Top Five Fridays: January 24, 2025
The first stop of the 2025 Freeride World Tour featured a new face, challenging conditions, crazy crashes, a double flip, and so much more. Image: Freeride World Tour on Facebook
#1:FIS Alpine Recap: Solid Results and Podium Finished Continue to Come in Ahead of Shiffrin’s Return:
A recap from the Super G race in Kronplatz, where Paula Moltzan logged a third place finish.
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the January 24, 2025 edition! If you’re a competitive skiing lover, then this week’s recap should be right up your alley as we have results and previews from not only FIS World Cup Alpine racing, but also from the worlds of freeride and freeski as well. If you’re not big on competitions, well, make sure you read to the end anyways as our final highlight this week is continued coverage of the ripple effects resulting from the Park City ski patrol strike. Trust us, it’s the type of trend you’ll want to be aware of if you’re big on staying in the know with all things skiing. We’ll get to that in just a moment, but first, let’s talk World Cup action.
When we left off last week, the U.S. Women’s team was riding high as Lauren Macuga, whose stock has been rising all season long, earned the best result of her career: a first place finish. Joining her in a world of overwhelming success was Lindsey Vonn, who earned a 4th place finish, marking her best result since her return and proving to the world that she remains a podium threat. This week, the women faced the impossible task of surpassing those results, and while they didn’t quite match the same incredible levels of success, they still had a tremendous week.
Last weekend, the women’s circuit was in Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy, for a Downhill race on Saturday, and a Super G on Sunday. In the Downhill, the Americans missed the podium, but still managed to pack 5 athletes into the top 30 positions. Leading the way was Jacqueline Wiles with a 7th place finish, followed by Lauren Macuga in 16th, Lindsey Vonn in 20th, Breezy Johnson in 22nd, and Keely Cashman in 28th. A day later, in the Super G, it was Lauren Macuga who led the way for Team America with her 13th place finish. Falling in line behind her were Keely Cashman, Tricia Mangan, and Breezy Johnson who took home 23rd, 24th, and 25th consecutively. From there, the women’s circuit moved on to Kronplatz, Italy for a Giant Slalom race on Tuesday, which would ultimately feature the best result of the weekend. In that race, Paula Moltzan earned her first podium of the year with a 3rd place finish. Joining her in the top 13 were Nina O’Brien in 10th, and AJ Hurt in 13th. Behind them, Katie Hensien also earned points with a 21st place finish. Looking ahead, the women��s circuit is currently in Garmisch, Germany for a Downhill and Super G race, before moving onto Courchevel, France for a Slalom race next Thursday.
Before wrapping up our Women’s Alpine coverage, there is one pretty significant update we need to share with you: Mikaela Shiffrin is coming back. After sitting out for the entirety of December and nearly all of January due to the puncture wound she sustained at Killington, Shiffrin has her sights set on returning to competition in the slalom race at Courchevel next Thursday. Now, keeping in mind that Mikaela missed a significant portion of the season, it’s going to be difficult for her to win the overall cup for any discipline, although she still has a chance to take the slalom crown. Still, she could earn her 100th win, while also being a part of a historically good Women’s team. With Shiffrin back on course, any one of Shiffrin, Vonn, Macuga, Johnson, O’Brien, or Moltzan could realistically earn a podium result on any given day. That’s conservatively six athletes that are serious podium threats - a pretty ridiculous amount. As for who will win the next one, well, that’s anyone’s guess. To find out, we’ll simply have to watch the events as they unfold. To see that schedule, click here.
On the Men’s side of things, Wengen, Switzerland hosted a triple header last weekend, with a Super G on Saturday, a Downhill Sunday, and a Slalom race on Monday. In the first of those events, the Super G, Ryan Cochran-Siegle had the best result for the American Men, finishing in 11th place. Following his lead and also earning points were Sam Morse in 27th, River Radamus in 29th, and Bryce Bennett in 30th. The best results of the weekend however, came a day later in the Downhill. In that race, Bryce Bennett shot all the way up to a very impressive 6th place finish, followed by Ryan Cochran-Siegle who earned 11th place for a second straight day, Sam Morse in 15th, and Jared Goldberg in 16th. In other words, in that race, the Men’s team did what they do best: they packed the top half of the results with four athletes finishing in the top 16. Finally, a day later, the weekend in Wengen concluded with a Slalom race on Monday in which U.S. athlete Benjamin Ritchie earned an 18th place finish. Looking ahead, the Men are in Kitzbuehel, Austria this weekend for another Super G, Downhill, and Slalom triple header. You can preview those races and see some early results here.
