Photos: Antoine Fournier
These days, it feels like pretty much every major event has been absorbed by FIS. The Freeride World Tour bit the FIS bullet last season, and though there are still some great events going down (SLVSH x XGames anyone!) there are even fewer in the backcountry. The Nendaz Backcountry Invitational is pretty much unique in that space and it's one of the best events of the year.
This year Nendaz are stepping up a notch with a livestream for home viewing. It all goes down at 9am local time, Saturday 20th Jan. Sadly, that's 3am Eastern, but the stream should be rewatchable, so this year you get to enjoy all the action from the comfort of your laptop/mobile device (or you can just make a night of it, crush a beer for every front punch?).
If you're in the area the live action goes down in the Plan du Fou / Siviez area. To get there, start at the top of the Plan du Fou gondola, ski down towards Siviez keeping to the left, then take a path heading east to the finish area.
Thanks to recent snowfalls and a very favourable weather forecast for the next few days, the event is set to take place in blower conditions and in glorious sunshine. The Nendaz Freeride team of shapers has been hard at work since Monday morning to create the largest backcountry snowpark in time for the event. You can follow their progress and the latest news on the Nendaz Freeride Instagram.
As ever, the rider list is stacked, so it's bound to be one heck of a show. Tune in live on NS & on the Nendaz Live Site.
Men:
- Markus Eder - ITA ๐ฎ๐น
- Maxime Chabloz - CH ๐จ๐ญ
- Alex Hackle - USA ๐บ๐ธ
- Lรฉo Slemett - FR ๐ซ๐ท
- Craig Murray - NZL ๐ฆ๐บ
- Martin Bender - CH๐จ๐ญ
- Emil Grandbom โ SWE ๐ธ๐ช
- Sebastian Mall - AUS ๐ฆ๐น
- Alex Williams - UK ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ
- Sampo Valloton โ CH ๐จ๐ญ
Women:
- Arianna Tricomi โ ITA ๐ฎ๐น
- Jennica Folkesson - SWE ๐ธ๐ช
- Lou Barin โ FR ๐ซ๐ท
- Astrid Cheylus โ FR ๐ซ๐ท
- Elsa Sjรถstedt - CH ๐จ๐ญ