Birk Ruud and Eileen Gu win 2025 Laax Open Slopestyle

This year the Open celebrated its 10th anniversary—and the third edition since it welcomed freeskiing back to this snowboard-focused event—and both Laax and the weather pulled out all the stops to make the occasion unforgettable. Blazing blue skies and comfortable temperatures set the scene for an all-time slope contest in Laax’s pro line, where the snowpark team had crafted a uniquely transitioned slopestyle course to challenge the field.

Women’s slope finals: a familiar theme

The women’s contest ran with a theme we’ve all become familiar with: Would anyone ski well enough to beat Eileen Gu? The current top dog in halfpipe showed that her chops in slopestyle aren’t rusty at all, even after a year off from competition, with a first run that featured a left double cork 1080 japan, right cork 900 buick, alley-oop flatspin 540 mute on the quarterpipe, and clean 270s in and out in both directions on the rails. This run landed Eileen comfortably in first place with a 15-point lead, and although her competitors tried everything they could to make up the gap, it turned out to be insurmountable.

Hoping to keep the gold medal at home in Switzerland, both Mathilde Gremaud and Sarah Hoefflin threw down two double corks each in very technical runs, but flaws in execution tempered their scores. After crashing on an attempted double cork 900 her first run, Sarah put down a switch right double cork 1080 mute and a switch left 540 safety into a double cork 720 safety—the world premiere of this stylish double in women’s slopestyle. But a very backseat landing and other prominent mistakes meant that this run—which Sarah called her hardest run ever—came in at a lowly 8th place.

Meanwhile, Mathilde Gremaud linked doubles of her own, with a switch left double 1260 safety into a right bio 720 safety into a left double cork 1080 safety. But, like Sarah, flaws on the landings kept her from seriously challenging Eileen, although she was able to claim third place, bumping Italy’s Flora Tabanelli off the podium.

Second place went to Megan Oldham, whose flawless left double cork 1080 mute was backed up with a right cork 900 tail and a huge switch left 900. Another podium hopeful, Canadian styler Olivia Asselin delivered an impressive performance with a switch on to back 270 out and a big back 630 out of the up rail, into a double cork 10 of her own, but once again, mistakes banished her to the lower end of the ranking, just above Sarah Hoefflin.

“I’m so happy to take away the slopestyle win,” Eileen said. “It’s been almost four years now since I’ve got a World Cup slopestyle win, so it’s been a really long time. I haven’t even competed in slope in a year.”

“I’ve always thought of myself as a slope skier at heart, so being able to come back out on a really creative and technical course, proving to myself and the world that I still have it and I’m still hungry and excited to be here, means a lot to me,” she added. After missing the first slopestyle contest of the season in Stubai in December due to an exchange program at Oxford, Eileen said she plans to compete in slopestyle for the rest of the season.

The men: Birk’s back

The men’s slopestyle contest was highly anticipated. With stellar weather all week long in Laax, a progressive slope course and a stacked field of the world’s best riders, this was a contest primed to go off in huge fashion. And go off it did.

Perennial slopestyle competitor Evan McEachran was in fine form, clinching an early lead with a near-flawless run featuring a switch right double 1800 safety into switch left double 1260 tail to japan. The massive amplitude on his right cork 5 hook on the quarterpipe as well as the execution on his final double swap, front 270 out in the last rail section was the cherry on top.

Evan’s lead held until the day’s three top qualifiers, all Americans, had their say. Colby Stevenson crashed out, but Mac Forehand and Alex Hall both delivered in huge fashion on their runs, bumping Evan into third. Mac took over the lead with the day’s most outrageously large trick in the jumps, a switch left triple 16 mute well past the landing lines on the second jump, while A-Hall served up one of the day’s most unique takes on the third jump, opting for a switch left 720 bounce to switch cork 720 japan combo across the table instead of hitting the sharkfin takeoff, to slide into second place.

“It’s insane, I’ve been dreaming of it for so long,” Mac said of his switch triple. “I’ve kind of wanted to replace switch dub 16 for a while—you see that trick so much. So I was like, ‘What’s one more flip?’ Figured it out in training and got in the contest twice. Hopefully I’ll be doing that a lot more now.”

On the second run several riders made attempts to shake up the leaderboard, with big runs from the likes of Max Moffatt, Tormod Frostad, Henry Sildaru, Jesper Tjäder and Andri Ragettli. But with an astoundingly high bar already set and the judges’ eyes peeled for even the slightest inconsistency, these great runs all landed in the range from fifth to ninth place.

In the end, there was only one rider who could crack the podium, and he did so in memorable fashion. With his focus 100-percent back on skiing after a two-year side quest into snowboarding, Birk Ruud laid down the gauntlet on his second run, linking a flawless switch right double 14 mute into a switch left double 16 mute into a left double 14 safety. The nail in the coffin was his trick on the quarterpipe, a massive double cork 900 safety that was by far the day’s biggest and most technical trick on that feature, and he sealed the deal with a clean right 450 to switch on the last rail. Score: 85.54, vaulting him from eighth into first place.

“I’ve been focusing on snowboarding for two years now, and that’s been my main priority,” Birk said. “A month ago I decided to quit snowboarding, which was basically like being addicted to some crazy addictive stuff. So I’m reborn as a skier, that’s what i’ve been saying.”

“I’m Birk 2.0, and I’m very excited to try to take it to new heights,” he concluded.

After crashing on his first run, top qualifier Colby Stevenson had one final chance to land what certainly could have been the day’s winning run. Colby had by far the most unique approach to the course, sending a switch 720 off the side of the Wu-Tang kickers into a switch cork 540 japan off the knuckle. But like many others, he bobbled on the final rail—aka the Heartbreak feature—and ended in 12th place.

The competitive scene now moves to Aspen, Colorado where World Cup Slopestyle, Big Air and Halfpipe events follow directly on the heels of the 2025 Winter X Games.