Stubai Slopestyle World Cup squeezes a result despite weather

Typical Contest Weather

After almost six weeks of perfect weather during the preseason Prime Park Sessions at the Stubai Zoo, the weather showed up just in time for the contest window. As the old adage goes: If your resort needs snow, organize a competition. In this case, a dusting of fresh snow was accompanied by winds gusting at over 100km/h, making the course unrideable for most of the week.

A small weather window on Thursday allowed for the men’s qualification to get underway. Training went well and optimism grew, but as the heats started, the already challenging conditions worsened. Unpredictable wind and deteriorating light started to make riding very dangerous. A reluctant Max Moffat was visibly protesting being pushed out of the start gate as the advertising banners buffeted around him in the wind. After waiting for a moment of calm that never came, Max dropped like a sacrificial lamb, landing on his chest on the knuckle. Luckily he was unhurt, and the call was made to throw in the towel as the wind whipped away his expletives.

The Contest

The contest organizers came up with Plan A through F in order to try and force a result on Saturday, the last day of the competition window. Both contests went down in double-up format, with separate panels judging two heats at the same time, with the final results taken from these two heats combined—effectively one massive final judged by two panels. In this scenario, when the result is definitely going to be taken from qualifications, it’s imperative for the judges of the two heats to communicate to match their score ranges so that when the results from the heats are combined, hopefully the correct final ranking is achieved.

Colby Stevenson, back in a World Cup slopestyle bib, laced his second run of the day. He started with a left nose butter double cork 1620 lead japan, followed by a switch right double cork 1440 mute and a switch on, front 810 tail grab off the cannon. In the bottom rails he sent a left foot back 270 off the up tube, 180 to switch 50-50 to continuing switch 180 off the down bar, and a right nose butter 450 continuing 270. This run had everything: all four ways, both way nose butters (that were real nose butters) and a variety of well-executed grabs. When he’s on, Colby is always hard to beat.

In his signature fashion, Andri Ragettli put down a near flawless run with a switch right blender double bio 1260 mute, left double cork 1620 lead cuban, switch left front bio 830 mute off the cannon, left 270 to forward, right tips under 270 on continuing 270 off before finishing with switch left 270 continuing 270. Giving the judges almost nothing to pick apart, the run had all four ways and a variety of grabs and axes. The last two rails let Andri down slightly, if anything, with the difficulty slightly lacking on these features. Still, it was good enough for second place.

Tormod Frostad put himself in the conversation for first place with a seriously creative and impressive run: switch right double bio 1620 safety, left double cork 1440 safety, right foot tokyo drift front cork 630 off the cannon, wally right foot front swap to the down tube front 270 out, switch left 270 fastslide to switch. At first the judges saw his back foot touch the rail on the fastslide, but the replay showed he just kept his foot from touching the rail. This run lacked the variety of grabs seen in the top two runs, but overall it was one of the best runs of the day to watch. Tormod’s wally front swap was one of the best tricks of the day.

Considering the conditions and the start-stop nature of the week, the level of competition was impressively high. As the contest season continues, it’s a mouth-watering prospect to imagine this field of riders let loose on a big course in good conditions.

Women’s Contest

The women were the main victims of the weather. They only had the opportunity to ski the course on Wednesday morning and Saturday after the men’s competition. When it came the time for the women to drop, the wind had significantly increased but—wisely or not—the riders voted to go ahead with the contest anyway. 

With a lack of practice on the course and battling extremely variable wind, the women struggled, with some riders massively overshooting the jumps and some coming up really short.

Tess Ledeux overcame the conditions and put down a left cork 900 tail, switch right 900 safety, back 450 off the cannon, switch tails 270 onto the down tube and finished with a clean left 270 continuing 270 at the bottom. It was one of the cleanest runs of the day and enough to take the win despite a back seat landing on the switch nine.

Mathilde Gremaud, who opted not to take a second run, knuckled her second jump to take second place, while the experience of her teammate Sarah Hoefflin showed as she landed her signature switch 720 mute and a switch 540 safety on the jumps. An otherwise basic but clean rail run secured her a place on the podium.

Considering the weather during the week and the days waiting around in a cramped cafe at the top of the glacier, the women skied bravely and deserve the utmost respect for getting the contest finished. 

This week brings into question the schedule. This is the second year in a row that did not get through to a final, and the seventh time out of eight contests in Stubai that have not run to schedule due to inclement weather. Holding a slopestyle at over 3000 meters in November, one of the most unstable months of the year in terms of weather, seems like a questionable idea. However, this is a weather-dependent sport. These things happen, and there is very little anybody can do about it.

Next up for slopestyle is the Laax Open, where the skiers will vie to steal the snowboarders’ thunder. Last year’s course was challenging and made for a really exciting event, so hopefully the shapers can recreate the action this year. Most of the riders are nursing hangovers on their way to China for the second Big Air of the winter, where a great show on what is considered the best jump in the circuit.