ContestHappening 6 2023 | Safety training at the FWT

The flood of young, talented and freestyle-oriented riders on the World Tour is constantly setting new standards. Whether it's double backflips à la Max Palm or Max Hitzig's jump over a 25m cliff in Canada, which was only opened a few years ago and has already been elegantly backflipped - it seems as if the new generation is pushing the old hands out of the contest scene.

Different levels of experience and training come together at the FWT

But what these legends have over the current riders for the most part is experience on the mountain. Respect and risk assessment are a big part of safe freeriding and a lot of it is simply experience-based. Only through knowledge is it possible to better assess and deal with dangers. To this end, athletes must repeatedly and constantly take part in safety workshops, for which Stephan Skrobar is responsible. Stephan is a state-certified ski instructor and ski guide, runs his own alpine school and has been the safety officer for the Freeride World Tour for several years. In his training courses, he divides the athletes into many smaller groups and adapts the level of language and content to the participants. He reports "clear differences that are partly cultural and partly biographical". By this he means that there are fundamental differences in training. In North America, details are handled differently than in New Zealand and even in the Alpine region there are always differences. However, he sees this as an advantage, as the athletes learn from each other and can therefore directly exchange ideas"

The athletes on the tour are of course role models for younger freeriders, who are discovering the sport for themselves in ever-increasing numbers. At the age of 25, I too am always impressed by the spectacular moments of the FWT, although I am already one of the older candidates compared to the average age. The overall leader, Valentin Rainer, is 24 years young and says: "There are only three older riders on the tour." This underlines once again the extreme popularity and interest of young skiers and snowboarders in contest freeriding. Spectacular videos and images that spread rapidly through social media also reach Generation Z.

Contest freeriding has little to do with "normal" risk management

However, the Freeride World Tour in the media and the athletes on their own channels naturally only represent a small part of freeriding. 99% of freeriders are not taken to the Wildseeloder by helicopter. Nor do they ride a slope that has been observed, measured, evaluated and classified as safe over several days by a team of experts from all possible disciplines. There are also no teams of mountain rescuers in the immediate vicinity to provide rapid first aid and professional transportation in the event of a serious fall. We all actually do all these tasks ourselves and therefore have a completely different responsibility for ourselves and also for our friends with whom we want to enjoy the day in the powder.

This article is absolutely not intended to diminish the achievements of the men and women on the FWT, to doubt their skills, courage and creativity or to question whether they are fulfilling their responsibilities. However, it is important to be aware of the differences between the tour and avalanche safety and risk management and to raise awareness of them.