Kirsty Muir and Alex Hall win on a weather affected day in Tignes

The Women

Not long after the most hardcore party-goers had finally been kicked out of the Blue Girl nightclub, the women’s slopestyle kicked off on Friday morning. The sun was out but the wind was howling, making conditions slightly challenging for the women.

The first rider to put a full pull down was Marin Hamill, who landed a steezed out cork 720 blunt on her final jump but struggled to read the speed for the first two jumps. This was the theme for the first few riders so her score held the top spot for some time as Daisy Thomas knuckled and Anni Karava was also a victim of the wind.

Ruby Star Andrews was the first to score in the seventies with an impressive rail run including a 270 on to the down bar and a front 630 off the cannon rail.

Rell Harwood was the only rider in the field with the ability to take the Crystal Globe from Tess Ledeux, who had failed to qualify for finals. However, Rell took an awkward looking crash on her second jump and stood up holding her right knee gingerly and would take no further part in the final.

Scotland’s finest, Kirsty Muir then reminded everyone how good she can be – jumping into a comfortable first place. In the last couple of World Cup events it has been clear that she has been easing her way back into the contest scene – in Tignes she was not holding anything back. She started with an enormous, composed switch left bio 900 blunt, did a 270 on continuing front 270 on the down bar and finished the run with a left cork 900 blunt. She skied into the finish area with her signature giggling smile – she was clearly very stoked to be back doing what she loves.

In run two, Abi Harrigan cleaned up her run having missed the blunt on her final jump of run one. She had the most impressive rail run of the women: switch left lip on back 270 out of the down bar, K-Feding the down-flat-down and going huge on a front 450 blunt off the cannon – it was good enough for second place with weaker jumps than Kirsty.

With the weather deteriorating the rest of the field were not able to improve enough to trouble the top spots and with Rell opting not to take the start, it left Kirsty with a victory lap and her first slopestyle World Cup win. She graced us with a couple of stylish 360 blunts that pleased the judges and both scored 4.20s. She was rightly over the moon in the finish area: “It’s crazy, this is my first World Cup win and just coming back from my knee and everything – honestly, the best feeling ever.”

Final women’s podium: Kirsty Muir in first place, Abi Harrigan in second place and Ruby Star Andrews in third.

The Men

By the time the men started, the weather had significantly deteriorated – the wind had picked up and the clouds had rolled in. 

Alex Hall set the bench mark with a score in the 79s – he had room to improve though as he came off a rail slightly to the side and had to open up on his final jump. Sebastian Schjevre was the first to reach the 80s with an impressive rail run that included a Joker on the down bar transfer rail – a right foot front swap front swap pretzel 270 – and a switch left 270 continuing front 630 on the cannon rail. Hunter Henderson would then split the top two with a run that was carried by his jump prowess – he landed both switch and forward double cork 1620s, the first of which was with a capped lead blunt and scored the best on that feature for the whole day.

Henry Sildaru immediately leap frogged him into second place with a run which was highlighted by a switch lip on, front swap continuing back 360 swap continuing back 270 – a mouthful to say, almost unimaginable to do.

By this point the light had become even worse and Colby Stevenson could not catch a break. He struggled on the first two jumps and then lost a shoe on the final jump while nose buttering into a double cork 1620. Colby was wearing the yellow bib as current leader in the Crystal Globe standings but needed a good result to secure the title – all the pressure was on for run two.

The weather did not seem to affect the insanely consistent Andri Ragettli – who at this point I believe could possibly do his run blindfolded and he landed a run full of the tricks we would expect from the Swiss metronome and he went into first place. 

Immediately after run one, the contest was put on hold after a crash from Temuu Lauronen that is every skier’s worst nightmare – he landed on the knuckle and immediately reached for his knee and screamed – we hope it is not as bad as it looked. Eventually, after what felt like an eternity listening to commentator Will Tucker ramble on, with the sun back out, run two got back under way.

AHall took full advantage, cleaning up his insanely creative run. Starting on the jumps stomping a left double cork 1620 lead japan, to switch tail butter 540 bringback to 360 mute. But it was the rails which really wowed the judges with no rail scoring less than 8.55. On the down bar he started with the dangerously blind switch right lip on back swap pretzel 270, then did a 270 to tokyo drift up onto the down-flat-down back 450 out and then finished with a switch left tokyo drift 270 onto the cannon back 810 out. Alex was super pumped in the finish area – all of those rails are extremely low probability tricks and to link them all together without a single bobble is frankly frightening and he scored the almost impossible 90.10 to go basically beyond reach.

Someone was looking down on A Hall because as quickly as it came, the weather window moved on and throughout the second run the weather deteriorated again leaving the rest of the riders at a huge disadvantage. Even the Crystal Globe leader, Colby could not put a run down and was heartbroken in the finish to have been so close – he admitted to getting completely lost halfway through his final jump, mistaking the sky for the floor.

It was only Ben Barclay who could put down a run clean in the second half of run two, putting himself in sixth place – presumably the extremely high-tech low-light lens of those Joystick goggles helped him see in the gloom.

With Colby finishing so low, Alex Hall would come from behind to take the slopestyle Crystal Globe and a lucky win in Tignes: “I got really lucky on my second run, I dropped in when it was still sunny and I was about the last one when it was sunny, so all the boys got the flat light, which is a bummer.”

He may have been lucky with the weather, but by being that good at skiing, you start making your own luck.

Final Men’s Podium: Alex Hall in first place, Andri Ragettli in second place and Sebastian Schjerve in third.

This event concludes the FIS World Cup season with Matej Svancer and Flora Tabanelli taking home the overall Park and Pipe Crystal Globes thanks to their consistency across both big air and slopestyle. Matej finished with just two more points than Kiwi Luca Harrington, who has had the season of his life – hopefully he can continue his current form.