Top Five Fridays: October 25, 2024
The excitement is palpable whenever the FIS World Cup comes to Soelden, and this weekend should be no different as this year’s tour is set to kick off. More on that below! Image: Soelden Ski Resort on Facebook
#1: The 2024/2025 FIS Alpine World Cup Season Kicks Off Tomorrow! Here’s What to Watch For:
It’s finally here: the 2024/2025 FIS World Cup Alpine season gets underway tomorrow with a women’s giant slalom race in Soelden, Austria. Image: FIS Alpine World Cup Tour on Facebook
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the October 25, 2024 edition! Every year, there seems to be two weeks in which it feels like winter gets underway: one is the week in which the first resorts in North America open, and then another one in which we all get to experience the arrival of winter as countless ski areas finally begin operating lifts. This week happens to mark the first of two “welcome to winter” editions as not only have two North American ski areas celebrated their opening days earlier this week, but the FIS World Cup Alpine season kicks off in just one day. We’ll circle back to the first opening days of the year in highlight #4, but before we do, let’s take a look at this weekend’s FIS Action.
Currently, happening right now, at this very moment in Soelden, Austria, both the men’s and women’s FIS Alpine circuits are gathered for the first giant slalom races of the season. With course conditions looking as good or better than they have in years, anticipation is running high as there are a number of highly anticipated storylines getting underway this weekend. On the women’s side, as always, all eyes will be on Mikaela Shiffrin who is within reach of accomplishing some incredible career milestones. One of the most imminent is her 100th career win, as she currently sits with 97 FIS World Cup golds, making her just three wins away from becoming the first athlete to hit the century mark. There’s a strong chance she makes progress towards that goal this weekend.
Another storyline to watch out for this weekend is the return of Nina O’Brien, who badly injured her leg in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and then re-injured it prior to last season, forcing her to miss the entire season. At the time of her injury, O’Brien was skiing at the highest level of her career. While every athlete’s return to action results in its own storyline, we’re eager to see how Nina’s unfolds in the months ahead.
On the men’s side of the sport, the biggest overarching story for the U.S. Team is whether or not they can make the leap from consistent top ten results, to consistent podium appearances. Last season the hallmark of the team was packing the top 15’s or even top 10’s of races with several athletes. Despite the generally strong performances as a team, they never quite made it over the hump to greatness as podiums were few and far between. This year though, that could very well change as the team has multiple athletes who could prove to be a threat. Early reports are that the team as a whole has had an excellent offseason training camp, so fingers crossed that this is a breakout year for one or more of the U.S. men.
Perhaps the biggest storyline of the entire season though is that of the new wild card rule. Over the summer, we shared the news that Marcel Hirscher had announced his plans to race again. On the heels of that announcement, the FIS quickly invented a new Wild Card rule that would allow athletes of Marcel’s caliber to unretire without needing to re-earn FIS points. With pretty restrictive criteria for eligibility, the wild card rule is intended to only apply to the best of the best. The legends of the sport, if you will. As such, it’s rare that an athlete would be able to put this rule to use. There is one other name that’s rumored to be considering it though: Lindsey Vonn. At the moment all we have are reports, rumors, and speculation, but it’s certainly another storyline worth watching for as this season promises to be one full of excitement. You can bet we’ll be back next week with a full recap of this week’s events, but for now, head over to the FIS website to preview the action or check out the schedule.
#2: The First FIS Freeskiing Big Air Event of the 2024/2025 Season is in the Books! Here’s What Went Down at Big Air Chur:
In other FIS World Cup news, we’re excited to bring you our first Big Air recap of the season, as results are in from Big Air Chur, which was held last Friday. Now, if you haven’t watched a ski Big Air event in recent years, or are of the opinion that all of the tricks look the same - well, we get it. That said, we really recommend checking back in as this particular aspect of the sport is progressing at an incredible pace. A handful of years ago, you’d be forgiven for thinking all of the top tricks looked the same, and that discerning a winner was impossible. Now, however, athletes are coming as close to defying the laws of physics as possible as they invent new rotations and bring buttered takeoffs into the mix.
Unfortunately, the FIS is dropping the ball a little bit here in terms of making coverage of the event accessible, so we’ll do our best to share some of the highlights through Instagram posts, YouTube, and the always thorough recap from Newschoolers.com. First things first in that regard the big news is this: Matej Svancer walked away from Big Air Chur with his first gold medal since the 2021/2022 season. In order to accomplish that feat, Svancer’s top two runs were a “Left Nose Butter Triple 1620 Safety” which scored a 94.25, and a “Switch Left Tail Butter Triple 1260 Safety” which earned a 91.75. No - those aren’t typos or exaggerations, those are actual tricks being effortlessly landed in Big Air events these days. While it’s been a couple of years since he’s stood on top of a podium, it should be noted that the 2021/2022 season included two gold medals - the first of which was also won at Big Air Chur. Keeping that in mind, as well as Svancer’s consistency last season and his strong performance last weekend, it’s conceivable to think this might be a big year for Svancer.
