Mammoth (CA) -
Those are the 5 laps of the FWT. All info and pictures on: www.freerideworldtour.com
Latest news of the FWT by Cyril... A view from the inside...
Videos of the FWT
MAMMOTH QUEST / MAMMOTH CHALLENGE
USA -
It took us 12 hours on a plane and 6 in a car to reach Mammoth Mountain. The Sierra Nevada offers breathtaking views. There is a good amount of snow but the wind has affected it. Together with my fiancée Zoé and freeride legend Steve Klassen, we discover the huge potential of Mammoth a few days before the Quest.
80 riders from over 15 nationalities took part in the FWQS, the Mammoth Quest which offers 12 seats for the FWT, 6 days later on Mc Gee mountain. The show is awesome and skiers like Griffin Post and Cory Zila as well as snowboarders as Jonas Emery, Ralph Backström or Bérangère Moroc get their ticket for the first lap of the 2008 FWT. Rock’n roll!
This first FWT lap is hard to manage: icy snow and strong winds on Mc Gee mountain force us to delay the event. It’s cool for me as I am ill for the past 5 days... So we let the snow fall on the Sierra Nevada and then I return riding with Zoé to get in shape. Great powder riding and also shooting with Nissan Sports Adventure team mates, Eric Themel, Aurélien Ducroz, Marja Paersson, Géralldine Fasnacht and living legeng Glen Plake.
After a week of snowstorm we finally can drop in the challenging « Rogers Ridge ». The run is too short to let us show entirely our skills but long enough to let the judges panel establish a ranking for this first FWT lap and so I end 3rd behind Flo Örley (2nd) and Al Coudray (1st). The only down aspect of this event comes from the missjudging of Jonas Emery that clearly deserved a spot on the podium (to the eyes of all snowboarders present that day).
But with human judging comes subjectivity, and we all accepted this by entering the FWT.
Next stop: Sochi in a week or so!
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NISSAN RUSSIAN ADVENTURE
SOCHI -
On the road again! No more than 24 hours at home and I am flying again towards Sochi, Russia. The Tuploev 154 is certainly the oldest plane I have taken my whole life. Despite this I am told it is forbidden to take a picture of it... I doubt it is because of technological espionage, but surely more because of the lack of professionalism in the maintenance crew...
I still don’t know how our drivers bring us alive to our hotels in Krasnaya Poliana. They drive like criminals in the brand new Nissan Pathfinders Nissan Russia let them drive... A quick dinner (30 Euros...) and of we go to bed.
We receive free passes for the duration of our stay. Better so as the lift ticket
costs 32 Euros a day... A bit expensive for the 4 old, no let’s say ANCESTRAL chairlifts
that bring you from 550m to 2238m over sea level. Ok it’s worth it... It’s not everyday
that you have the chance to ski on museum-
I enjoy tree runs accessible from the chairlift (realy great to be honest) and am
also focusing on a photo report that I name « Russian girls with my fish » (I am
talking of my HMR Stream 163 which is fish-
So next thing is competition. Not straight away to be true. First because of weather
and then because of Mr Poutine that is heliskiing around. So all the helis are grounded
in a hundred km perimeter... The FWT organisation decide to run the event even so
that if there is a bad fall, the injured rider will be ground transported all the
way to Sochi hospital, which is a solid 3-
Before flying back to Moscow, with Peter Charaf (director & cameraman who’s following me on that trip), we head down to Sochi for some lifestyle shooting on the mellow shore of Black Sea. Peter films faces, places and atmosphere. Too bad, he doesn’t realise he is filming an Army camp from the territorial brigades... 2min later we are arrested, no passport, under the strict guard of Caporal Natascha... Over one hour of speaking, checking to finally be released. We almost missed the amazing sunset.
Then it is airport, luggage excess (even with only 20kg you have to pay...) Tupolev, underground, Red Square, pictures (of course) and back to Switzerland, exhausted but happy to be back in this oasis of calm, order and perfection which is Helvetia. (I am getting patriotical...!). Oh yes happy because for those who say they felt in love with the country of vodka and of the terrible Red Bear, they are not very objective to me... As the only thing I can figure out people falling in love for are those long and fine legs tight in leather boots...!
Next FWT stops: Big Mountain Pro, Tignes and Verbier : that’s all in Europe, hey!
