Men’s Snowboard

After the skiers had had their way with the face, Camile Armand was the first snowboarder to drop in 2017, taking a few big drops and some nice, high speed turns, all under control and all the way to the bottom. The rest of the euros present didn’t fare so well, with wildcard Polo de la Rue (the middle brother) and Christoffer Granbom struggling to hold on through the variable snow conditions.

Apart from Austrian Thomas Feurstein that is. The FWT rookie qualified of the European FWQ series last year and obviously had something to prove on the big stage. Whilst his airs weren’t the biggest of the day, he had the most playful style of the pack, carving and popping off anything he came across, even riding out a back 360 over a miniature tree.His cajones earned him second

1. Sammy Luebke
2. Thomas Feurstein
3. Ralph Backstrom

His cajones earned him second place overall, squeaking ahead of tour veteran Ralph Backstrom who tore through the top half of the course with some of the most insane, high-speed turns of the day. He, in turn had just pipped Jonathon Penfield to the bronze spot, though the latter’s beautifully flowing run top-to-bottom did make its own case for the podium.

However, it was current tour champ Sammy Luebke who had the day from almost the start. Dropping in second he rode confidently and was the only rider to grab all his airs, including a monster drop to kick things off and his trademark back 360 indy. In no way was he cruising this, but over the last few years on the tour he’s gained the ability to make faces like this look like a breeze.

Women’s Snowboard

1. Anne-Flore Marxer
2. Nicola Thost
3. Mikaela Hollsten

With the usually perfect Freeride World Tour live stream having some difficulties at the start of the women’s contest, it was relieving to see it back online in time for veteran rider Anne-Flore Marxer to drop, starting off her run for Estelle with a steep take off into a big cliff, railing out the turn after effortlessly before launching a smaller air and finishing off with some face shots. Beautiful stuff, and a well deserved first to start off the season.

Nicola Thost and Mikaela Hollsten came in second and third respectively, experience clearly paying off in the changeable snowpack and only eight points separating the podium holders come the end of the day.

And that was all she wrote for the first stop of the 2017 Freeride World Tour, though we’re staying tuned to see if avalanche conditions will settle in time for them to re-hold the first leg of the tour in Andorra later this week. If not, the next stage of the tour will be in Fieberbriunn, Austria, meaning that there will be two qualifying rounds before the tour moves on to Alaska, leaving the riders no room for error!