Bec des Rosses

The season is also drawing to a close for the contests: the penultimate contest in the Alps was held on the Kitzsteinhorn in very spring-like conditions (followed by the 2* FWQ in Gastein next weekend). The Freeride World Tour has just confirmed that the final on the Bec des Rosses will take place tomorrow, Monday, April 3, 2017.

It wasn't meant to be this time: Adverse weather conditions initially caused the snowboard and women's ski categories to hold back a little and ultimately led to the cancellation of the skiers' competition at the 21st Xtreme Verbier.

The FWT crossed the Atlantic for its fourth and only North American tour stop in 2015 and landed in Haines, Alaska (USA). The field of participants has been reduced in all categories: Only the top 60% of the overall rankings are still taking part in the FWT Alaska premiere. But 2015 will not only be remembered for this first FWT tour stop in Alaska, but also for the following anniversary at the FWT finale: the Verier Xtreme is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

As in previous years, this winter's finale of the very varied Freeride World Tour was an exciting high-caliber 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.

At the third edition of Verbier Freeride Week, amateurs and well-known freeriders from all over the world were once again able to compete for one of the coveted starting places. In the three 2* FWQ contests that took place, you had the opportunity to qualify for the 3* final with a very good placing and thus collect some points in the FWQ ranking system right at the start of the season. For PowderGuide, Niko Göz once again reports on his experiences at the event this season.

The unified Freeride World Tour has crowned its first world champions: Drew Tabke (USA), Ralph Backstrom (USA), Nadine Wallner (AUT) and Elodie Mouthon (FRA). The winners of the final on the Bec des Rosses were Kevin Guri (FRA), Ralph Backstrom (USA), Matilda Rapaport (SWE) and Elodie Mouthon (FRA). The contest took place in very good snow conditions at an absolutely top-class level! Thousands of spectators on site and over 180,000 viewers followed the 18th Verbier Xtreme live via webcast.

The second edition of the Freeride Week in the heart of the Val de Bagnes in Lower Valais offered amateur freeriders from all over the world the opportunity to take part in three 2-star Freeride World Qualifier contests and thus move up the rankings of the FWQ series. The Verbier Freeride Week took place from January 13 to 20.

"ALL WINNERS IN VERBIER ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS" could already be read in the news on the Freeride Worldtour homepage on Sunday afternoon. On Saturday, March 24th, in front of 1000 spectators sizzling in the sun and another 25,000 cheering live via the internet, the top riders were allowed to draw their signatures into the steep north face of the Bec des Rosses. The 16th edition of the Verbier Xtreme and the Freeride World Tour have now come to an end.