[POV] Kristofer Turdell Heading up the Bec des Rosses to the Xtreme Verbier Start Gate on the FWT22

POV: You are Kristofer Turdell heading up the Bec des Rosses to the Xtreme Verbier start gate 🥵 #FWT22 @GoPro @VerbierResorts @valaiswallis pic.twitter.com/IBsS4VmFWZ

— Freeride World Tour (@FreerideWTour) March 29, 2022

POV: Sweden’s Kristofer Turdell and his line at the Xtreme Verbier stop on the 2022 Freeride World Tour. 

Are your hands sweaty yet?

As a virtual novice some friends signed him up for the Scandinavian Big Mountain Championship 2011. “I had no idea what to expect,” Turdell says. “But after three days of competing I ended up in second, behind long-time pro Henrik Windstedt.”

He went on to win the Scandinavian Big Mountain Championships of 2014, ahead of World Tour riders Reine Barkered and Wille Lindberg, which rewarded him a wildcard to one of the Freeride World Qualifier events in Hochfügen, Austria, which he also won.

Later that season, he won the qualifier tour and immediately advanced to highest division of competitive freeriding – the Freeride World Tour.

While at it, he managed to win his first FWT competition in Andorra. With that, he went from not even being allowed to compete at the qualifiers, to taking home trophies at the World Tour, in less than a year.

In his first season on the FWT in 2016 he won in Andorra and finished fourth in the overall standings and the following season in 2017 Turdell finished in third place overall after a win in Fieberbrunn, Austria.

The progression continued in 2018 when Turdell landed the overall FWT title for the first time and he was pretty pleased about it: “To ski all around the world with so many crazy good skiers and end up on top of the rankings is a dream come true,” he said after taking the crown with a second place in Fieberbrunn, Austria.