Finley Melville Ives wins first World Cup and Fanghui Li tops the podium to tie for the Crystal Globe

The Women

Run One

The women would start things off under the lights and Rachael Karker was the first to put one down clean. She started with mirrored cork 900 short japans, only grabbing for the very end of the rotation – otherwise a clean run and a good anchor score for the judges – a 78.25.

The coolest mom you know, Cassie Sharpe landed a solid run on home snow, finishing with her left cork 1080 lead tindy – the grab was quite short and she had an air-to-fakie in the middle of the run which stopped her score reaching higher than an 85. She always seems like she is having more fun than everyone else too, grooving and dancing at the bottom of the pipe – maybe that’s what experience teaches you.

Fanghui Li put herself in the lead with a score in the 90s – her run is full of variety and difficulty with back-to-back switch hits and a right 1080 sindy at the bottom. Over this season, her amplitude has improved, which is one of the reasons we have seen her at the top end of the results more recently. She has taken a leaf out of Zoe Atkins book too by opening the run up with a massive down-the-pipe 540 mute. She had to squat out of her switch 720 japan but it was the best run of the day so far – 90.25.

Amplitude aficionado, Zoe Atkin – fresh off the back of victory in Aspen – went enormous on her first hit as usual, grabbing high mute on a 540. She then linked a right alley-oop 720 japan into a switch right 720 safety out the bottom. She went big all the way down the pipe but the judges were paying the overall difficulty of Fanghui’s run above Zoe’s and slotted her into second.

Run Two

Searching for a return to form that saw her set a record breaking thirteen podiums in a row, Rachael Karker could not improve on her first run, downgrading her last trick from an alley-oop 540 to an alley-oop 360. This was the story for much of the rest of the field as Zoe missed her grab on a switch 720 and Svea Irving fell.

Cassie improved by less than one point despite replacing the air-to-fakie with a 720 – admittedly her grabs were even more questionable this time. Fanghui showed brilliant consistency putting the run down almost identically – improved by going slightly bigger on her final 1080. She would be in the lead followed by Zoe and Cassie going into the final run of the season with the Crystal Globe hanging in the balance.

Run Three

With one more run to decide the Crystal Globe, Rachael cleaned up her run, improving her grabs and sustaining her amplitude – she jumped up into third place with an 87.00. Having just been pushed off the podium, Cassie seemingly laced her run and was as stoked as ever – until her score came in. The judges decided that she did not improve – there were still some questionable grabs. 

Svea had a scary looking crash, pushing off the wall too hard on her alley-oop 540 and only just catching some transition after dropping out of the sky. Fanghui also crashed on her final hit, leaving it all up to Zoe to take the Crystal Globe on the final run of the World Cup season. Needing to better her run, Zoe added a switch right 900 safety to the bottom of her run. The landing was washy and her grabs were too loose throughout the run – it was not going to be enough to improve. Not only did this mean Fanghui would take her first World Cup victory, but also that the two were tied on 305 Crystal Globe points – a World Cup first.

After five rounds of World Cup halfpipe contests – that started back in September – Fanghui and Zoe would share the honors. Both have been victims of living in the shadow of the immensely dominant Eileen Gu – who remains unbeaten in halfpipe events that she has entered this season. The rest of the field has closed the gap impressively however and there is more strength in depth than ever in women’s pipe skiing – the future is bright.

The Men

The pipe in Calgary is shorter than the one in Aspen and with temperatures reaching minus 20 degrees centigrade, it was running slightly slow. Some of the men were able to maximise their amplitude if they only did four hits. The consensus from the judges was not to reward or penalise either a four hit or five hit strategy – as long as there was no “missed hit” at the bottom of the pipe. 

The format for the men was slightly different, with a larger 16-man field each having two runs. The Crystal Globe had already been decided, so the decision was made to open up the finals to more riders, giving them a chance of a podium. This meant there were riders in the final that we have not seen much of this season, such as Noah Bowman, whose pipe runs are always a treat to watch. However, he could not put a clean run down on the night despite his signature liquid switch skiing.

Hunter Hess was the first of the regular podium contenders to clean a run and score in the mid-eighties. He stepped up the run we have seen from him all season by adding a 180 to his misty flip, taking it all the way to 720 and landing switch – something he has not done before in competition.

Finley Melville Ives put down the run of his life in Aspen, but unfortunately, so did five other riders, leaving him in sixth place. This week, Fin pulled out all the stops, starting with a left double cork 1620 mute into a left alley-oop double flat spin 1080 combo – adding an extra half rotation to the trick we have seen him do with so much style this season. Going so big that he could only squeeze in four hits, Fin finished with a switch double cork 1080 japan and right double cork 1260 safety – a huge run. He was boosting higher than ever before and grabbing fistfuls of ski on each grab – two things he had been missing in previous runs. The judges rightfully put Fin into the nineties with a 92.75.

His teammate and friend, Luke Harrold beat him in Aspen by one spot but the roles were reversed this week. Luke still finished with right double cork 1260 safety to left double cork 1620 safety and went into second. In comparison though, Luke’s 1620 was grabbed for almost half the time that Fin’s was and the judges were not going to miss it.

Crystal Globe winner Alex Ferreira mixed up his run for the final contest of the season, doing right 1080 lead tail to switch left 1080 lead tail in the middle of his run and missing out any double cork 1620s. Slightly lower amplitude and short grabs on the 1080s meant the judges could not put him above Fin – a 91.75.

Nick Goepper also dumbed down his run slightly, replacing the cork 1080 with a 720 and keeping the 1620 to a 1260. He still stomped his run and when the score came in as a 90.50 and third place, he forgot to tell his face not to look pissed off – giving us a glimpse beyond the veil of his new persona to the extremely competitive Nick we know.

Run Two

With no third run, the pressure was on and the final run saw a few mistakes. Hunter lost a shoe under-rotating a double 1260 and Luke had to squat out his final 1620. Fin also could not improve as he battled most of the run, landing low on a couple of occasions and eventually crashing on the second of his 1620s – it would have been a frighteningly good run.

Putting the heat on the judges, Alex then improved by adding a right down-the-pipe double flat spin 1080 japan to the middle of his run. He still lacked a tiny bit of amplitude according to the judges and could not improve – Fin was still on top with only three riders to go.

It was then Uncle Nick’s turn to pile on the pressure, upgrading his run with a right double cork 1620. He had to rush it around, landing a little low and grabbing sindy rather than safety. After much deliberation the judges were split and decided to let the maths decide the result. The score came in at just 0.50 below Fin, guaranteeing Fin his first podium.

Following his first World Cup podium in Aspen Matthew Labaugh was on a heater, opening up with the immensely stylish switch left cork 1260 cuban to switch right cork 1080 cuban combo. The run was building until the final hit where he dragged his hands and had to revert, leaving only the veteran Dave Wise at the top of the pipe who could unseat the young-gun. Despite lacing the run that won him so many X Games medals, it was not going to be enough and these days that run is only good enough for seventh place. The 18-year-old kiwi had done it – winning the final World Cup of the 2024/25 season – celebrating with his friends who had braved the bitter night to support.