Switzerland is ready to showcase the best freestyle female skiers and snowboarders this winter with the third annual Ladies First Challenge.

The Ladies First Challenge will feature three competitions (which will be three and four-star events on the Ticket To Ride World Tour for the snowboarders) in Thyon, Wildhaus and Leysin, Switzerland, and will bring together the best female freestyle skiers and snowboarders between the ages of 15 and 30 from all over Europe.

The first two events (which will be three-star TTR events) will take place on January 14th in Thyon and on February 18th in Wildhaus. At the conclusion of these two events, 1500 Swiss Francs will be split between the snowboard winners with 500 Swiss Francs being split between the ski winners. The top five skiers and snowboarders will then receive an invitation to the final stop of the tour (which will be a four-star TTR event) on March 24th in Leysin, where 7000 Swiss Francs will be up for grabs (5000 for snowboard and 2000 for ski).

Plus, for the girls who were unable to qualify in Thyon or Wildhaus, there will be a last chance qualifier on Friday, March 23rd in Leysin on the day before finals.

This year the organizing association of The Ladies First Challenge has decided to intensify its collaboration with Swiss Ski and Swiss Snowboard Fedeation. The tour will therefore be integrated into the first circuit of Swiss freestyle ski events, The Swisscom Freeski Tour, meaning that the participating skiers will be able to obtain points for this national competition while participating in The Ladies First Challenge, while the snowboarders will be able to move forward in the Swiss Snowboard Federation's national rankings.

For more information on The Ladies First Challenge, check out http://www.ladiesfirstchallenge.ch.