The Freeride World Tour is back for another action-packed season! 5 stops across 2 continents, all culminating in the legendary face of the Bec des Rosses in the Verbier Xtreme.
As autumn begins to quickly spread through the high mountains, the moment to announce the Freeride World Tour (FWT) 2022 calendar has finally arrived, and the world’s best Freeriders will be back again soon charging hard for the world title in a brand-new format and a new venue.
Freeride finds a fantastic new home in 2022, with Baqueira Beret, Spain hosting the first event of the season. Located in the spectacular Val d’Aran in the Spanish Pyrenees, Baqueira Beret boasts a world-class resort, vast alpine terrain, and copious snowfall, making it an ideal destination for the Freeride World Tour.
Rising Freeride star Aymar Navarro (ESP) shared his excitement at having an FWT event at his home mountain:
“If you had told me ten years ago it was possible for a skier from Spain to podium at the Xtreme Verbier, I would have said you were crazy. And now there’s going to be an FWT competition at my home mountain, Baqueira Beret!”.
1. FREERIDE WORLD TOUR BAQUEIRA BERET, January 22-28, 2022; Location: Baqueira Beret, Spain
3. FREERIDE WORLD TOUR ORDINO ARCALIS - ANDORRA, January 30 - February 5, 2022; Location: Ordino Arcalis, Andorra
2. FREERIDE WORLD TOUR KICKING HORSE, February 12-17, 2022; Location: Kicking Horse, Golden, British Columbia, Canada
4. FREERIDE WORLD TOUR SAALBACH FIEBERBRUNN, March 15 -20, 2022; Location: Saalbach Fieberbrunn, Kitzbüheler Alpen, Austria
5. XTREME VERBIER Date: March 26 - April 3, 2022; Location: Verbier, Switzerland
The FWT has revamped the championship format. These exciting changes will ensure the world’s top Freeriders get the best opportunity to compete for the world title and continue to push the progression of the sport into new realms.
First, The Cut will now follow the third stop of the Tour. After Kicking Horse, a cut will be made to the field based on riders’ top two results, with the top 26 riders (12 ski men, 5 ski women, 5 snowboard men, 4 snowboard women) qualified for the final two events of the year: The FWT Finals.
The first Finals event at Saalbach Fieberbrunn will feature a revolutionary best-of-two-runs format. After a successful test two years ago with snowboard men and for all last year, riders this season will get again two runs in Austria and keep their single best score.
Also fueling performance is the redesigned Tour point system, with both FWT Finals events awarding increased points towards the overall Tour ranking (12,500 points for 1st place instead of 10,000). Expect riders to deliver even bolder performances during the Finals, in particular when they face off on the most legendary venue of all, Verbier’s Bec des Rosses.
