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Fun in the Föhn

Gasp-inducing audacity, a return to form for a champion and a sentimental farewell. The Freeride World Tour stop in Fieberbrunn.

By Chris Cummins

On competition day in the early morning above Fieberbrunn in Tyrol, the craggily handsome face of the Wildseeloder was glowering fiercely. As the athletes of the Freeride World Tour headed up on the gondola at first light, conditions didn’t look inviting.

Ominous dark grey clouds had hidden the sun, meaning the competition had been delayed due to poor visibility. But it would be difficult to wait too long for it to clear too: a warm southerly wind was threatening to destabilize the snow.

In short, these were not ideal conditions to be mentally preparing for a run in which the athletes know full well they are risking life and limb.

a skier

FWT J Bernard

The 23-year old US skier Ryan Faye, competing in Fieberbrunn for the first time, summed up what was surely going through a lot of riders’ minds: “It’s pretty flat light so it really leaves you time for the nerves to build. It’s hard not to feel anxious, nervous and a little scared,” he told me. “But you just have to know your run and trust your skills and hopefully everything will turn out OK.”

The Pressure Builds

I’d ridden up in the gondola car with the German hope, Felix Wiemers, who was planning to keep calm by sipping hot chocolate in a mountain hut. “Later we have to hike up to reach the top of the mountain and for me when I start this hiking I feel the pressure start to build in my body and I feel ready and focused when I am on top.”

snowboarding

FWT JBernard

To be a winner on the World Freeride Tour you need to be able to pull out your best form when it counts – and that although, in this most weather-dependent of sports, you can spend hours at the top of the mountain waiting for that run that lasts less than 2 minutes.

The women snowboarders were first to charge down the mountain. For them competition day had meant a 5 a.m. wake-up call to get ready for their climb up to the starting position. The two-hour delay had hit them hard. By the time she started at 10 a.m., US snowboarder Erika Vikander had been on the wind-blown peak for nearly three hours.

Escape Via Music

“I am the type of person where I just stick my headphone in and try to go to a different place until it is game time,” she told me at the end of her 4th placed run.

women

Chris Cummins

“This morning it was a bit stressful because I was standing quite a long way from the start gate trying the look at my line and then they called over that I had two minutes to get ready. So it was a rush like a fire drill!”

Ebullient Austrian snowboarder Manuela Mandl is dominating this year’s Freeride World Tour and her second place here in Fieberbrunn, following her two wins earlier in the season, was enough to keep her at the top of the tour standings.

Mind Games and Superstition

She was all smiles at the bottom of the run but she admitted that she too found the waiting tough: “I think actually that is the most important part; to get your mind and your body used to that. You need to release the tension but then in five minutes get it going again.”

Manuela has a whole bagful of mind tricks and superstitions to help her deal with the pressure; always, for example, climbing in from the back of the start gate and always having a crash on the day of the competition before the event gets underway. “Today I managed that very easily,” she laughed, “because I fell down half of the other face. You have to fall every day or else you aren’t learning anything. But it is best to do it before the competition than during it!”

Manu

Chris Cummins

The ebullient Manuela Mandl is on top form this season

She was not particularly impressed with her run saying it wasn’t her “brightest day in the mountains.” The poor visibility had meant she was almost “riding blind” but the light remained consistently flat for all the snowboarding women so “everyone faced the same difficulties.”

„Feelings of Joy“

It was a great day for the Austrian women – Lorraine Huber, the defending World Freeride Tour champion in the skiing discipline, won the crunch Fieberbrunn event with a run including a huge drop off some jagged rocks.

By now the light was much better and the sun was even peeping out from behind the clouds.

a start

FWT J bernard

Lorraine said she didn’t know she’d won when she crossed the finishing line but said “I definitely had feelings of joy for sure and happiness that I got to ski the line that I planned because that is the best feeling.” Lorraine had had a tough start to the year.

A Return to Form

Before this victory here in Fieberbrunn she was in last place in the rankings after a series of disappointing results. Was it the pressure of being the defending champion? Lorraine told me that she had wanted to compete this year to test her mental strength by trying to cope with the raised expectations of the media, her sponsors and even her friends and family.

“I found out for myself that every time you are at the start you really have to throw down and the best thing is really to distance yourself from any expectations that others might have but also your own expectations.”

Lorraine

Chris Cummins

Lorraine Huber wins in Fieberbrunn

Crunch Time

Her win secured her a ticket, at the last gasp, for the prestigious finals in Verbier at the end of the month.

Fieberbrunn is the cut-off point in the Freeride World Tour, which is why it has been dubbed “Crunch time”.

Skiing evergreen (or do you say everwhite?) Eva Walkner, a double FWT overall champion, proved her pedigree with her 4th podium place of the season, including one victory. “Yeah, I stomped everything cleanly and I went very fast so I am really happy,” she smiled. “I think between me and Lorraine there were just some very, very small points.”

She will be a top favourite to take a third FWT title in Verbier.

„Like a Rocket“

Another Austrian gained a ticket to the end of season finale in Switzerland: snowboard legend Gigi Rüf entered the men’s competition as a wildcard and felt he’d made a few mistakes so he was pretty surprised to wind up as the winner.

Rüf is a star of snowboarding, particularly known for his dashing filming career, but had struggled on early attempts at competition riding. Yet his descent of the Wildseeloden proved a dynamic treat. “The snow was so responsive,” he said, “I felt I was taking off like a rocket. I was working hard just to tame things.”

Gigi celebrating

Chris Cummins

The Circle of Life

There was an emotional farewell for 41-year old Austria Stefan Häusl. After 9 years of the tour he decided to make his final run in a resort where it all began for him. “I really wanted to end my career here because this is where I took part in my first ever freeride competition and where I won my first ever freeride competition. I love the venue, I love the place and I have so many friends here.”

It was anything but a safety swansong; Stefan’s run featured a breathtaking cliff drop. “I’m just happy I stayed on my feet,” he laughed, “Because, I have to say, I was on the limit.”

In the end, the biggest show of the day came from French skier Mickael Bimboes who jumped right over the huge gap of a snow gully that other riders had tackled more like a half-pipe.

A Dinner Time Joke

Even his hardened fellow-pros were left gasping for breath at the audacity of the stunt.

“It started as a joke over dinner last night,” he told me. “But I heard that someone had done it freeriding here around ten years ago so I thought why not try.”

It was nice to see the innovation rewarded by the judges with a 1st place. It was the highlight of a spectacular day of freeriding and, although Felix Wiemers had a nasty looking crash that saw him flung narrowly over a section of rocks, it was a day unmarred by serious injury.

The winner

Chris Cummins

The Tour marches on the Switzerland and once again, the skiers and boarders will be looking the push the boundaries of their exhilerating sport.

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