If you haven’t seen this year’s Nine Knights castle yet then you must have been living under a rock the past couple of weeks. It’s simply looking epic – check out what it’s capable of here when it gets tested.

Kicking off yesterday, the riders now have five days to session the castle before the event culminates in the Big Air competition on Saturday 20th April. This is when we’ll see all the knights compete against each other in a freeski ‘joust’. 15 riders will compete in a 1 hour 30 minute jam session, with the best 5 athletes progressing through to the finals. The pressure is then really piled on, with the athlete’s performing just three tricks, it will then be the rider with the best two different tricks that will be crowned the winner.

But it doesn’t just end there. There’s also a team competition at the end of the day which will see the riders hitting the castle in teams, which we can only predict will be pretty spectacular!

Timetable April 20th:

10.00 – 11.00 Training
11.00 – 12.00 Qualification, Jam Session Kicker
12.00 – 13.00 Lunch break
13.00 – 13.30 Training Finals
13.30 – 14.15 Super Finals
14.15 – 15.15 Team Session

Riders:

Thomas Hlawitschka (GER)
Paddy Graham (UK)
Bene Mayr (GER)
Fabio Studer (AT)
Luggi Brucic (AT)
David Wise (CAN)
Roy Kittler (GER)
Elias Ambühl (CH)
Joffrey Pollet-Villard (FRA)
Matt Margetts (CAN)
Henrik Harlaut (SWE)
Phil Casabon (CAN)
Kevin Rolland (FRA)
Jacob Wester (SWE)
Raffa Cusini (IT)
Davide Cusini (IT)

Contour Wanna be a Knight winners:

Dennis Ranalter (AT)
Christoph Schenk (IT)
Niklas Erikkson (SWE)
Luca Tribondeau (AT)
Nicky Keefer (USA)

Throughout the four days of shooting, the invited photographers will also be trying to stake a claim in the following categories:
Best action photo
Best black and white photo
Best group shot
Best lifestyle/off-snow photo

There’s obviously loads going on, so we’ll be keeping you up to date with news, photos and videos over the upcoming week, so stay tuned!