#2: The 2025 Freeride World Tour is Officially Underway - Baqueira Beret Recap:
Just the highlights from the first stop of the 2025 Freeride World Tour. If you want to see all of the runs, we recommend heading over to the Freeride World Tour site to watch the replay in full!
Moving on to our next competition highlight, we’re excited to bring you results and a recap from the Freeride World Tour’s first stop of the 2025 season! Last week’s readers will remember that we featured a bit of a triple freeride highlight, part of which was the quick mention that the first stop of the tour was concluding right around the time that we were writing our weekly recap. As such, we figured we’d hold off a week to share results and highlights, giving us a chance to properly take in the event. So with that in mind, what happened?
Well first things first, the venue changed. While the event was still held near Spain’s Baqueira Beret, a dry, windy spell made conditions on the traditional venue, the Baciver, untenable. Rather than cancel the event for a second straight year, organizers moved it to a nearby peak geographically known as, “Serra d’auba,” and colloquially known as “La Bamba.” Despite being the first venue of the year, La Bamba featured what may very well be amongst the steepest drop-ins on the tour, as riders found themselves perched in a starting gate directly above a 53°, feature loaded bowl. From there, after riders navigated an array of drops and chutes, the course flattened out significantly before cresting into another cliff band followed by a playful windlip and several funsized drop options at the bottom. The result was a venue that allowed riders to display their strengths - whether that meant strong technical skiing, big airs, or tricks. On La Bamba, there was something for everyone.
Men's Ski Coverage:
On the ski side of the event, the men got the season started first, dropping in after only the snowboard men’s division had gone. With 22 highly skilled athletes taking on a new peak, it was truly anyone’s guess as to who would take home the win. When all was said and done though, one man rose to the occasion: Ross Tester. For those unfamiliar with Tester’s backstory, a quick recap. After winning the American FWT Qualifier Series in 2020, Ross spent three seasons on the FWT. In 2021 he took home second place overall, in 2022 he finished third, and in 2023 he finished in fifth. Sensing it was time for a break, he took last season off. This year though, he’s back, and looking completely reenergized. Bursting out of the gate for his run, Tester immediately tossed a picture perfect backflip off the first available hit, linking it into a massive arching turn to control speed. From there, he quickly knocked out a 360 mute grab on the next hit, knocked out some quick technical skiing, and then playfully sped out of the top zone. In the bottom section, he took a large size air into the bottom chute before lofting a massive 360 off the windlip. When all was said and done, Tester displayed incredible control across a daunting face, earning a score of 92.67, which would prove unbeatable.
Throughout the rest of the event, several athletes put down incredible runs, featuring a variety of technical lines, big airs, and massive crashes. Amongst them all, only one competitor truly threatened to take the top spot: rookie Toby Rafford (brother of fellow FWT athlete Addie Rafford). For his run, Rafford followed a very similar line to Tester’s although opting for a flatpin 360 on the top feature that Tester did a 360 Mute grab on, and a double flatspin on the windlip that Tester 360’d. It was a wildly impressive run and one that many think could have easily earned first place. Ultimately though, the difference between Tester and Rafford all came down to the very first hit. Tester opted to backflip a hit right out of the gate, exhibiting a willingness to take risk. Rafford on the other hand, opted to stylishly straight air a similar cliff, playing it just hair safer. Advantage: Tester.
