on the radio that many of the ladies had fallen there), she hesitated for a long time and then decided not to jump the cliff and got back on the face.
Christine Hargin (SWE) mastered her line with confidence. A clever line choice and a beautiful jump in the lower section secured her third place. After her victory in Alaska, newcomer to the tour Silvia Moser (ITA) also showed what she can do in Verbier, finishing in second place with a creative line in the right-hand section of the face as seen by the spectators. Hazel Josie Birnbaum (USA) rightly won the 20th Extreme by a few points. After a jump in the upper section (which almost turned into a double), she rode a line with a massive double-cliff drop in the lower section, which would also have attracted attention among the men. In the overall standings, Eva Walkner (AUT) could no longer be caught after Alaska (she crashed in the Extreme). With her second place, Silvia Moser also defended her second place overall ahead of Hazel Josie Birnbaum. Result Verbier Extreme 2015:
1. Hazel Josie Birnbaum (USA) 88.00
2. Silvia Moser (ITA) 76.25
3. Christine Hargin (SWE) 72.75 Overall result Freeride World Tour 2015:
1. Eva Walkner (AUT)
2nd Silvia Moser (ITA)
3rd Hazel Josie Birnbaum (USA)
Gentlemen's skiing
Four riders also still had a chance of overall victory in the men's skiing. In addition to the leader George Rodney (USA), his rivals Reine Barkered (SWE), Jeremie Heitz (SUI) and two-time world champion Drew Tabke (USA) also wanted to snatch the world title in Verbier. However, Drew Tabke had to settle for fifth place after a backslap on his 360 over his bottom air and therefore had no chance of winning the title. For Jeremie Heinz, it briefly looked like a podium finish and the possibility of the title. However, after the judges changed their scoring again after the contest, his run was only good enough for fourth place.
However, this run should not go uncommented on here, as Schweitzer took the top air, where so many had previously failed, with ease and then went on to put in an impressive high-speed run to a total triple-cliff drop. The GPS trackers used for the first time at the Extreme recorded a top speed of 116 km/h (information from the live commentary, 125 km/h is then given in the highlight video). After the points were reallocated, George Rodney ended up in third place, securing the world championship title in his debut year. A somewhat hesitant driving style in the technical part of his line cost him a better result this time. Reine Barkered (SWE) is a perennial favorite at the Beck. He proved why he is not nicknamed the "Major of Stomptown" for nothing and landed the big cliffs in his flowing line with ease, which earned him second place in the final result. "First Come, First Served" was probably the motto of Aurelien Ducroz (FRA). When the first starter in the men's ski race dropped into his line, some of the spectators were not quite back in the action and perhaps missed the winning run. Aurelien came out on top for the fourth time with a flowing line peppered with massive drops on the Beck. It is worth noting that, even after the points were revised again by the judges after the competition, the top three were less than one point apart. After a longer analysis, it would be interesting to find out where the difference of 0.38(!) points in the runs of Reine and Aurelien lies. Felix Wiemers (GER) said in the gondola in the morning that he was happy to be here and that his goal was to finish healthy. The start of his line, however, suggested that this did not mean he would not be competing for the podium. After a committed double in difficult terrain, he crashed and staggered over more cliffs until he finally came to a halt, fortunately uninjured. Nevertheless, the German finished 10th in the overall standings and can therefore attack again next year, this time without a wildcard. Result Verbier Extreme 2015:
1. Aurelien Ducroz (FRA) 88.50
2. Reine Barkered (SWE) 88.12
3. George Rodney (USA) 87.75 Overall result Freeride World Tour 2015:
1. George Rodney (USA)
2. Jeremie Heitz (SUI)
3. Reine Barkered (SWE) You can find all the results in detail here.
Verbier has impressively shown with the Extreme, even in poor snow conditions, that this contest has lost none of its appeal even after 20 years. In addition to the popular festival atmosphere on the mountain (pleasantly without the après-ski or Ballermann flair that the organizers in Austria like to push, see Fieberbrunn, OpenFaces-Tour and so on), the many small stands in Verbier's town centre create a successful atmosphere. The performances of the Verbier Xtreme wildcard riders in particular pushed the level even higher.
The four-time Verbier winner and freeride legend Xavier De Le Rue (FRA) and Steeve Klassen (USA), who was taking part in the Extreme for the 19th time, showed that the Bec is a special contest face on which you can also score points with experience, even without finishing on the podium. Alpine racers Davon Ralves and Matthias Haarige proved that a solid skiing technique is not a disadvantage when freeriding. However, both of them already have experience as freeriders. Davon has already appeared in several film projects and Matthias has already beaten Barkered and Lindberg at the Scandinavian Freeride Championships. It is a great pity that the bad weather in Verbier once again robbed the participants of the Freeride Junior Tour of the attention they actually deserve. Their contest had to be held at the same time as the FWT contest due to the bad weather. As a long-lasting bad weather front moved in just a few minutes after the end of the contest, the organizers' decision is understandable, but also regrettable.
