Cover Photo: FIS

The final freeski at the World Champs went down this morning and it was a sketchy looking scene as we joined the comp. Conditions were bad enough that Andri pulled out of qualis and Mathilde Gremaud may have decided finals weren't worth the risk either. She didn't start whatever the reason. It was snowing pretty hard on slope and visibility looked awful. It was thus impressive (insane) the level of send in both the women's and men's fields. Run 1 was the best of it, but the snow continued to get softer and deeper, with the lighter women suffering in particular in run 2 with heavy snowfall. Things cleared up for the Men's second run and the rest of the show

Women's Highlights:

Sandra Eie was the first to put down a competitive run with a left dub 12 mute. She justly took the first big score, 8. Meghan Oldham stomped a dub 10 mute and perhaps surprisingly scored higher than Sandra. Tess Ledeux lifted the proverbial roof off the place with a dub 16 safety, definitely the trick of the day. Kirsty Muir put down a huge dub 14 but slight underrotated, still scoring well but the trick was worth more.

Run 2 saw the speed drop off a cliff and it was hard to improve. Sandra Ei was almost the only one to to land, a 720. Tess went close but backslapped out of a switch dub 9. Kirsty Muir came through clutch in the storm, putting down a right dub 10, slightly sketchy but enough to give her the lead.

Run 3 saw better conditions, and that meant it was essentially a single-run best trick comp for those who had one decent score. Megan Oldham was the first to do so, putting down a perfect, and sizeable, switch dub 9 japan for 85 and a big lead. Tess Ledeux was next up with a chance, and she stomped too... a switch dub 12 to back up a forward 16 from run one. It was all but a certain win with that kind of level and she took 92.5 for her troubles. Sandra Eie put down a super stylish carved right dub 10. She scored 88 for it, and it was great to see the technique being rewarded, the carve was dope. Kirsty put down a dub 10 too but the grab was just a touch. Unfortunately, not enough for a medal, leaving her with fourth and Meghan Oldham third.

_

Men's Highlights:

Rather than try and turn a billion spins into a paragraph, it seemed to make more sense to list the best tricks here and let you try and find a replay. The conditions were less than ideal but, especially given that, the level was ridiculous. Christian Nummedal and Tormod Frostad were the most stylish and deserved better scores in this viewer's eyes. Ultimately the podium went to the spins and, to be fair, some huge amplitude. Lukas Muellauer deserves some props for holding tail forever on a switch dub 2160 too.

Troy Podmilsak - switch dub misty 16, Right triple 18/21(?) mute (huge)

Birk Ruud - left switch triple 1980 mute, left dub bio 18 mute

Tormod Frostad - Dub bio 14 dub safety shifty (super steezy),

Birk Ruud 2 (Sebastian Scherve) - Dub bio 18 mute, Left dub 16 tail (hand down), switch dub 18 tail to tail

Matej - Nosebud dub 1920 safety, switch dub 18 mute (huge)

Christian Nummedal - Swich dub 14 dub true nose (with poles), dub 16 crossed japan

Luca Harrington - Left dub 1920 tail (capped), right dub 19 tail (MASSIVE)

Teale Harle - Crashed on his trademark triple bringback twice.

Noah Porter Mclennan - Dub 19 stale (kinda, between cuban and stale), 2x Crash

Lukas Muellauer - Dub 19 cuban (capped, less amplitude), switch dub 18/21(?) tail (capped and HELD)

_