Women's Ski Coverage:
By the time the women took the venue, conditions had become significantly more challenging. What had started the day as a modest amount of powder on top of hardpack had become a chopped up, shadowy mess, resulting in considerable chunder and crust layers to combat. Admirably, the women’s field wasn’t deterred and valiantly took on the challenge regardless. Unfortunately, that didn’t pan out for 5 of the 12 athletes who lost a ski and received no score. For the 7 that did finish with both skis, we saw strategic approaches to the top section, and good decision making down low to ensure that they would salvage some points from the event. One athlete who didn’t take that approach though, was Canada’s Justine Dufour-Lapointe, whose Olympic mogul skiing background played perfectly into the scenario. With strong technical skiing, Dufour-Lapointe took the top section to task, finding multiple airs with good landings and controlling her speed throughout the daunting pitch. When the day was done, her technical skiing won out and her 2025 season got started with a first place finish. While future venues will surely allow some of the other riders to open things up and reach into their bag of tricks, the conditions and technical aspect of La Bamba played perfectly into the hands of arguably the most technical woman on the tour.
Looking ahead, we won’t have to wait very long to see more freeride action as the next stop on the Tour is scheduled to take place sometime next week, between January 27th and February 1st at France’s Val Thorens. Depending on which day the event goes down, we might be able to bring you more coverage next week. If not, certainly the week after. Until then, we recommend heading over to the Freeride World Tour website to check out results and watch a replay. For additional event coverage, DownDays.eu also put together a fantastic recap.
#3: The Last X Games Before the League is Also Underway This Weekend:
Next up this week is, you guessed it, more competition coverage! At this point we’ve talked about alpine racing, and we’ve covered freeride, which means we’re onto the freeskiing portion of our recap. While we neglected to mention it last week, we’re excited to share the news that the X Games 2025 is officially underway! This year, the X Games feel a little bit different than most years, as change is both afoot and imminent. As for changes that are currently underway, Jeremy Bloom’s leadership as the organization’s CEO is immediately noticeable, and not just because of the signs held up behind the broadcasters or his live appearances. No, the biggest shockwave that’s already been sent due to Bloom’s leadership was the announcement this week that they would be experimenting with the use of AI judging in the snowboarding halfpipe event. Sounds pretty wild, right? For the time being, it’s not as crazy as it sounds. At last night’s event, AI assisted judging was rolled out for the first time ever, acting as a way for the actual, human judges, to double check their scores and make sure they got it right. In other words, because in both freeskiing and snowboarding, tricks can feature so many rotations and flips, the AI judge can help the actual judges discern the difference between something like an 1800 and a 1440, where a human could lose count. At the moment, AI judges are being slowly tested as an aide for human judges, but of course there is a fear amongst the faithful that the robots will eventually take the reins. Either way, the change is a direct and noticeable result of Bloom’s new leadership.
Of course in addition to this AI judging update, there’s also another change that’s looming large over this year’s events: it’s the last standalone winter competition. Starting next year, the X Games will roll out its league format, potentially, and hopefully, changing the world of competitive freeskiing. We’ll dive way deeper into that as the news comes in, but for now, let’s take a look at this year’s event, in which the skiing side of things got underway last night with both Men’s and Women’s Knuckle Huck.
Women's Knuckle Huck:
Since debuting in 2019, the Knuckle Huck event has been everything from wildly entertaining, to wildly polarizing depending on how you feel about the concept. As a reminder, the Knuckle Huck format is an event in which athletes are asked to put down their best tricks using just the knuckle of the big air jump rather than the jump itself. Traditionally, the idea is based on the concept that the knuckle offers a unique opportunity for tricks like presses, hand drags, and other non-jump friendly tricks. As it’s progressed however, many of the tricks have come to resemble their big air counterparts as double flips are now the norm.
Still, all of that said, the goal of the Knuckle Huck event is to invite creativity, and this year we saw that in droves. On the women’s side of the event, the ladies stepped up with both immense style and airs, starting from the very first drop as Marin Hamill kicked things off with a picture perfect switch tail press 360 in which her tails dragged across the entirety of the knuckle. With the tone set, the women’s field went off. Ultimately at the end of the day, Rell Harwood took home the gold as each of her hits combined both style and skill, highlighted by a beautiful nosebutter 900 in her third run and a massive nosebutter 1260 in her fourth and final run. While all of the women in the field pushed the limits of the discipline, it feels safe to say that Harwood absolutely earned her gold medal last night.