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SWATCH AND ONEILL BIG MOUNTAIN PRO
THE ALPS February 24th -
It didn’t snow the last 4 weeks. Where are we going to find some good pow to run the event..? That’s the question we are all asking to ourselves as we meet on the opening party at Montevners, Chamonix. One hour later the organizers show us the picture of a beautifull face, they pretend is full of untouched powder...Le Buet. Next morning 8:00am we take off in 2 choppers to be dropped on Swiss ground, one hour hike away from the summit. Located on French ground, Le Buet has to be climbed up.
No big deal, that will be the perfect warm up for us riders.
3..2..1..my turn to go... I drop in the face, drop a rock,indy grab, 4 turns, stalefish, fa ew more turns, line up for a sideways spine.. Backflip. Stomp it. More turns, two deep powder pockets, some hard slough almost draging me, then straight down 80kmh to the finish line! Wow that has been an awsemoe first run. Huge smiles on everyone faces!!
Two days later, the organizer announce us that the guides found an other interesting venue, in the Verbier area. 6:00am wake up, drive from Chamonix through Martigny to get heli lifted to the base of Rogneux north face... It looks like crap. The snow has been blown away, leaving mainly ice and crust. There are very few rocks to drop so a majority of the riders (Jeremy Jones, Xav Delerue, Jonas Emery,...) ask the organizer to cancel this venue. A vote is made it looks like we won’t make it... At the last moment, Xav Delerue change his mind... We are now 50% / 50%. The organizer then decides to make it happen. I still think it will be crap. So I ask the TV production to get a camera to film my run from the inside. At top I take a picture of the Chamonix range. Nice.
The snow conditions are exactly like expected: not worthy of a Freeride World Class event... I drop in the face to almost fall on my first turn and I do my best to keep the camera lense away from the snow. No drops, just carving on ice... Oh here is a powder pocket in the sunlight. I turn the camera towards my face, smile and make the snow spray. At least a few nice shots done! Crap day... Which means a big party to balance it...
The next day we drive to Italy. The snow is supposed to be good around Sestrière.
The two Big Mountai Pro busses become virtually two driving casinos. All the riders
are challenging each other in Poker, Belotte or Jass. 5 hours later we reach the
fantastic La Torre **** hôtel in Sauze d’Oulx. It will be our home for the next 3
days. Luxury rooms but from the inside this tower shaped like a snail looks a bit
like a jail. Funny ! Anyway Italina food is the best and thete’s plenty of free wine
at the diner. A few more parties and it is time for the 3rd venue of this unique
event. So we drive to Les Karellis, in France to find an icy run from top to bottom
(except for the first 80m maybe). This time all the rider say a loud NO. We want
to show real BIG mountain riding, not ice sliding down as safe as we can. You know
in freeriding, NATURE DECIDES and it is a proof of wiseness to say NO. We spend the
rest of the day playing in the snowpark, hiking up a mellow run facing the skilifts
and doing an unofficial crossover game in the snowpark. I take Aurélien Ducroz skis
and rip the park. 180bs, 360 mute, all of that with 195 powder skis and rock-
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FREERIDE DE TIGNES FWT
TIGNES; France March 7th till 8th, 2008
4th lap of the FWT is Tignes, France. It snowed 15cm which is not enough to make the Grande Balme north face become good enough for the comp. So we hit Pramecou which offers nice line possibilties, but so many sharks... I chose a direct line with a backflip 10m after the start. I butt check and keep on going fast, with a huge amount of slough. I drop a cliff with no visibilitys becasue of the moving snow, a few turns and I have to stop 2 seconds to let the slough go. It costs me my place on the podium... To bad. I end 4th again and am currently 4th on the FWT ranking.
Sevral riders as Jonas Emery and José Carron (mountain guide himself) are a bit disgusted by this event, as 3 avalanches slides went off while they were riding. The mountain guides told us it would be fine but it clearly wasn’t. We all think that they didn’t bomb the face, knowing it would make all the snow slide and let nothing but rocks in the face and so the event would have been cancelled. Have we been consciously exposed to that hazard..? Dunno, but that’s why I am more than happy to return filming as soon as Verbier Xtreme is over. Because that is true freeriding with no pressure!
Pramecou North Face. A half is closed because too dangerous... Alex and Jonas on the way to the summit.
