Zuzanna Witych & Marcus Goguen win at Georgia Pro

The Caucasus mountains of Georgia once again proved that they are a snow magnet. Lots of fresh powder presented quite a challenge for the organizers to choose a safe venue, but in the end the gorgeous Kakhiani face that had already delivered an amazing contest in 2024 provided the stage for yet another show. It’s definitely worth to have a look at the replay here. In case you want to save some time, read on to get the round-up of what’s happened and which runs you should look at other than the winning runs. Overall, there were many spectacular runs and it took quite a bit of risk-taking to have a chance for the top spots, but—as often is the case in powder conditions—the snow pack was hard to predict in some parts and the conditions claimed a few unfortunate victims.

Ski Women were third in the starting order behind all the snowboarders, but had the pleasure to drop in before Ski Men. First to drop in was Taylor Dobyns. She went to the skier’s right side of the venue, which saw very little traffic throughout the day, and that decision for mostly untracked terrain paid off. Taylor had a clean run with a series of medium-sized cliff drops in technical terrain that earned her third place. Next up was Jenna Keller, who chose a line right through the very popular middle section of the face, which ended in a couloir with a mandatory air at the bottom. Jenna started with a medium-sized cliff right off the top, skied very fast, yet also very controlled and finished with a sizable air at the end of said couloir. She could have added a few more features to her run, but it was a great performance and good enough for second place in the end.

Third starter Arianna Tricomi chose a similar line as Jenna, skied a bit slower but added a trademark 360 over a windlip. At the very bottom, Arianna wanted to add yet another 360 over a popular windlip, but lost some speed right before and came short on the rotation. The resulting crash cost the Italian a possible podium spot, but it was still enough for fifth place due to quite a few bigger crashes from her competitors. For example, both Justine Dufour-Lapointe and Astrid Cheylus, so far the dominating riders of the season, overshot backflips by quite a margin and Lily Bradley did the same on a 360.

The Ski Men somehow saw a repetition of last year’s event as Marcus Goguen managed to copy his victory in Georgia on the strength of a cork 7 in challenging terrain. This trick becomes a trademark of the Canadian tour dominator as it also propelled him to a victory in Canada a few weeks back. The skier from Whistler started in the second half of the field, but wasn’t fazed by the many tracks and landing holes that had accumulated in the popular middle section of the venue. Marcus started out left for a big 360 over a cliff in an otherwise open section but re-entered the steep middle section with an enormous cork 7 over a corniced cliff. Coming out pretty clean from a massive impact at the landing, he went on for another massive cliff which he cleared with a 360 for a textbook stomp. The rest was a pretty straight line out the bottom including the final mandatory air and a bonus screamin’ seaman over a windlip at the end. Yet another run worth a score in the 90s and a well deserved victory.

Another run worth mentioning—and definitely worth watching in the replay—came from Tiemo Rolshoven. The German tour rookie went for a very similar line as winner Marcus Goguen and equalled the Canadian on the trick-o-meter: a big 360 at the top, a huge cork 7 on the re-entry cliff to the central gully and a massive 360 at the second drop of the big double at the bottom right. Unfortunately Tiemo couldn’t land his cork 7 clean. It seemed like he didn’t fall, but he disappeared in a big powder cloud, at some part obviously moved on switch and finally came out skiing straight. The judges ditched him quite heavily on this landing for a score of 55.00, which made for a twelfth place in the end.

Notable crashes came from former tour champions Valentin Rainer—he backflipped the big drop right off the start for a double eject—and Maxime Chabloz—he also double ejected on the landing of a gigantic double backflip—as well as from Ross Tester, who unfortunately landed his 360 off the top cliff on a rock and lost a ski on the way. The ski then went for a ride down the central gully and Ross chased his ski with only the other ski on his legs down a good stretch of the venue! Another unlucky rider was Simon Perraudin. The Swiss had a creative line with a nice transfer 360 out on a patch of snow at the side of the central gully. Obviously this patch released as a slide—it didn’t show in the video feed—and Simon skied into the avalanche at the exit. Luckily, he didn’t get buried or hurt, but his good run was ruined.