No, I’m told – he just can’t hack the 4.30am wake up time and almost missed his place, therefore he’ll be dropping after the official running order. Sigh of relief. Relaxed, I sit back and watch some of the world’s best freeriders drop into a face that – even at low tide – is spectacular. Live streams are one thing, in the flesh it’s something else.

Ralph Backstrom, Emilien Badoux and Sammy Luebke all finish up their single-chances right in front of me, the latter sticking a sick double drop with a back 360 on the second.

I’ve seen my fair share of slopestyle events up close, but there’s something about the rawness here that elevates this above the rest. Plus the camaraderie here is special – everyone wants everyone else to stick their lines. Not just out of sportsmanship mind, this is gnarly stuff and accidents happen, made too obvious when Jonathon Charlet takes a brutal tumble at Mach 10 right on the home straight.

Hamm’s trademark velocity lights up the face, ripping turns and sending some of the biggest drops of the day so far 

Christoffer Granbom‘s score of 80 looks set to take it, but then Hamm drops. Finally. His trademark velocity lights up the face, ripping turns and sending some of the biggest drops of the day so far. There’s little doubt that he’s taken the win – his first ever on the tour – as he arrives at the finish, but when the board ticks over to 81.75 the rest of the riders show their appreciation, rushing over to congratulate him.

Later at the prize giving, both he and Camille Armand will dedicate their podium spots to their recently-fallen friend ‘Minh’ – this season’s snow pack is as sketchy as ever after all.

It’s then the turn of the women snowboarders – the reigning champ Estelle Balet once again snapping up a victory with the first tracks down one of the bottom colouirs, whilst newcomer Marion Haerty snaps at her heels. Finnish-born Mikaela Hollsten nipped in at the end to claim third place, displacing wildcard entry and Olympian slopestyle rider Kjersti Buass from the podium by a point or two on her freeride debut!

We managed to catch up with her – mutually relived at finding fellow FWT rookies in the crowd – and the stoke was radiating from her. “When I came up there today and saw people dropping in I was like ‘Woah! I can hit that! That’s a feature, wow I didn’t see that,’” she said, “But then I was like ‘Just stick to your line for now, don’t make it too over-complicated. Just get to the bottom and have fun.’”

“I didn’t really know what to expect coming in here, but being able to do pow slashes in your run… I can get really used to that.”

Even with the Laax Open halfpipe raging over in Switzerland, this is the contest that what most people call snowboarding can most relate to, something we can aspire to more than any double wild cat fakie.

Love snowboarding? You’ll adore the Freeride World Tour. Next stop Chamonix…