It’s been a long wet summer, but the winter has started to rear its head at last, and to get you all just a little bit in the mood for some freeride, we’ve got the riders list for the up coming Freeride World Tour season (see below).
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There’s been a few shake ups this year in the event, so for those of you who don’t know anything about this comp, or for those of you who do know about it, but haven’t heard about the new format, here’s a quick run down on skiing’s greatest spectacle.

The Freeride World Tour should not be confused with the Freeride World Championships. The Freeride World Tour is actually the only truly global tour, with main events in the States, Europe, and Russia, and qualifications across the globe. There are 4 main events, which are open to only the top ranked riders (ranking points are accumulated through competing at Freeride World Tour events or Freeride World Tour qualifying events) and a couple of Wild Cards, which are given out at each event at the discretion of the organisers. Wild Cards might be given to proven athletes, who may have dropped short of the number of points needed due to injury, or in some cases they may be given to top competitors from qualifying events. For example, the winner of the Nendaz Freeride World Tour qualifying event will immediately get a wild card to ride at the final event on the Bec des Rosses in Verbier, alhough this seems to be more of a punishment than a prize, as the Bec des Rosses is widely considered the scariest competition face in the world.

Essentially then the competition is divided into two tiers, there is the 1st division (so to speak) who compete at the main events, and then there is the 2nd division – the guys battling it out at any of the 17 Freeride World Tour qualifying (FWQ) events (it is worth checking out which events you are going to attend as some will gain you more points than others). At the end of the season a champion is crowned from the 1st division while the bottom three have to go back down and re-qualify like anyone else. Meanwhile the top three from the FWQ events are promoted to join the 1st division for the next season.

So there you have it, if you want to get involved be sure to turn up to as many of the qualifying events as possible (listed below) and shred like a maniac – alternatively you could just get involved from the comfort of your sofa/desk by simply tuning into skiunion for full coverage of each main event and results from the qualifiers.

Here are the confirmed lunatics for the Tour this year, and the event schedule.

Ski Men
1. Aurelien Ducroz FRA
2. Reine Barkered SWE
3. Sverre Liliequist SWE
4. Matthias Haunholder AUT
5. Henrik Windstedt SWE
6. Thibaud Duchosal FRA
7. Raphy Gillioz SUI
8. Seb Michaud FRA
9. Thomas Diet FRA
10. Kaj Zackrisson SWE
11. Torgrim Vole NOR
12. Griffin Post USA

WC. Stefan Hausl AUT
WC. Adrien Coirier FRA
WC. Richard Permin FRA
WC. JT Holmes USA
WC. Phil Meier SUI
WC. Cody Townsend USA
WC. Tim Dutton USA
WC. Sebastian Hannemann GER
WC. Egor Srokin RUS

Ski Women
1. Ane Enderud NOR
2. Marja Persson SWE
3. Jess Mc Millan USA
4. Elyse Saugstad USA

WC. Rebecka Eriksson SWE
WC. Caroline Meynet FRA
WC. Janette Hargin SWE
WC. Stina Jakobsson SWE
WC. Crystal Wright USA

Schedule:
The 2010 Freeride World Tour’s four stages:
1. NISSAN RUSSIAN ADVENTURE BY SWATCH – SOCHI, RUSSIA
Date : January 21st 2010

2. NISSAN FREERIDE OF CHAMONIX-MONT-BLANC – FRANCE
Date : January 30th 2010

3. NISSAN TRAM FACE – SQUAW VALLEY USA – UNITED STATES
Date : February 27th 2010

4. NISSAN XTREME BY SWATCH – VERBIER, SWITZERLAND
Date : March 20th 2010

The 2010 Freeride World Qualifier Events (FWQ)

31 Mar – 05 Apr 2009: Jasna Adrenalin (SVK)
22-26 Apr 2009: Röldal Freeride Challenge (NOR)
Aug – Sep 2009: Three events in New Zealand, where the overall result counts as one in the FWQ Ranking: The North Face Big Mountain At The Volkl New Zealand Freeski Open, The Remarkables & Treble Cone (NZL), K2 Big Mountain Chill Series, Craigieburn & Mt Olympus (NZL), Export 33 Xtreme, Whakapapa, Mt Ruapehu (NZL)
5-9 Feb 2010: Freeride de Flaine (FRA)
8-11 Feb 2010: Stimorol Engadinsnow, Silvaplana/St Moritz (SUI)
11-18 Feb 2010: Scott Big Mountain Fieberbrunn (AUT)
*Counts as FWT event for female FWT riders
19-23 Feb 2010: Nissan Eldorado Freeride, Vallnord (AND/ESP)
18-22 Feb 2010: Nissan Mystic Freeride, Alagna (ITA)
4-7 Mar 2010: Freeride Battle Slovenia, Kanin (SI)
10-13 Mar 2010: Salomon Extreme Freeride Championship, Taos, New Mexico (USA)
12-17 Mar 2010: Nendaz Freeride (SUI)
16-21 Mar 2010: Giro Jasna Adrenalin, Jasna (SVK)
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Events taking place in 2010 but ranking counts for 2011
23-27 Mar 2010: Czech Open Davos (CHE)
14-18 Apr 2010: Röldal Freeride Challenge (NOR)
17-19 May 2010: Scandinavian Big Mountain Championships, Riksgransen (SWE)

Words: Skiunion
Photos courtesy of Freeride World Tour (photographers in order of appearance, J.Hadik, D.Daher, D.Daher, C.Margot, J.Hadik, C.Margot, J.Hadik. Thumbnail and features box by D.Carlier)
For more info see the Freeride World Tour official website.