Verbier

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.

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.

The FWT crossed the Atlantic for its fourth and only North American tour stop in 2015 and landed in Haines, Alaska (USA). The field of participants has been reduced in all categories: Only the top 60% of the overall rankings are still taking part in the FWT Alaska premiere. But 2015 will not only be remembered for this first FWT tour stop in Alaska, but also for the following anniversary at the FWT finale: the Verier Xtreme is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

After every Patrouille des Glaciers, I had decided that this would be my last participation in this extreme ski touring race. But once again, I couldn't resist the request from my friends Marc White and Daniel Huguet to join them on the next Patrouille des Glacier.

The wealth of freeride variants, their extremely good accessibility with the lifts and targeted marketing have meant that the area around Mont Fort has been teeming with freeriders in recent years. Accordingly, you have to get up early after snowfall if you want to secure your line in the fresh snow. However, if you are prepared to climb up with your skins, you can escape the hustle and bustle and enjoy challenging freeride descents almost on your own. There are plenty of them in the area around the local mountain, Mont Fort.

As in previous years, this winter's finale of the very varied Freeride World Tour was an exciting high-caliber event at the legendary Bec des Rosses in Verbier in the Valais Alps. Due to the difficult snow conditions on the extremely steep northern slope of the Bec des Rosses and last-minute changes to the starting line-up, early speculation about the distribution of titles and the day's winners was completely inappropriate. The Verbier Xtreme 2014 freeride competition was correspondingly exciting for spectators and participants alike.

At the third edition of Verbier Freeride Week, amateurs and well-known freeriders from all over the world were once again able to compete for one of the coveted starting places. In the three 2* FWQ contests that took place, you had the opportunity to qualify for the 3* final with a very good placing and thus collect some points in the FWQ ranking system right at the start of the season. For PowderGuide, Niko Göz once again reports on his experiences at the event this season.

Verbier is one of the most famous ski resorts in the Alps and a Christmas meeting place for the chic crowd, adabeis and English Hooray Henrys. That shouldn't stop us from skiing the world-famous lines and couloirs such as Stairway To Heaven and Rock Garden. This is my experience report, which is also a guide to the best way to experience Verbier with a small yellow bag and wide laths.

The unified Freeride World Tour has crowned its first world champions: Drew Tabke (USA), Ralph Backstrom (USA), Nadine Wallner (AUT) and Elodie Mouthon (FRA). The winners of the final on the Bec des Rosses were Kevin Guri (FRA), Ralph Backstrom (USA), Matilda Rapaport (SWE) and Elodie Mouthon (FRA). The contest took place in very good snow conditions at an absolutely top-class level! Thousands of spectators on site and over 180,000 viewers followed the 18th Verbier Xtreme live via webcast.

The second edition of the Freeride Week in the heart of the Val de Bagnes in Lower Valais offered amateur freeriders from all over the world the opportunity to take part in three 2-star Freeride World Qualifier contests and thus move up the rankings of the FWQ series. The Verbier Freeride Week took place from January 13 to 20.

"ALL WINNERS IN VERBIER ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS" could already be read in the news on the Freeride Worldtour homepage on Sunday afternoon. On Saturday, March 24th, in front of 1000 spectators sizzling in the sun and another 25,000 cheering live via the internet, the top riders were allowed to draw their signatures into the steep north face of the Bec des Rosses. The 16th edition of the Verbier Xtreme and the Freeride World Tour have now come to an end.

For the second year, Diamir and other partners are offering the Freeride Education Camp. This coming weekend (January 7 & 8, 2012), everything you need to know about freeride mountaineering will once again be taught in a rustic atmosphere at the Cabane Mt. Fort and in the excellent off-piste terrain of Verbier. After the first camp (Galtür) had to be canceled due to a lack of snow, Verbier now offers great freeride conditions. And the next dump is coming up just in time for the weekend.