Men's Knuckle Huck:
On the men’s side, things were way less clear cut as there’s never been a competition that’s seen a wider variety of tricks. Take for instance Alex Hall’s first run, in which he did a… switch turtle roll 180? The ski community is still working on finalizing a name for this trick that quite honestly can only be performed on a knuckle. On the other end of the spectrum, Colby’s second run featured a unique type of double in which he did a nosebutter 5, to nosebutter 7 mute grab - or essentially a nosebutter double cork 1260, with a nosebutter set between the two corks. And the thing about these two tricks is, they weren’t the rare occasion when we saw something new and creative. In fact, just about every hit had some mind bending combination of agility. We saw a man ramp backflip. We saw Juho Saastamoinen do some sort of screamin’ semen butter. We saw Jesper do a switch nosepress backflip. We saw everything imaginable and more. While recent years have given us a version of Knuckle Huck that’s evolved to become a big air event using a knuckle instead of a jump, this year we saw a return to the format’s roots as creativity oozed in every run. At the end of the day though, it was Alex Hall who took home the gold medal - his first of what could potentially be up to four by the time the weekend is over.
As you know, the games are just getting started and there is plenty more action in store this weekend. We’ll be back with more coverage next week, but until then, we’ll send you over to the official X Games website to check out the calendar in full.
#4: Workers at Crested Butte and Breckenridge Employ the Tactics They Learned from the Park City Ski Patrol Strike:
Guests at Breckenridge Ski Resort may have encountered some unexpected lift closures this week as operators staged a “sickoff” to draw attention to living conditions at the mountain’s employee housing. Breckenridge Ski Resort on Facebook
Finally, for our last highlight, we’re going to steer away from competitive coverage and continue to keep you up to date with more ripple effects stemming from the Park City ski patrol strike. At this point you should definitely know the ins and outs of the story, but in case you’re not, the long and short of it is this: Park City’s ski patrol went on strike, and the results were really bad for Vail. Angry Park City ski patrollers, angry patrollers at other mountains, angry guests, long liftlines, terrain closures, angry financial experts and stockholders - you name it. The result of the Park City patrol unit refusing to work until Vail agreed to pay them a fair wage was borderline catastrophic. Now, other groups at other resorts are taking note and are utilizing similar tactics.
Earlier this week, at Vail’s Breckenridge resort, an undisclosed number of lift operators called out sick as a way of protesting living conditions at the resort’s workforce housing. According to a report from the Summit Daily, workers living in the resort’s Breckenridge Terrace apartments have been living without heat and hot water since late last week, while simultaneously dealing with a number of other maintenance issues that have gone unaddressed despite work requests being submitted. The impact of this “sickout” protest is a bit hard to discern as most reports are simply word of mouth. In a Reddit post made the morning of the sickout, a Breckenridge patroller reported that the limited number of operating lifts that morning was a combination of high winds at upper elevation, as well as a lack of personnel. Later that day, it’s reported that Vail brought in lift workers from neighboring resorts to cover the shifts and resume full operations. While this week’s news is unlikely to have the same level of impact as the patrol’s protest, the unrest and methods used amongst Vail employees to bring attention to the situation is certainly notable.
In other ripple effect news, we also came across the announcement that the unionized lift operators at Crested Butte, yet another Epic resort, has also authorized a strike ahead of a bargaining session that’s scheduled for next week. In this case, the Crested Butte Lift Maintenance (CBLM) union says they’ve been working with Vail on getting an initial contract in place for a year, with a wage proposal submitted nine months ago. It was only recently that the CBLM union received a response to that proposal, the result of which was Vail offering current wages without any raises. Unlike the Park City patrol contract negotiations, we’re not privy to the details of the negotiations, but it feels safe to say that they likely mirror many of the same requests. At the moment, the CBLM union maintains that they don’t want to strike and are negotiating in good faith with Vail. We’ll have to wait and see how this one plays out, but either way, one thing is for certain: after the success of the Park City patrol strike, there’s no going back for Vail and their future looks to be wrought with contract negotiations. For more on this, check out the report from CrestedButteNews.com.