Freeride World Tour

The contest season has begun. Six competitions have already taken place in the past week: Hakuba, Verbier and Kappl kicked things off. While it was difficult to find a suitable weather and time window in Hakuba due to the constant snowfall, the snow cover in the Alps is still thin, but apparently it is already good enough for contests. Hopefully also for the planned start of the FWT in Chamonix next weekend!

The first contests are coming up, with Japan and Tyrol kicking things off. As the start of the FWT season is still two weeks away, let's take a quick look at the In&Outs of the FWT starting field.

Little has changed since the last article, especially in terms of the snow situation. A few more event dates have subsequently been added and the Freeride World Tour has extended contracts with ski resorts.

This season, PowderGuide has a new "ContestHappening" section. Over the past few years, we have already reported intensively on the various Freeride World Tour competitions, their qualifier and junior events, as well as the ever decreasing number of independent events. We want to continue to do this, just in a different form: Instead of selective reporting, we will provide an overview of the latest happenings in competition-oriented freeriding in a regular, weekly column in mid-winter. Our rider reporters will also continue to provide a direct insight into individual contests.

There was hardly a freeride qualifier podium last winter that Manuela Mandl, 28, wasn't on. With first places in Jasna, Nendaz, at the X-Override and in Roldal, among others, it's no surprise that she will be competing in the women's snowboard Freeride World Tour in 2017. We had a chat with Manu in the run-up to the event.

The Roldal Freeride Challenge is the crowning finale of the contest season. Once again gnarly conditions, an enthusiastic crowd and fresh salmon.

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.

Once again a perfectly organized Freeride World Qualifier Event with top snow conditions at the Faces of La Maretze and Mont Gond! Nicolai Göz was in Valais for PowderGuide and gives us an insight into the top-class qualifier event!

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.

At the third stop of the Freeride World Tour in Fieberbrunn, Austria, the tickets for the stop in Alaska will be awarded from 08:15 on 09.03.2016. After a snowy phase in the last few days, the weather forecast now predicts the best conditions for the planned contest day. After the contest could not be held on the Wildseeloder in the last two years, it now looks like the FWT will return to this legendary face in Tyrol. You can follow the Lievstream live on PowderGuide.com!

The third tour stop of the Freeride World Tour in Saalbach-Hinterglemm/Leogang/Fieberbrunn is just around the corner. The riders will once again be battling for the judges' points to make the cut for the FWT stop in Alaska. To provide you with a little more background information, Benjamin Eggert spoke to Head Judge Berti Denervaud at the FWT stop in Andorra about safety issues and judging.