Day 1

Big Mountain Qualification

First day - it's up-and-running. The Verbier Ride is go, go, go! Well, if we're honest, today it was more of a case of go, stop, go, stop, go, stop!

The reason: FOG!

Verbier woke up to what Londoners would call a real 'pea-souper' - mist so thick you had to chew your way through it to take a breath. But webcams suggested that all was not lost - we were in the midst of a major inversion. The valley was stuck in cloud, but up top Mont Gele was glimmering with 30cm of new snow under a bluebird sky.

The riders hit the slopes for a few warm up runs and the blank snow canvas around Attelas was shredded to pieces within minutes.

But then the weather stepped in to spoil the fun. The mist that had so firmly nestled along the valley floor started to rise, sending out pulses of heavy fog that momentarily obscured the whole of Mont Gele.

February has been tough on freeriding in much of Europe (lots of very hot weather followed by two weeks of severe freeze). Happily for the Verbier Ride, the new snow had arrived just in time. Enough fell to leave Mont Gele ready to stage the European Tour's leading freeskiing event.

The riders made the most of conditions, which were by no means perfect. Frequent sluffs destabilised riders at critical moments, snow conditions varied dramatically lower down and the hard-pack underneath caught a few competitors out.

However overall riding standard was good. A few exceptional runs stood out though and, as Dino explained, what really stood out with these was the fluidity of the rider. Coping with difficult snow conditions in a notoriously steep pitch is impressive enough, but making it look as easy as cruising home on blue run corderuoy is what marks out the top freeskiers.

So the qualification runs went well. The commentary kept people chuckling, the tunes kept feet tapping and the riding kept the crowd fully stoked. Yet the weather still had the last laugh. Just as the final few male competitors and the ladies readied themselves for their descents, a blizzard blew in. With heavy snow falling and the wind getting up, the decision was made to postpone the rest of the qualification till tomorrow. Disappointing, but the only option with TeleVerbier predicting the storm settling in for the night.

Fair enough, the day had gone well and given the weather forecast we had been lucky. It'll mean an early start tomorrow, but everybody was just glad to have got such a good day under our belts. But that wasn't quite the end - just as we'd all packed up, the riders come down from the top and beers were beckoning, the sky suddenly cleared and 30 minutes of blue sky ensued. Typical!!

So no results from the first day, cos there's still some qualification judging to do first thing tomorrow morning and we don't want to give anything away before time.

Tomorrow (if the weather's kind) we'll have the results of both the qualification and the final. We'll know the King and Queen of the hill, have handed out the prizes and be celebrating at the Verbier Ride's legendary pool party.

Bring it on!!

© Phil Martin Writer, Freeskier, Wintersports Media Consultant email: philmartin@skijournalism.com mob:+44 7800 912369 Phil Martin recommends:
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