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. With no improvement in the weather in sight within the scheduled time window, the men's ski contest was ultimately called off completely. This means that the overall standings after the first four events count. The new FWT champion is Loic Collomb-Patton (FRA). Fabio Studer took third place behind Logan Pehota (CAN) in the final standings. On Saturday morning, the competitions for female skiers, snowboarders and snowboarders could still be held. The conditions were not exactly ideal and the skiers had to contend with diffuse visibility, crusts of melted snow and, in the lower part of the Bec, heavy snow. In these rather adverse conditions, Eva Walkner (AUT), Estelle Balet (SUI) and Sammy Luebke (USA) were crowned the new FWT World Champions. The Xtreme victories went to Jaclyn Paaso (USA), Estelle Balet (SUI) and Sammy Luebke (USA). Snowboard legend Flo Orley (AUT) ended his career with a very technical line with only slight difficulties after a big drop and was rewarded with second place and secured the runner-up title in the overall standings, a worthy end to his FWT career.
Nearly any of the riders managed a clean run, which certainly had something to do with the poor visibility. In the end, however, at least everyone made it to the finish safely and uninjured. All of the women's snowboard runs included at least one small fall/backslap. It was worth continuing undeterred, as Estelle Balet and her line won with a fast combination of cliff drops in the lower section. Anne-Flore Marxer could possibly have won the overall standings with a safe run, but went all out and risked a 360, after which she unfortunately crashed. Nadine Wallner's safe line in the women's skiing made it clear that the conditions were probably so difficult that it wasn't worth taking the risk of a spectacular line if you're already qualified for next season and not in contention for victory. Eva Walkner rode smart but not boring to her second FWT title. Ariana Tricomi risked a little too much at the start and lost control in difficult visibility, dropping back to third place in the overall standings. Sporty even after the fall, she also attempted another 360 further down. Evelina Nilsson, the second newcomer in this year's tour, showed a very strong run at the beginning and unfortunately fell in the lower section.
Over the course of Saturday, the visibility got worse and worse, meaning that the skiers had to leave without having achieved anything after hours of waiting on the summit. On Sunday, it was the same story: first the hope of a window of sunshine and then increasingly poor wind and weather conditions. In the end, the organizers decided to cancel the Ski Men contest completely. A first, as the founder of the FWT, Nicolas Hale-Woods, explains: "This is the first time in 21 years that we have had to cancel one of the disciplines in Verbier. But it wasn't safe today due to the light conditions. The wind also severely affected the snow conditions on the slope. Now four days of foehn are forecast, then it's supposed to snow - we don't know what the conditions will be like on the Bec. There are just too many unknowns."
After the decision, three skiers were able to celebrate: the new world champion Loic Collomb-Patton (FRA), who won the FWT for the second time after 2014, the second-placed newcomer Logan Pehota (USA) and Fabio Studer (AUT) in third place. The Koblach native is the first Austrian skier in FWT history to make it onto the podium - Stefan Häusl's fourth place in 2011 and Matthias Haunholder's best results of the season so far were in 2009. Studer himself was fifth in the overall standings in 2013. Despite the success, he regretted the cancellation: "It's a real shame that the contest couldn't be held. But the weather and visibility conditions simply didn't allow it. I'm happy about my third place in the overall ranking and I'm looking forward to attacking again next season!" Felix Wiemers (GER) from Biedenkopf ends the season in seventh place, Stefan Häusl (AUT) from Strengen in eighth place.
