ContestHappening 11 2016/17 | Not much new (at least in the West)

Cookies 🍪

This site uses cookies that need consent.

Functional First party cookies needed for the website to function. These can't be turned off. Video embeds Third party cookies used for embedded video's that can possibly track you.

Shifts, FWQ in Jasna and broadening horizons into the big, wide world

J. Bernard

Apart from the FWQ in Jasna, not much happened in terms of contests during the last carnival week. The FWT organizers looked at locations in new countries for possible contests, there is a wildcard competition for the X-Over Ride and both the FWT tour stop in Fieberbrunn and the 3* qualifier in the Axamer Lizum had to be postponed due to the weather.

Postponements

Due to the weather conditions, no FWT contest will take place in Fieberbrunn until Tuesday, March 7, 2017. The hope is that the competition can take place on Wednesday, March 8. The qualifier in the Axamer Lizum also regularly has bad luck with the date, so it has had to be postponed several times. The new and last possible date for the competition in the Axamer Lizum is now Sunday, March 12th

Jasna Adrenaline FWQ 4*

The legendary qualifier in Jasna was held successfully. On Friday, March 3, a top-class field of participants once again did the honors here and made the contest slope and nightlife unsafe. The two FWT riders Manuela Mandl (Aut) and Anna Orlova (Rus) took first and second place in the SB women's event, followed by Ana Salvador Arguas (Esp). Long-time FWQ rider Laia Castellarnau Plaza (Esp) won the women's ski race, followed by Maude Basse (Sui) and Lotten Rapp (Swe) - also well-known names from the FWQ/FWT circus. Clement Bochatay (Fra) won the SB men's race, followed by Austria's Andeas Zweibrot and Cody Bramwell (Swe). Brothers Carl and Olle Regner Eriksson (Swe) took the top two places in the men's ski category, followed by Mathieu Gschwandtner from Austria.

Wildcard Competition

Because the run for the coveted wildcards for the X OVER RIDE is bigger than ever this year, a video contest has been launched for the first time. The most creative entries will win a starting place for the legendary contest on April 1st on the Kitzsteinhorn. The videos simply have to be uploaded to the X Over Ride Facebook page by March 12, after which the three remaining starting places will be decided by the most votes.

New freeride worlds

This week, we were sent a press release concerning the exploration of new Freeride World Tour locations: boss Nicolas Hale-Woods was in China with Xavier de le Rue and Sam Anthamatten to scout out the possibilities there. More precisely, they were at the Chinese-North Korean border at the Changbaichan volcano (Karte). They wanted to find out whether the area there could be suitable for contests. You need a special permit to be in the area and the crew had to deal with difficult wind and snow conditions. Nevertheless, they apparently found several competitive slopes in the area for potential contests.

This is probably all happening against the background that the ski industry in general, but also the freeride circus in particular, is hoping for a large market with a lot of growth potential in China. In addition, according to all reports, the Alaska stop will take place for the last time this year and a replacement is probably needed that is similarly spectacular or exotic and, above all, cheaper. The FWQ in Hakuba was apparently also a test event for a possible FWT stop in Japan. It will be interesting to see where the journey takes us; there will certainly be a lot happening at the FWT over the next few years.