Freeride World Qualifier

Livigno wants to make a name for itself as a freeride destination and has organized a 4* FWQ to bring together the up-and-coming contest freeriders and show the scene what the duty-free resort in Italy has to offer in terms of terrain. On February 3, 2015, 78 athletes competed against each other in the usual categories of ski men, ski women, snowboard men and snowboard women within 6 hours in Val Cantone.

Difficult snow conditions and an interesting starting field characterized the bigmountain competition of The Northface New Zealand Freeski Open. With Janina Kuzma and Jossy Wells, two Olympians were at the start in both the freestyle and big mountain competitions. Jania managed to win both competitions with two top runs and Jossy impressively showed his skiing skills outside the park and pipe with a fifth place in the big mountain competition. From Europe, Birgit Ertl from Austria showed her qualities with a 2nd place.

Winter has passed and the season is over. What happened to my big mission? A look back.

On the weekend of February 21-23, 2014, the 14th edition of the First Track Freeride Contest took place in the small ski resort of St. Luc / Chandolin in the beautiful Val d'Anniviers. The weather and snow conditions could hardly have been better: On Friday and on Sunday night, around 15 cm of very light fresh snow fell on a relatively solid and soft base. This meant that nothing stood in the way of the "first tracks" for the two runs on Saturday and Sunday!

Two Pinzgau freeriders, Sabine Schipflinger and Siobhan Challis, dominated the sunny first edition of the OPEN FACES Freeride Contest in Uttendorf-Weißsee, Salzburg. In the men's ski category, there is currently no way around Tyrolean Stefan Jöchl, while Sabine Schipflinger (AUT) won the women's ski category. First place in the snowboarder category went to Gergo Szkalák from Hungary, while Siobhan Challis (AUT) won the women's competition.

We have a short review of the Open Faces FWQ stops in Axamer Lizum and Kappl for you by rider reporters Jochen Mesle and Julian Zenzmaier. The Freeride World Qualifier in Axams was held as a 3* event for the first time this year and put on a correspondingly big show. Exactly one week later, the third stop in Kappl (2*) also took place. The contest face on the Quellspitze, already known as a Freeride World Tour alternative location, had great snow conditions right to the end thanks to the good slope location (south-east), so nothing stood in the way of the contest taking place.

At the ninth edition of the popular Morgins Freesession on February 15, 2014, the Swiss riders also received a ranking for the Swiss Freeride Championships for the first time. The snow quality was very reminiscent of off-piste riding in spring due to the air masses being far too warm for the time of year, which some riders clearly knew how to demonstrate... But take a look for yourself! Rider reporter Niko Göz was once again at the start for PowderGuide...

76 freeriders from 11 nations conquered the face on the "Stoana Mandl" at the season opener of the Open Faces series on the Hochkönig. After heavy gusts of wind had initially delayed the start, the Hochkönig finally gave the hoped-for GO for the start of the Open Faces and at the same time the start of the Austrian Freeride Series. Birgit Ertl from Radstadt won the women's ski category, Siobhan Challis won the women's snowboard category and skier Maximilian Dettenhofer and snowboarder Andreas Bichler won the men's category. For PowderGuide, participant Stephanie Posch reports on her day at the contest:

The Big Mountain Hochfügen 4* FWQ is now an established contest with a very strong field of riders on a slope that can easily compete with most of the FWT faces. This was one of the reasons why the podium places at the 2013 edition were mainly occupied by current FWT riders, above all Loic Collomb-Patton, who qualified for the World Tour with his victory and has been unstoppable ever since. While the conditions on the slopes were pretty good at times due to the difficult winter in the Northern Alps (PowderGuide tested them on site), the mild temperatures and foehn are currently putting quite a strain on the snowpack. Nevertheless, we hope for a successful competition from 08.02.2014 in safe conditions!

The Austrian Freeride Series kicks off its second season with the 1* Qualifier Open Faces Hochkönig on February 1st. At ten stops in four federal states, freeriders will be battling for no less than 9340 FW Qualifier points and the title of Austrian Freeride Champion over the coming months.

No big surprise: the second Open Faces tour stop in Kappl has unfortunately also had to be postponed due to a lack of snow.

New date: 14-16.02.2014. As part of yesterday's Open Faces Kick Off Party in Innsbruck, the Open Faces organizers also announced the new date for the postponed three-star competition in the Axamer Lizum. This is now to be held on the second weekend in February, i.e. from February 14th to 16th. However, the date for the Open remains open due to the unchanged snow conditions; the Open Faces crew will also provide an update on this next Saturday, January 11.