Freeride World Tour

[claymond]

I wondered the same thing. And in the past if it was suggested women have an 'easier' venue they were upset about it. So all I can come up with is that they were offered it by Lolo/Nicholas and agreed to or actually chose it as a group.

On his podcast, Derek Foose said the FWT told the women they'd be on the Petite Bec. Didn't sound like it was a discussion. The main reason was that there'd been too many close calls with sluff on smaller, less consequential faces and they were worried about safety. He said some women competitors were happy about it and some were mad

[uglymoney]

Silverton Challenger event livestream.
Snowboard men is on now.

https://freeskier.com/stories/live-s...erton-colorado

Woman skiers on now. No sound though on our end?

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[ASmileyFace]

Woman skiers on now. No sound though on our end?

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No sound here either, stream was great early but has been in and out the last hour or so.

Women's ski started off excellently.

[uglymoney]

Lydia crushing. Heartbreaking fall off that last feature. Damn.

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[powdork]

There is an unmute broadcast button that shows up when you hover over the screen

[powdork]

Anyone take him up on that Celtics bet?

[meter-man]

CONGRATS to the BIG winners of the FWT!!

1. Gaijin: 11671 points
2. nordekette: 11486 points (so close!)
3. G$: 8,682 points

Way in last...
6. meters: 6,800 points. I picked Goguen to win the Men's ski category for the season, but he came in second... zero points for that. Hitzig was my second place, but no bets on second. I did get Hedwig for Women's ski. Otherwise struck out.

AGAIN, congrats to gaijin for winning the real comp!!

[weibo]

I got zero points picking the overall Champs, I also had Goguen but I thought Hedwig would be second to Dufour-Lapointe

[Island Bay]

Wasn't quite sure where to post this. How fcuken good is Reine B.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5TnfP8obnX/

[bobinch]

Wasn't quite sure where to post this. How fcuken good is Reine B.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5TnfP8obnX/

The boss!

A few local mags going up tomorrow morning to pay homage to the Mayor of Stomptown!

[powdork]

I wish they could have those conditions for a comp. Must have been snowing all day since the sun is out of the west and the snow is fresh and unbaked

[Shredhead]

I wish they could just make some money. Just doesn’t seem prudent to throw down for peanuts.

[TahoeJ]

I wish they could just make some money. Just doesn’t seem prudent to throw down for peanuts.

Yeah, it's too bad, but we also know that at times the tour has been hanging on by a thread just to survive. I guess the primary motivation is to make a name for yourself and get more sponsorship money and move on to ski films.

[oftpiste]

When Thing #2 was out there there were decent cash prizes for podium spots. Not huge, but a decent bump for an athlete. Are those no more?

[powdork]

As of 2022 it was $5k, $3k, $2k for podium finishes in all categories. I imagine it has gone up since.

[TahoeJ]

I thought I heard the top spot at the Bec was $10k this year but I could be mistaken. Or maybe that’s for the overall?

[bobinch]

Little guy first Bec :-)




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[Island Bay]

Niiice!

[TahoeJ]

Awesome. I’m sure it feels way steeper than it even looks.

[bobinch]

Awesome. I’m sure it feels way steeper than it even looks.

The top part of the direct entry to the dogleg always get the nerves jangling!

[toast2266]

Wei Tien Ho just won the enduro world series in Leogang (Under 21 class). The kid's a ripper on a bike too apparently. Year round talent.

[Dantheman]

That is not right.

[beaterdit]

Kid's got crazy talent for sure but growing up in Whistler's got its perks too.

[Pirene]

So a new season is upon us, let's see what it brings!

First off, Hitzig is out due to injury, the throne is up for grabs now. My bets are on Marcus Goguen or Ross Tester, but there's other heavy hitters in for sure. Not a fan of his style but Edvin Olsson rips.

I saw this post from Georgia: Instagram and thought wow, what a snowpack. Turns out it's an old video, more recent stuff looks rather shallow, hopefully everything fills in around there.

Next, with all this snow in France with high snowlines Caron should be pretty filled in, fingers crossed for some refill to come in before the comp.

Finally, it's the third abismal season in a row in the Pyrenees, Baciver looking kind of windfucked currently. Some rain turning into snow tonight, unfortunately accompanied by strong winds, depending on how the face looks afterwards the call will be made if Baciver goes or if they look for another face (they have been scouting around). Persistent high pressure moving in from sunday, so this is the last snow they will get.

This is how Baciver currently looks



Once again, they won't consider the Vinyeta face. It's been skied a bunch this year, no avalanches to the ground as far as I know (last year it was not really skiable), holds better snow, less wind affected, and much longer (450 hm of features vs 250...).

The problem is people tend to die on that face. Lots of blind rollovers, perfect pitch for avalanches and they tend to get quite large due to the face not seeing any sun in winter. This would not be a problem for FWT riders, but management is reportedly worried that it would make (even) more people ski the face if they see it skied by the pros, leading to more accidents in the future... If you ask me they should just implement a gate system with strict enforcement. They already do some avalanche control there but it's still European policy, ducking ropes is common, etc. Fact is people die nearly every season on that face so increasing its popularity is not really something they are looking for. Still, one can dream....

What it looks like in a good season:


Current webcam view. Shallow but skiable



If they want to do it inbounds, it would be quite Junior/Qualifier vibe but there's a lift where you can get a bunch of hits, not very technical but you can go big on some hits and line creativity would become very important. A hike to the couloirs lookers left would add some big mountain element. Around 300-400hm of features depending on your line. Picture not current, but gives a great overview. Coverage is decent currently, snow quality would be pretty variable a week from now.



But, from what I've heard they have been looking at stuff north of the resort. If that's where they decide to go I would expect quite a lackluster event with organization waiting for corn in the late morning on a mellow face, or some short 200 hm north face with many rocks but not many cliffs. If they decide to go one or two drainages further than what I've heard, they would find this face, which I think would be very nice. Saddle at 2450, top at 2550, the path at the bottom is under 2000. NE, so should not suffer too much from the W storm coming in tonight, snow should stay quite good. Wind does do weird stuff in those side valleys, so how it actually looks is a mistery.




All of this to say, I expect them to try Baciver anyways with a saddle start instead of a top start due to rocks on the first part. Maybe they can pack in a traverse to the couloirs and have the comp there like management wants. I just hope they try something cool instead.

[meter-man]

Great post! ^^^^ Thank you, Pirene.

Calendar for this year:

2025 Baqueira Beret Pro by Movistar: 18-23 Jan, 2025

2025 Val Thorens Pro: 27-01 Jan, 2025

2025 Kicking Horse Golden BC Pro: 07-13 Feb, 2025

2025 Georgia Pro: 23-01 Feb, 2025

2025 Fieberbrunn Pro: 08-13 Mar, 2025

2025 YETI Xtreme Verbier by Honda: 22-30 Mar, 2025