In addition to Matej’s big showing, we want to also quickly call out some of the other athletes who pushed the envelope last weekend. Despite finishing 8th, Team America athlete Troy Podmilsak put down the 4th highest scoring jump of the event with a mind boggling “Berco Flip”, which is some sort of left flat 360 to right flat 720 combination. In other words, this man somehow changed the direction of his rotation in midair. Unfortunately, due to the unexplored nature of this trick, T-Pod was only able to put it down once, resulting in his 8th place finish. Beyond these highlights from Matej and T-Pod, the trick list is chock full of eye popping combinations. Tormod Frostad did a switch tailbutter double bio 1260 safety. Miro Tabanelli did a left side double 19 stale grab. Elias Syrja allegedly attempted an uncorked nosebutter 12 japan grab, which, while we haven’t seen a clip of it, sounds absolutely insane. The list continues, and this is only the first event of the season. Looking ahead, the next Big Air event is scheduled for the weekend of 11/29 - 12/1 in Beijing, with a Slopestyle event in Stubai the week prior. To check out the full FIS Freeskiing schedule, click here.
#3: One of the Most Watchable Events in Snowboarding, The Natural Selection Tour, Has Announced an Expansion into Skiing:
Next up this week is a third piece of competitive news, although one that’s both drastically different from topics one and two, and also incredibly exciting for a certain demographic of the sport. That news, of course, is the announcement that the Natural Selection Tour has expanded to include skiing this season.
For those uninitiated, the Natural Selection Tour (NST) is the brainchild of snowboard legend Travis Rice. Since 2021, the NST has been on the cutting edge of backcountry competition, as riders have been tasked with taking on a full big mountain run, often complete with man made jumps and massive natural features. While it has similarities to the Freeride World Tour, there are two main differences with the NST. First and foremost is the format of the contest. In Freeride World Tour events, athletes are scored and ranked numerically, in a traditional style. In Natural Selection events though, athletes compete head to head in a tournament style bracket format. As such, the winner would take four total runs in an event consisting of 16 athletes. The second difference is in the preferred venue and condition requirements. While the Freeride World Tour puts athletes on steep, open, technical terrain in what are often average or even below average snow conditions in order to test their technical abilities, the Natural Selection Tour tends to focus on more playful environments and powdery conditions, encouraging athletes to link multiple tricks together within their runs. That difference in terrain and conditions, as well as the head to head format, make the Natural Selection Tour one of the most exciting events to watch in Snowboarding, and now skiing as well.
At the time of this writing, little is known regarding the details of skiing’s inclusion, save for the fact that we know it’s scheduled to be held in Alaska in mid-April. While that’s a good starting point, the biggest question on everyone’s mind is, “who will be competing?” On the snowboard side of things, one of the most exciting aspects of Natural Selection is the fact that riders from all categories of the sport are in the mix. Those who compete regularly square off against those who focus primarily on filming segments. Legends compete against young guns. All of this leaves skiers desperately curious to know who is going to make the invite list this year. Will there be names from the Freeride World Tour, like Max Palm or Marcus Goguen? Which veteran pros are going to get the invite? Adding further fuel to the fire is the fact that names like Sammy Carlson, Chris Benchetler, Markus Eder, and Michelle Parker have all been linked to the announcement, resulting in speculation that they may be on the invited athletes list. Despite that impressive roster though, there’s one name in particular that’s been mentioned which has cranked the hype meter on this story all the way up to 11: the one, the only, the elusive, Candide Thovex. While it’s far too early to know whether any of these athletes actually end up competing in the inaugural Natural Selection ski event, one thing is for absolute sure: the ski community on the whole is extremely excited with this announcement. To learn more, check out the coverage from Powder Magazine, or the official Natural Selection website.
#4: The 2024/2025 Ski Season is Officially Underway in North America!
While technically not the first ski area to open in the U.S., Wolf Creek is the first to open with natural snow, and the first to open in Colorado. Either way, the headline is this: ski season is officially underway in North America! Image: Wolf Creek on Facebook
Finally, rounding out this week is a highlight that’s so exciting that it arguably could’ve been the lead this week, as ski season is officially underway here in North America! As you know, each and every year there’s a race amongst resorts to stake their claim as being the first to open in the United States. Typically competitors in that race include both big names like Wolf Creek and Arapahoe Basin in Colorado, as well as a number of dark horse candidates, such as Trollhaugen, Wisconsin or Wild Mountain in Minnesota - both of which have had October openings in recent years. Perhaps the darkest horse of them all though is the ultra modest, 45 acre plot of land in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts known as Ski Ward. There, despite all odds, the ski area is staking its claim as the first to open for the second consecutive year, as a heroic snowmaking effort allowed the ski area to push just enough snow to open their conveyor lift to the public last weekend. Now, to be sure, this is a bit of a technical win, as the open patch of snow was good for only about a half dozen turns at most. Still, Ski Ward did operate a surface lift that allowed skiers and boarders to slide down snow in mid-October, so technicality or not, a win’s a win and our hats go off to Ski Ward for keeping the stoke alive here in New England.
While folks in Colorado might feel some kind of way about Ward claiming the title in back to back seasons, we suspect the hard feelings won’t last long as their season is also officially underway, as Wolf Creek celebrated the opening day of their 85th season on Tuesday, October 22nd. There, a recent snowstorm brought a total of 26” of snow to the resort, leaving an 18” base midway up the mountain. As a result, they were able to open approximately 20% of the ski area’s terrain, noting variable and spring-like conditions. Looking ahead, while no dates have been specifically mentioned, weather looks favorable in the Arapahoe Basin and Keystone areas, suggesting that these resorts might soon be joining the party. Regardless of when that happens, one thing’s for sure this week: with the first FIS Big Air competition completed, a weekend of World Cup racing ahead, and two ski areas opening in the U.S., it’s official: the 2024-2025 ski season is here.