The Freeride World Tour Kicking Horse Golden BC Pro is over and what a week it was. Although the snow conditions weren’t amazing, the sun was out all week and the athletes all made the best of the conditions, with some amazing runs from both categories.
Recap
The sun shone on Kicking Horse Mountain Resort’s Terminator 1 South face on February 15th, 2024. Spectators of all ages braved the traverse across the ridge from the Golden Eagle Express Gondola to get a prime spot in the sun to watch the action. Snow conditions were not ideal, with 15cm of fresh snow covering a rain crust. The women’s ski category started the skiers off and the diverse field all skied superbly with minimal crashes. Men’s ski closed out the day with 20 of the world’s best male skiers going head to head in a battle for the ages for the podium and the all-important points in the season leaderboard. In true Canadian fashion, the skiers who stood on the podium at the end of the day were given hockey sticks and jean jackets as well as their well-earned hardware
Results
SKI MEN
- Max Hitzig (GER)
- Oscar Mandin (FRA)
- Marcus Goguen (CAN)
Max doubles up with his second win of the season with a high-octane run complete with cliff drops and a huge 360. With this win, Max extends his lead in the overall standings. Hometown hero Marcus Goguen also had an amazing run with multiple tricks and was cheered on by friends and family who drove out from Whistler to watch him compete.
SKI WOMEN
- Astrid Cheylus (FRA)
- Manon Loshi (FRA)
- Hedvig Vessel (NOR)
Rookie Astrid Cheylus put it all on the line and came up with the win, dropping some chunky cliffs as well as chucking a huge backflip at the bottom windlip for the crowd. Manon Loschi also threw a beautiful backflip, landing her in second place, only three points behind her French compatriot.
Highlights
This year’s event was packed with highlights but here are a couple that we thought stood out
Stan Rey’s Tomahawk
First out of the start gate for the Ski Men category, wildcard Stan Rey had a perfect run until he took a line far right of the face to find a double-drop cliff that nobody had even looked at. He skied the cliff perfectly, bouncing off the platform of the second cliff, grabbing safety, and then landed…
Astrid Cheylus’s Run
Astrid’s run was a heater from top to bottom. She lined up two massive cliffs with super aggressive freeride turns. At the end of her run, she risked it all by adding in a backflip for the crowd.
Oscar Mandin’s Backflip
By far the biggest trick of the day, Oscar went to the moon with this backflip.
SKIER Team Thoughts
What a week. It was awesome to get invited to the event and get to know the athletes at dinners and social events hosted by the sponsors. The competition itself was great. Although we were worried about the snow conditions, many athletes reported that the snow was better than it looked. There were some issues with scrubbing speed as we predicted and there was also a fair few instances where athlete’s skis got caught up in ice crust and small obstacles hiding under the surface. Shout out to the Freeride World Tour, Golden Tourism, Pit Viper, Peak Performance, and Whitetooth Brewing Co. for putting on a stellar event!
Stay tuned for the SKIER interview series from the event. Here is a sneak peak!
