Freeride World Tour

Niko Göz was in Les Arcs for PowderGuide at the premiere of the 2 and 4* FWQ contests. He wrote his report in English so that his colleagues and fellow participants as well as the organizers could theoretically read along.

For the second stop of the Freeride World Tour 2016, the riders have moved on to Chamonix, the Mecca for skiers and alpinists. On the north face of the Aig. Pourrie, they put on an action-packed show.

The Freeride Junior World Championships were postponed from Thursday 28.01. to Saturday 30.01.16 due to poor snow conditions. Our reporter Christiane, who unfortunately couldn't be on site until Saturday, briefly describes her impressions and interesting background information from Thursday before going into the results of Saturday's contest. This is followed by a short interview with German junior skier Leo Birker and a spot check of the mountains in Andorra.

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.

In the third part of the Arc'teryx web series Commit, the likeable Norwegian Pia Nic Gundersen talks about a torn cruciate ligament and her return to skiing.

Markus Eder from Val Pusteria has been the figurehead of Italian freeskiing for several years now. After a career in the park and an Olympic participation in slopestyle in Sochi, Markus can now be seen more and more in powder. He has been on the Freeride World Tour for several years and also films freeride segments with MSP, one of the biggest ski film productions in the world (Days of my Youth, Superheros of Stoke and many more). On Thursday 29 October 2015, "Fade to Winter" celebrates its European premiere in Innsbruck. We took this as an opportunity to ask Markus a few questions about his work with MSP and his plans for the winter.

The last PowderGuide interview with Fabian Lentsch was a few years ago and was entitled 'The Junior'. In the meantime, Fabi, now 22, has established himself as a pro in the freeride scene. He rides for the most famous of all action sports-hyping effervescent manufacturers, qualified for the Freeride World Tour and then voluntarily left it behind, has appeared in several major film productions, traveled from Tyrol to Kyrgyzstan with a camper van and skis, and started speed flying. Over coffee, he told us about his FWT exit, how he deals with risk and his plans for the future.

The story of the GPO (short for Giant Pacific Octopus) began in the fall of 2012, when Drew Tabke designed a ski with which he would later win the Freeride World Tour. And although the GPO has proven big mountain qualities, it is still an all-round freeride ski for (almost) everyone.

The final of the Open Faces and the European FWQs took place on March 21, 2015 in Obergurgl-Hochgurgl in Ötztal.

The final FWQ competition in Switzerland for this year took place on March 13-14th 2015 in the charming village of Nendaz, surrounded by the impressive mountains of the valais. When it comes to FWQs in the western part of the alps, Nico Goez is our rider on site. Here is his short wrap of one of the major 4* FWQ events in the alps.

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.

On Saturday, 14.03.15, the Axamer Lizum presented itself in its second attempt at the FWQ 3* event with sunshine, a great atmosphere in the Hoadl and good conditions on the contest slope: the Hochtennboden. The participants Julian Zenzmaier and Jochen Mesle were on site for PowderGuide and report on their impressions.