French rider Mickael Bimboes sending it deep during the Chamonix Freeride World Tour stop.

Talk about butterfly inducing, holy sh*t drops, that shark pit at the bottom is looking VERY mean. If it werent for the slight backslap early in his run, he probably would have taken home the win for this stop. Instead, his run was only good enough for 3rd.

Plagued by unstable snowpacks and lack of snow the tour goes on. The stop at Revelstoke was canceled, at Snowbird North Baldy ripped to ground (after the stop was moved from Kirkwood due to low snow) during control work moving the venue to Silver Fox, and the first stop in Courmayeur was also moved to a backup location to to low snow and avalanche danger.

With one stop remaining the number one spot hasn’t been locked down yet. With 300 points separating first and second place, and less than 1,000 points separating first and third, its still a close field and interesting things can happen. First place runs are awarded 2,500 points, 2,200 for second, and 1,980 for 3rd. Scores don’t drop below 1,000 points until placements higher than 8th, making things very interesting.

Current Freeride World Tour standings

Rank – Name – Nation – Points
1 – Collomb-Patton, Loic – FRA – 6280.00
2 – Smoothy, Sam – NZL – 5980.00
3 – Heitz, Jérémie – SUI – 5370.00
4 – Chickering-Ayers, Lars – USA – 4640.00
5 – Salencon, Nicolas – ARG – 4580.00
6 – Barkered, Reine – SWE – 4090.00
7 – Hausl, Stefan – AUT – 3775.00
8 – Lopez, Julien – FRA – 3615.00
9 – Borgeson, Ian – USA – 3600.00
10 – Chickering-Ayers, Silas – USA – 3575.00
11 – Amacker, Richard – SUI – 3510.00
12 – Studer, Fabio – AUT – 3245.00
13 – Anthamatten, Samuel – SUI – 3125.00
14 – Francisty, Matt – CAN – 3015.00
15 – Altmann, Garrett – USA – 3000.00
16 – Pelton, Conor – USA – 2970.00
17 – Guri, Kevin – FRA – 2915.00
18 – Daiek, Josh – USA – 2908.00
19 – Baskins, Patrick – USA – 2870.00
20 – Bimboes, Mickael – FRA – 2845.00
21 – Collin, Sean – USA – 2795.00
22 – Tabke, Drew – USA – 2745.00
23 – Gauthier, Laurent – CAN – 2645.00
24 – Wiemers, Felix – GER – 2420.00
25 – Lindberg, Wille – SWE – 2320.00
26 – Webhofer, Raphael – AUT – 2300.00
27 – Williman, Neil David – NZL – 2080.00
28 – Vuignier, Nicolas – SUI – 1830.00
29 – Post, Griffin – USA – 1780.00
30 – Lyons, Charlie – NZL – 1552.00
31 – Eder, Markus – ITA – 1361.00
32 – White-Allen, Oakley – USA – 1200.00
33 – Sorokin, Egor – RUS – 1150.00
34 – Schneider, Willie – USA – 766.00
35 – Cattabriga Alosa, Sage – USA – 500.00
36 – Ducroz, Aurelien – FRA – 455.00
37 – Cusini, Davide – ITA – 410.00

Loic Colomb-Patton, the current leader by a small margin, has been a thrill to watch, if at times inconsistent. After winning the first two events he dropped to 32nd in a field of 32 riders (at that stop only 32 competed) before rebounding to 8th at Snowbird. Sam Smoothy, currently in second place, is somewhat of a wildcard. The Kiwi rider has been skiing well this year, laying down clean lines with big airs, after his 18th place finish last year.

Looking down Bec des Rosses. photo: D. Daher

The final stop of the tour will be held in legendary Verbier, Switzerland with a weather window from March 21 – March 30. The event is preliminary scheduled for March 22, but the date may change depending on weather conditions. The event will be held on the epic Bec des Rosses, a north-facing peak with slopes between 40-60 degrees that will challenge the best freeriders in the world. With one week until the competition and spring conditions in the forecast, it should be an epic day. With minimal snow and mostly sun in the forecast, the snowpack will have time to set up, minimizing the chance that an alternate venue will have to be used.

Stream the Freeride World Tour starting about 1:00AM (yikes) on the 22nd from the FWT Website