These 2019 Freeride World Tour Athletes Are Worth Watching

As snow begins to fall in the northern hemisphere, the 48 best freeride skiers and snowboarders will be getting ready for the 2019 Freeride World Tour. They will travel to five locations across the world to ski and ride some of the most extreme terrain. Points will be awarded for line selection, control, fluidity, technique, and jumps. Whoever skies the toughest line in the most dialed way wins.

Let’s take a look at who’s competing this year.

Female Skiers:

• Arianna Tricomi (ITA) – Placed first last year
• Eva Walkner (AUT)
• Hazel Birnbaum (USA)
• Elisabeth Gerritzen (SUI)
• Rachel Croft (USA)
• Jackie Paaso (USA)
• Maude Besse (SUI) – Wildcard
• Hedvig Wessel (NOR) – Wildcard
• Jaqueline Pollard (USA) – Rookie
• Juliette Willmann (FRA) – Rookie

Male Skiers:

• Kristofer Turdell (SWE) – Placed first last year
• Markus Eder (ITA)
• Mikael Bimboes (FRA)
• Yann Rausis (SUI)
• Berkeley Patterson (USA)
• Léo Slemett (FRA)
• Ivan Malakhov (RUS)
• Craig Murray (NZL)
• Reine Barkered (SWE)
• Grifen Moller (USA)
• Sam LEE (NZL)
• Carl Regner Eriksson (SWE)
• Drew Tabke (USA) – Wildcard
• Aymar Navarro (SPA) – Wildcard
• Fabio Studer (AUT) – Wildcard
• Tanner Hall (USA) – Wildcard
• Liam Peiffer (CAN) – Rookie
• Hank Bilous (NZL) – Rookie
• Konstantin Ottner (GER) – Rookie
• Wadeck Gorak (FRA) – Rookie
• Andrew Pollard (USA) – Rookie
• Tom Peiffer (CAN) – Rookie

Female Snowboarders:

• Manuela Mandl (AUT) – Placed first last year
• Marion Haerty (FRA)
• Anna Orlova (RUS)
• Erika Vikander (USA)
• Wakana Hama (JAP) – Wildcard
• Nicole Kelly (CAN) – Rookie
• Maria Kuzma (NZL) – Rookie

Male Snowboarders:

• Sammy Luebke (USA) – Placed first in 2016, 2017, and 2018
• Thomas Fuerstein (AUT)
• Davey Baird (USA)
• Gigi Ruf (AUT)
• Blake Hamm (USA)
• Jonathan Penfield (USA)
• Victore De Le Rue (FRA) – Wildcard
• Ludovic Guillot-Diat (FRA) – Rookie
• Christopher Galvin (USA) – Rookie

Here’s what we can look forward to this year:

Big names. Tanner Hall and Victor De Le Rue are being introduced to the Freeride World Tour as wild cards. Both of them are iconic figures in their respective disciplines, and it will be interesting to see how they do in the freeride competition environment. Tanner Hall has been training seriously this last year, unlocking new tricks at Mammoth Mountain’s private park last spring. Meanwhile, Victor has been shredding as hard as ever, dropping a new edit with Vans and with a full film on the way.

Close competition. With big names and talented rookies in each division, all of the athletes are going to have to step up their game, but the women skiers in particular will be especially close. Arianna Tricomi is going to be defending her title against skiers like Jackie Paaso and Hedvig Wessel. Jackie Paaso has a really strong freeride competition history and has given others a run for their money in past Freeride World Tours. In 2016 she won first place at Verbier Extreme only to be setback by a knee injury a year later (see video above). With more than a year to recover she should be back to skiing near or at her best. On the other hand, Olympic mogul skier Hedvig Wessel, who is new to the freeride competition, is coming in strong after pulling off first place at the Scandanavian Big Mountian Championships. While she is fresh to the scene, there’s a chance that she’ll have the skills to steal a spot on the podium.

The same awesome venues as last year. The tour kicks off on January 19 in Hakuba, Japan. From there it moves to Kicking Horse Golden BC, Canada in early February, then Fieberbrunn, Austria later that month. On March 2nd the tour goes to Vallnord-Arcalís, Andorra, before finishing off at Verbier, Switzerland.