Our prayers have been answered. The Natural Selection Tour (NST), Travis Rice’s backcountry snowboard competition, will be expanded to include disciplines other than one-planking.
Natural Selection Tour Format
For years skiers have watched the Natural Selection Tour (NST) from the sidelines and wondered why there wasnt a ski category. NST was established in 2021 and was quickly embraced by the snowboard community. The first competition in its class, NST focused purely on backcountry, wheras other competitions like X-Games focused on Slopestyle, Big Air, and Halfpipe and The Freeride World Tour (FWT) focused more on, well, Freeride. Although NST is closer to FWT in structure, the NST head-to-head style of competition brought a sense of “anything could happen” vibe that really resonated with fans.
The NST is a series of head-to-head “duels” where riders face eachother to advance in the bracket to the final. Their runs are judged on Creativity, Risk, Execution, Difficulty, and Overall Impression.
Why Now?
The NST was originally for snowboarders only – think of it as a reverse Alta scenario. But T-Rice has relented his board-only mentality and has selected a single stage showdown in Alaska in mid-April.
“After years of inbound inquiry and conversations, it has become apparent that we have a lot to share with these incredible subcultures and communities, new events are desired, and frankly needed.” – Travis Rice
T-Rice
Natural Selection Tour Ski Athletes
Ok, so the stage is set but who is going to be competing. Well, if you were excited before, hold on to your hat because the NST has gone out and procured some of the best backcountry skiers from the last two decades to compete. Some of the big names on the list include: Chris Bentchetler, Kristi Leskinen, Markus Eder, Candide Thovex, and Sammy Carlson
Our good pal – Sammy Carlson
Not only will there be a skiing event added to the NST calendar but other sports such as Surfing and Mountain Biking will also be welcomed into the NST Family.
, famous snowboard-only competition, will feature skiing in 2025 iteration of the event.){kind=link}