Day 1 Highlights - Slopestyle Qualifier

Day 1 of the Orage European Freeski Open By Swatch brought with it a number of challenges; but none too tall for the best riders in the world and one of the most dedicated event staffs we've ever known.

Waking up to rain at the base lodge, the athletes made their way to the slopestyle course for an early morning training session and round one of the slopestyle qualifiers. With every passing lift tower and increase in elevation came with it hopes that the wet precipitation would magically turn white and fluffy... unfortunately, the 60 men and 20 ladies were greeted by a slushy mix of rain and snow at the top of the course. Regardless, spirits were high and the energy from the athletes was positive.

However, the stoke of the event would soon be tested. As we've come to learn, The Orage European Freeski Open is nothing short of "interesting" and as tradition would have it, the 2008 installment has already thrown us some unexpected, and down right comedic curveballs.

As Orage's Master of Ceremony, Luke Van Valin commented "The Orage European Freeski Open truly is one of a kind and has provided the ski world with many "firsts". It's the first freeski event that has united the entire continent of Europe, never before seen tricks and rookie athletes making names for themselves on one of skiing's biggest stages... and now, the 2008 Orage European Freeski Open By Swatch will go down as the first slopestyle event to fall victim to an in bounds avalanche during the event. A 4 foot deep, 60 foot wide slab fractured off the top of a ridge about 30 yards above the start gate during practice, slid on course, buried a camera man to his waist and forced the course to be abbreviated for snow removal.

Once the excitement subsided, the event crew had no choice but to bypass the first of five feature sets due to the slide. The athletes started below the "Volkl Sushi Bowl" cutting the course down to a set of rails followed by three kickers each growing in length. With less than ideal weather conditions, riders battled high winds, snow, sleet, rain and poor visibility. But despite these challenges the event team was able to salvage the greater portion of the day to complete two full rounds of the men's qualifier heats.

Taking the top spots from Men's Qualifier Round 1 were last years break out performer Joe Schuster (CAN), the UK's own Paddy Graham, local Suisse rider, Andri Ambuli, James Webb (GBR), Niklas Erickson (SWE) and Roy Kittler from Germany. The Top 6 from heat two were Tom Wallisch (USA), Alexis Godbout (CAN), Gaute Haaker (NOR), Espen Linnereud (NOR), Blaze Bramwell (SWE) and Blake Nyman (USA).

Men's heat 3 and 4 were cancelled as were the women's and will be rescheduled for tomorrow. A rider meeting is schedule for 6:30pm Local time and at that point a new plan of attack will be put in place to complete the qualifier rounds. As of now, all female slopestyle competitors will advance to the semi finals tomorrow.