Flo Orley

Anyone living the dream of freeriding in Austria can learn from the best. Snowboard vice world champion Flo Orley and FWT winner Stefan Häusl have left their active careers behind them - and are now passing on their knowledge to the next generation. Orley as co-founder of the Freeride Academy Innsbruck, Häusl as a coach for young freeride pros on the Arlberg. The impressive offspring from their own ranks proves that both are doing it right: Stefan's daughter Jana is the current FIS Freeride Junior World Champion and Flo's daughter Momo is already a two-time European Champion U14. Freeride DNA literally runs in the family in Austria.

Once again this year, there is the opportunity to win a trip with PG partner Julbo. Last time, Phillip Crivelli was out and about in the Western Alps with steep face pros Sam Anthamatten and Vivian Bruchez. This time, an experienced skier or boarder will be heading to Icelandic volcanoes with Manuela Mandl and Flo Orley.

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.

The first stop of the Freeride World Tour 2016 took place today. This year, the world's freeriding elite met at the start of the tour on the northern flank of the Pic D'Arcalis in Andorra. Rookies who had risen from the qualifiers and experienced World Tour veterans shared the first places.

Now it's over, the Alaska tour stop in Haines that overshadowed everything this FWT season. At first it looked as if the Freeride Word Tour entourage would have to travel on without having achieved anything, having sat out the bad weather and made three futile attempts in vain. But then the tide turned: the competition only took place one day after the official time slot. The question of whether the wait and effort for this unique Freeride World Tour stop was worth it was one that many European freeride fans were able to answer for themselves on 23.03.15 on the live stream at prime time. For all those who didn't have the time or opportunity, here is a recap of the event.

The Click on the Mountain photo contest took place for the seventh time in mid-March 2015 on the south side of Mont Blanc in Courmayuer, Italy. Difficult conditions characterized this year's edition of the competition. However, the teams did not let this slow them down and delivered strong photo books at the end of the three days of the contest.

At the FWT stop in Vallnord-Arcalis on February 13, Hazel Josie Birnbaum (USA) and Sam Smoothy (NZL) won in the skiers' category and Estelle Balet (SUI) and Jonathan Charlet (FRA) in the snowboarders' category. Flo Orley (AUT) took second place and leads the snowboarder rankings. It was the third stop of the season for the freeskiers. Eva Walkner (AUT), who finished second today, is qualified for the fourth stage in Alaska as the overall leader. The competitions in the other three categories that were canceled in Fieberbrunn will be made up for later this week in Andorra.

Against the breathtaking backdrop of the Mont Blanc massif, the best freeriders on skis and boards battled it out for the first points of the 2015 FWT season on January 24, 2015. After an exciting competition in challenging snow conditions, a striking number of former overall FWT winners were to be found on the podium at the end.

62 athletes from four continents, including all four reigning freeride champions in skiing and snowboarding, are taking part in the Freeride World Tour 2015. The interesting field of participants includes not only the qualifiers from the last FWT and the promoted athletes from the FWQ, but also some participants with wildcards. These were awarded, among others, to those top riders who were injured last season and are now making their comeback. Other wildcards go to the Olympic participants.

The 11th edition of the prestigious 3* Qualifier in Zell am See - Kaprun was particularly impressive due to the extremely high standard shown by the riders from 14 nations on the Lakarschneid Face. As in the previous season, the riders had to hold their own in spring-like conditions on the Lakarschneid. Tyrolean Flo Orley won the snowboarder category, Max Kroneck from Germany took his second FWQ victory, Norwegian Anja Gardli won the women's ski category and Frenchwoman Annouk Mouthon won the women's snowboard category.

Last weekend saw the third-to-last competition in the Open Faces Series: the Silvretta Montafon ski resort hosted the premiere of a 3* Freeride World Qualifier event. As the points at the end of the season are becoming increasingly coveted - after all, it's also about the overall victory of the Austrian Freeride Series - it was no wonder that many top riders had announced their attendance. In addition to the usual suspects, World Tour rider Neil Williman and local Fabio Studer, who returned from Canada just in time, were also at the start.

For the first time, the Open Faces Axamer Lizum was held as a 3-star Freeride World Qualifier, and the performance density and starting field in the Lizum were accordingly high-caliber, as the face unfortunately only offered a few opportunities. For the first time in the history of the Open Faces series, the winners came from four different nations.