World's best freeriders in Cham
Saturday January 30, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

The scheduled Chamonix leg of the FWT takes place this weekend on the Brevant slopes with the best freeriders in the world battling it out for top honours. They will come down the Pentes de l’Hôtel face.

It was due to take place on Saturday but recent snowfall and bad weather means it has been moved till Sunday.

"The Mountain Guides have, for the past several days, secured the competition face and will continue Saturday before the riders’ binocular inspection of the face, scheduled for 2 pm. The last few days of snowfall promise excellent conditions on the competition face," say the organisers.

The event itself shoull start at 10.00 on Sunday morning.

Then on the next available day they will do it all over again for the postponed Sochi leg. 

Awesome!Chamonix was planned to be the second event after the first leg of the tour in Sochi, Russia.  However it had to be postponed, as we reported here, because of bad weather.

The riders and race officials waited for 10 days but eventually it was deemed to be unsafe to hold the event and so it was decided to hold it in Chamonix on the first available day.

The Freeride World Tour pits the best skiers and snowboarders, male and female, against each other.

They are allowed to chose any route down a big mountain face demonstrating their technique through their choice of line and any tricks they may chose to pull on the way down.

We are talking big cliff jumps.

So, which way down would you choose?

The atmosphere in town is expectant though it remains to be seen how many people turn out to watch, especially if it is a powder day.

The current champion Aurélien Ducroz, who was born and bred in Chamonix, will be the hometown favourite on the 400 metre, steep, east facing contest site "Pentes de l'Hôtel" at Brévent.

He spoke to PlanetSKI about this winter's competition in London back in the autumn when he was passing through.

See the video below.

The American freeride skier, JT Holmes, is back competing this weekend.

"Putting yourself up against the best skiers in the world four times during the year, you're going to see where your strengths and weaknesses are. You're going to be the best skier you possibly can, plus, the Freeride World Tour only chooses the best mountains," says Holmes.

Regular readers will know we also followed the event closely last winter and were at the French leg, that was held in Tignes.

Here on PlanetSKI we will bring you news of how it all goes in Chamonix over the weekend. 

It promises to be something rather special.  We will also be in Verbier, Switzerland, for the final in March when the riders come down the awesome Bec des Rosses mountain.

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