Eva Walkner

PG partner Julbo presents a versatile new ski goggle with a special design. The Shadow One Line was designed by the two Julbo pros Manuela Mandl and Eva Walkner. The goggles are specially designed for small and medium-sized faces, have a particularly large field of vision and a reactive lens that ensures the best contrasts in all light conditions. We asked Manu how she spends the lockdown and what the design of the goggle strap is all about.

Only three days to go until the start of the FWT in Hakuba, Japan. The organizers hope to hold the contest on Friday, 18.01.2019. Injuries and wildcards are causing further changes to the rider field, which is gradually arriving in the Hakuba Valley on the Japanese main island. Everything you need to know before the first tour stop of the 2019 season can be found here:

It's just under a month until the first stop of the 2019 Freeride World Tour (FWT) takes place in Japan. The qualifiers (FWQ) and juniors (FJT) will also not start until the beginning of January. Nevertheless, to get you in the mood for the upcoming contest season, the following article summarizes which riders will be taking part in the tour this year. Who got a wildcard and who has advanced from the qualifiers? Find out here!

At the penultimate tour stop of the FWT, things got down to business once again and in most categories it remained exciting right up to the end in Verbier. However, Kristoffer Turdell has already secured the FWT title in the men's skiing category. The day after the FWT, a 3* FJT contest took place at the Wildseeloder from the women's start, which we will also report on at the end.

A tragic accident during the preparation meant that a winner who was not on the podium, favorite victories and top placings for the Austrians became a minor matter.

There hasn't been much going on in the contest area in recent weeks. But while the FWT circus is now slowly traveling to Andorra to hold the first European tour stop of the season next weekend, two top-class qualifiers took place last weekend with the 3* FWQ Silvretta Montafon and the 4* FWQ Jasna Adrenalin.

A week ago, two FWT stops took place in Kicking Horse (CA). At some qualifiers there were a few organizational uncertainties and disappointed potential participants over the weekend. Here is a short summary of the FWT and more details about the qualifiers in Hochfügen, at Hochfelln and the FWQ and FJT events in Alpbach.

With the last ContestHappening for the 2016/17 season, we take another brief look at the FWT Final in Verbier and the winners of the overall FWT ranking, and take a look at who has won the qualifier categories and qualified for next year's tour. Finally, it's all about the Open Faces final event in Gastein! I'd like to thank the readers, am open to criticism and would like nothing more than snowier winters and safer conditions at the competitions in the future. Then reporting would be more fun than constantly writing about difficulties and bad snow conditions...

Freeride pros Eva Walkner, Aline Bock and Jackie Paaso are launching an avalanche safety project for women together with ski guide Geli Kaufmann. The SAFE AS courses, which have been successfully training women in the USA since 2012, serve as a model. The first SAFE ON SNOW dates will take place in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the fall.

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.

Steep gullies, spectacular cliff drops and unfortunately no livestream: the fourth stop of the Freeride World Tour in Haines (USA) was the hoped-for highlight, at least on site. In Alaska, Eva Walkner (AUT) and Logan Pehota (CAN) won among the skiers, while Anne-Flore Marxer (SUI/FRA) and Ryland Bell (USA) won among the snowboarders. Snowboard "gorilla" Flo Orley (AUT) took third place. Fabio Studer (AUT) and Stefan Häusl (AUT) took fourth and eighth place; Felix Wiemers (GER) came fifth.

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.