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VERBIER XTREME FWT
VAL DE BAGNES; March 14th till 16th 2008
Verbier welcomes the whole freeride scene for the 5th and last lap of the 2008 FWT. This event is the world’s famous skiing and snowboarding event. For the 13th time in a row, the Bec des Rosses will be the center point of interest in Val de Bagnes, in Valais and even through the whole Switzerland. This time it won’t be because of its 3222m of elevation, or its 56 degrees pitch nor its 700m of vertical drop. The reason is different this time... As 20 riders are looking at their possible lines on Thursday afternoon, an enourmous avalanche slides down the Bec. Four guides that were preparing the starting plateform released a small rock that made the biggest avalanche I ever witnessed start. Two seconds later, the entire East side of the Bec has gone. The white monster accelerates and goes straight in the direction of four skiers who were seeking the last cliff band’s landings... They hear us shout and feel the air pressure of the avalanche front, so they move as quick as possible out of reach of the monster... A few hours later at the riders meeting, the organizers annouce that the Mont Gelé will be the replacement venue for the 13th Xtreme. That face is a classic and even a mythic run in Verbier, less steep and long but still full of interesting features. And the good point is: there is a cable car that brings you to the top..! Great to scope your line :)
The whole Friday is spent choosing a line, signing autograph in the village and resting. The bib drawing says: women first,then skiers and finally snowboarders... And I’ll be one of the last... The only good point is that I won’t have to wake up at 5:30am as the girls and skiers to be ready to drop at 9:00.
9:15 after two forerunners the girls drop in the Mont Gelé North-
By the time I was unknown and I won the Xtreme on my first attempt! This year I feel great, even knowing that
the World Title is out of reach for me. Even a FWT podium will be more than hard to get; I should win,
Alex Coudray and Flo Örley should finish 6th... So it is without any pressure that I hop in the cable car bringing me up at top of Mont Gelé. 20 minutes later it is my turn to drop... Ten meters and I already drop a cliff. Perfect landing, a turn toe side to each the edge of Bouquetin couloir. A second drop, a few powder turns and I reach the biggest rock in my line. I was supposed to spin a 360, but a few meters before the takeoff I change my plans for a safer straight air. A cleen landing « wheeling style » and I go straight down towards the finish line. A few meters before I do two more slashes and a 360. That’s it I feel I have accomplish a great run. I am happy.
10 minutes later a friend journalist tells me I won the race, beating Alex, Xavier and the others... I can’t believe it! A third victory at the Xtreme exactly ten years after the first one!!! It’s a dream. My dream. A proof to all dumb, jealous and stupid people that freeride is all about experience and knowledge. A proof that at the age of 34 I am at the top of my physical shape. Finally a proof that freeride is a pure and clean sport, not like too many others where athletes (guinea pigs) are out of order at the age of 30 or had an heart attack at the age of 25...! KEEP IT REAL !
The rest of the day is spent shaking hands (thank you to all of you!) doing interviews and finally the official reward ceremony in Verbier village... City, yea, definitely a city... Xavier Delerue wins the first ever Freeride World Champion title, Alex Coudray is second and Flo Örley 3rd. I end 4th, but no matter, I just won the most important event today!!!
My greatest joy comes from Ruth Leisibach. She has come back from a vertebrate fracture and from a knee surgery and still she won the Xtreme for the 5th time (just as many times as master Steve Klassen). She also gets the Freeride World title and even gets the special award for the « women best line of the year ». What a cool present: a Nissan Xtrail... Xavier Delerue gets the same award for the « men best line ». A consecration for all snowboarders!!!
WHAT’S NEXT ???
First I will shoot and film as I barely did shoot during that long and stressful winter.
Then I’ll go on holiday with my coach-
Later I’ll ride my bike down the trails of the brand new Leysin-
WHAT ABOUT FWT 2009 ???
For sure I’ll take part in several laps of the 2009 FWT as it will only be better tan 2008. But I also have another big project: I’ll go back to the Indian Himalaya (10 years after my first trip in 1999). That will probably take a serious part of my winter season. After 10 years of competition, 3 victories, a second place and two 3rd place I’ll keep on freeriding but focuse on producing TV documentaries, reports and articles. True freeriding in which I set the rules... Inch’ Allah....
« Live from 2008 FWT, for www.cyrilneri.ch website, it was Cyril Neri... Good evening »
Official
MAMMOTH video
official
SOCHI video
Official XTREME VERBIER video
My run @
XTREME VERBIER
