Photos by Blake Jorgensen & Yorick Carroux

The fourth annual Red Bull Cold Rush begins this Wednesday at Retallack, BC, and Newschoolers will be bringing you exclusive and in depth coverage of the unique, exciting and kick-ass event at http://www.newschoolers.com/redbullcoldrush.

Following the success of last year, the definitive three-discipline competition that brings together the world's best freeskiers in search of the most versatile and all-around skier returns to the legendary and fabled Retallack Lodge in the Kootenay region of beautiful British Columbia for what will surely be the biggest and best installment of the event yet.

Twelve male skiers and, for the first time in the event's history, six of their female counterparts will compete in the three-discipline competition, which will take place over three days and will deliver three components: Big Mountain, Slopestyle and Pillow Lines.

Sean Pettit

On Wednesday, March 24th, the Slopestyle portion of the event will go down amidst the 2,000 vertical feet of pillows in the Mushroom Fields.

Kye Petersen

Then on Thursday, March 25th, a 'Pillow Fight' will go down in the Niagara Zone.

Sage Cattabriga-Alosa

And lastly, on Friday, March 26th, the Big Mountain descent from Texas Peak will close out the event in a big, big way.

Karl the Gnarl

All of the next level skiing will be filmed by the extremely talented and hard working crew at Freeride Entertainment, and then each night following dinner in Retallack Lodge and the nightly poem from the infamous Karl the Gnarl, the footage will be shown to the riders, who will get to kick back with coldies in hand after a long day of shredding and judge each other to determine just who is the most versatile and best all-around skier in the world.

Here's a look at who's competing, and what they're competing for...

Men:

Charley Ager

Sean Pettit

Callum Pettit

Richard Permin

Bene Mayr

Sven Kuennle

TJ Schiller

Tanner Rainville

Dash Longe

Riley Leboe

Dave Treadway

Women:

Grete Eliassen

Claudia Bouvier

Suz Graham

*athlete list subject to change

The total prize purse of $14,500 will deliver to the men $5,000 for the winner, $3,000 for second, and $2,000 for third. The female winner will walk away with a cash purse of $3,500, and an additional $1,000 will be awarded to either men or women for the People's Choice Award.

Red Bull Cold Rush 2009 podium: JP Auclair (2nd), Kye Petersen (1st), Sage Cattabriga-Alosa (3rd)

And to keep up to date on all the action as it happens, http://www.newschoolers.com/redbullcoldrush will be your one stop shop to eat, sleep and breathe Red Bull Cold Rush once the event kicks off.

In addition to photos and videos of all the action during the event (which you'll get to vote on daily to determine Photo of the Day and Video of the Day), we'll be featuring a series of written and video blogs from the riders on what's going down at the event, plus live video chats with the athletes, a Twitter page that will help you stay up to the minute on everything that's going down, and so much more!

Plus, just like last year, Red Bull and NS have teamed up to offer you two sweet contests to participate in...

The first is the People's Choice Award. Once the dust has settled and the smoke has cleared from the event, we'll be uploading footage of all the riders so you can decide who you think skied the best, and that athlete will be awarded $1,000 and the coveted Red Bull People's Choice Award. Voting will close at 11:59pm PST on April 7th, and just by voting you’ll be automatically entered to win a Dakine backpack filled with a ton of awesome stuff!

2009 Red Bull Cold Rush People's Choice Award Winner JP Auclair

The second is the Recut Contest. Once you've seen all the athletes in action, it's your turn to grab the footage and have at it! 10-15 minutes of the best of the best footage from the event will be made available on Monday, March 29th, and Red Bull wants you to make your own video highlight reel from Red Bull Cold Rush 2010. Once the masterpiece is complete, all aspiring ski filmmakers can upload their creation to http://www.newschoolers.com/redbullcoldrush no later than 11:59pm PST on April 4th, and then the NS community will determine who's is the best video, and the winner will be announced on April 12th and will receive a free trip to Retallack Lodge to apprentice on a photo or film shoot in 2011!

Red Bull Cold Rush 2010 pre-teaser, starring Karl the Gnarl. Song: Avec Mes Mecs by HUMANS

All of that and so much more will be going down this week at http://www.newschoolers.com/redbullcoldrush, so be sure to glue yourself that part of the site as much as any other over the next week to keep tabs on anything and everything that's going down at one of the coolest and most unique events in the history of freeskiing.