Filmmakers had until the end of November to submit their freeride lines for the award created by Matthias "Hauni" Haunolder and Matthias Mayr. After a pre-selection in which the submitted films and lines were selected from five female and 10 male downhill lines, it was finally the turn of the audience and the jury: the final decision on the winners was made 50% by an online audience vote and 50% by an expert jury. According to their own statements, the high-caliber expert jury, consisting of Daron Rahlves, Michael 'Mitch' Tölderer (Freeride World Tour winner 2011), Martin 'McFly' Winkler (head judge of the Freeride World Tour), Hannes Kropik (deputy editor-in-chief at Sportmagazin) and Heinz Reich (FM4 presenter and passionate freerider), found it very difficult to objectively choose one line over another. You can also discuss the voting in our forum at the following link.
The lines submitted ranged from short but tricky runs (Gri Reichenberger from M-Line) to massive pillowlines (Fabi Lentsch from Whiteroom Productions) to high-speed 20m+ cliff drops (Tobi Tritscher from Legs of Steel). While some spectacular lines were still ahead with the audience, the highly technical lines (Melissa Presslaber from Shades of Winter and Max Zipser from Whiteroom Productions) made up a lot of ground in the jury voting. In the women's category, Sandra Lahnsteiner came out on top ahead of Pia Widmesser and Aline Bock and took home 1000 euros in cash. For his Alaska treeline, men's winner Fabi Lentsch can look forward to a heli-ski trip with CMH in Canada.
